A review by aravis72
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

3.0

It is hard to place myself in the mind of the 19th-century person, much less a reader of Jules Verne's well-told fantastical voyage. Today I can see videos and pictures of millions of underwater sea creatures, read about them in great detail, and probably even see one in person at a local aquarium. And while it is true that some of the excitement and novelty is not really something that can be captured today, I still found that I enjoyed Verne's beautiful descriptions and incredible imagination. As a sci-fi book, it definitely delivers the good, especially since it seems Verne was using current science as a jumping off point. Some of his ideas seem rather silly based on what we know today, but they are still fun to imagine. It reminds me of how much joy I get watching old Star Trek episodes. The special effects and costumes are bad, but the acting and stories are fully realized and with depth. Verne's characters - Arronax, Land, Conseil, and of course Nemo, are vivid and with the same depth of Melville's Moby Dick. I found myself thinking of Moby Dick quite often while reading this narration. If you get bored in the beginning, stay with the book. Somewhere in the late middle it really picks up and it becomes an incredibly fun yarn.