Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (Extraordinary Voyages, #6)

by Jules Verne

Robin Waterfield and Robin H. Waterfield

A mission to rid the seas of a monstrous creature becomes a terrifying nightmare when Professor Arronax, Conseil and Ned Land are thrown overboard. The huge marine animal which has haunted the water is no living beast, but a spectacular man-made vessel, and the three men find themselves the helpless prisoners of Captain Nemo. Resigned to their fate, they begin a miraculous journey on the submarine ship which can travel through waters never before explored. For the Professor, at least, this voyage is one he would not have missed for the world.

• ISBN10: 0140367217
• ISBN13: 9780140367218
• Publish Date: 25 August 1994 (first published 1 January 1870)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 29 June 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
• Imprint: Puffin Classics
• Format: Paperback (US Digest)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780140367218

Reviews

[kiracanread]

Good use of historic, geographic and technical knowledge, although I just didn't enjoy this as someone purely reading for fiction.

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

There was a lot in this book that I can talk about (many of it, I don’t think I would know about), most of it scientific; from marine biology, ocean currents, geology and engineering. I’m not sure how accurate everything is, but if it is accurate it would be very impressive. Setting aside all the science, this is an interesting book, but I felt that at most times when it was about to get exciting it become anti-climatic. I spent most of the time wanting the Giant Squid (or devil fish) to come along to push the excitement level up, but this just never came, until finally near the end. But it was there and it was over as quick as every other climax in this book.

It reminds me of those old corny adventure movies from my childhood. While there is a short burst of climax throughout the book/movie, but nothing really happen. It was an enjoyable read, but I wanted so much more from this classic tale and it never delivered.

[empressbrooke]

Two stars is almost generous; given his importance in the history of the science fiction genre, it really seems like Jules Verne should have produced something that stood the test of time. Twenty Thousand Leagues is a chore to read; I read in another review that a total of 75 pages are devoted to lists of fish. This explains why it didn't take me very long to read this book, after the first few fish passages, I began jumping over them whenever I noticed they were starting again.

Captain Nemo is an interesting character, but Verne practically wastes every chance to develop him into something great. I understand that in "hard" sci-fi, characters take a backseat to the science, but it's such a shame that Nemo wasn't fleshed out more. His presence alone (and deference to its position in literary history) is what saves this book from receiving only one star.

The main character's servant is almost as annoying as the fish passages; he splits his time between sucking up to his boss and compulsively classifying marine life. I wanted to strangle him every time he opened his mouth.

After suffering through this and [book: Journey to the Center of the Earth], I considered myself well educated on Verne's contributions to the genre and returned [book: Around the World in Eighty Days] to the library without reading it.