Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

• ISBN-13: 9781593083021
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 3/1/2005
• Pages: 352

Widely regarded as the father of modern science fiction, Jules Verne wrote more than seventy books and created hundreds of memorable characters. His most popular novel, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, is not only a brilliant piece of scientific prophecy, but also a thrilling story with superb, subtle characterization.
 The year is 1866 and the Pacific Ocean is being terrorized by a deadly sea monster. The U.S. government dispatches marine-life specialist Pierre Aronnax to investigate aboard the warship Abraham Lincoln. When the ship is sunk by the mysterious creature, he and two other survivors discover that the monster is in fact a marvelous submarine - the Nautilus - commanded by the brilliant but bitter Captain Nemo. Nemo refuses to let his guests return to land, and instead takes them on a series of fantastic adventures in which they encounter underwater forestsm giant clams, monster storms, huge squid, treacherous polar ice and - most spectacular of all - the magnificent lost city of Atlantis!
 
 This was strangely unlike what I was expecting. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that the only thing I knew about Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea was the version of Captain Nemo from A League of Extraordinary Gentleman and giant octopi. That was absolutely not what it was about. Well, a little, but no.
 First of all, it was less a work of fiction and more a catalog of the flora and fauna of the sea. "And then we were here...and then there....and we saw this...and OH BIG FISH...and Captain Nemo has angst." Yes, that was the second point of the novel - Captain Nemo is this really cool, really smart guy that has an amazing ship that, for some unknown reason, has an extreme aversion to land and all men. Pierre Arronax, Messieur Point-of-View, is thrown overboard with his faithful servant and a seaman from his ship and is brought on-board the Nautilus, where he is informed that he is doomed to remain the rest of his days because he has actually discovered the secret of the vessel - the secret being that it exists. Oops, hope that didn't spoil it for anybody.
 We are then taken on a journey through the many waters of the world - and even under some. I was confused because I thought they were literally twenty-thousand feet under the water (having no idea what a league's measurement actually is) but I was wrong - twenty thousand is the distance they traveled i.e. all around the world. Verne obviously read a lot and had a lot of knowledge about the ocean and its many inhabitants. Which makes for an interesting read - if you know what all the scientific terms are. I had no idea what kind of fish he was seeing, so those passages were a bunch of nonsense for me, but you definitely get a feel for what kind of amazing things are happening down there. And there are some very interesting things going on with the strange creatures they meet and landscapes they discover. I should qualify that by saying they aren't actually discovered since Nemo found them and is only showing them to Arronax.
 Overall: B
 If you're looking for an entertaining book that's all fun all the time, this book is not for you. There's a lot of hurry up and wait going on and in the end we still don't find the reason for Nemo's seclusion. It is never revealed. (By telling you that I'm not revealing anything - see that?) The plot of the novel is based around scientific fact that you can't necessarily understand, so that detracts from the enjoyment of the novel. However, as I said, there are some really excellent moments of adventure, and the occasional humor we get between Arronax and his manservant make up the rest.