Paperback, 185 pages
English language
Published April 27, 1996 by Wordsworth Classics.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (French: Voyage au centre de la Terre), also translated with the variant titles A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey into the Interior of the Earth, is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras (the 1867 revised edition inserted additional prehistoric material in Chaps. 37–39). Eventually the three explorers are spewed back to the surface …
Journey to the Center of the Earth (French: Voyage au centre de la Terre), also translated with the variant titles A Journey to the Centre of the Earth and A Journey into the Interior of the Earth, is a classic science fiction novel by Jules Verne. It was first published in French in 1864, then reissued in 1867 in a revised and expanded edition. Professor Otto Lidenbrock is the tale's central figure, an eccentric German scientist who believes there are volcanic tubes that reach to the very center of the earth. He, his nephew Axel, and their Icelandic guide Hans rappel into Iceland's celebrated inactive volcano Snæfellsjökull, then contend with many dangers, including cave-ins, subpolar tornadoes, an underground ocean, and living prehistoric creatures from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras (the 1867 revised edition inserted additional prehistoric material in Chaps. 37–39). Eventually the three explorers are spewed back to the surface by an active volcano, Stromboli, in southern Italy. The category of subterranean fiction existed well before Verne. However his novel's distinction lay in its well-researched Victorian science and its inventive contribution to the science-fiction subgenre of time travel—Verne's innovation was the concept of a prehistoric realm still existing in the present-day world. Journey inspired many later authors, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his novel The Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Pellucidar series.
Get ready for a hike, it's pretty much all walking or boating around. Minecraft the book?
Verne front loads the racism:
Calls someone So-and-so the Jew;
Describes a sooty figurehead pipe as becoming a "negress";
References savages in South America and Africa.
But mostly just stereotypes an Icelander for the rest of the book.
The Tethered God: Punished for a Crime He Can't Remember by Barrie Condon was a book I knew I had to read as I've had a passion for Ancient Egypt since childhood. With a story that moves seamlessly from the 4th Dynasty Ancient Egypt during a time before the term Pharoah was used and modern day, Condon has written a book that will have you eagerly turning the page for more.
Egyptology and the concept of reincarnation plays heavily in the story as Khafre tries to understand just what he must have done to enter the Afterlife and instead, has his soul intered within a dog in a world he cannot truly understand. I love how visual the writing is both of an Egypt long forgotten but revered and its modern day equivalent so you, as the reader truly see this land through Khafre's eyes both as an arrogant member …
The Tethered God: Punished for a Crime He Can't Remember by Barrie Condon was a book I knew I had to read as I've had a passion for Ancient Egypt since childhood. With a story that moves seamlessly from the 4th Dynasty Ancient Egypt during a time before the term Pharoah was used and modern day, Condon has written a book that will have you eagerly turning the page for more.
Egyptology and the concept of reincarnation plays heavily in the story as Khafre tries to understand just what he must have done to enter the Afterlife and instead, has his soul intered within a dog in a world he cannot truly understand. I love how visual the writing is both of an Egypt long forgotten but revered and its modern day equivalent so you, as the reader truly see this land through Khafre's eyes both as an arrogant member of the Royal family, and a somewhat lost soul. The narration is one that has wit to it, and I loved Cordon's writing so much that I read and then re-read The Tethered God: Punished for a Crime He Can't Remember so I could fully appreciate the tale fully.
I think Khafre is a character you are supposed to hate but actually quite like because he's unafraid to be himself. Something I am sure most members of Ancient Egypt's vast and problematic dynasties will have been like as they balanced expectation over honour along with personal desire on its narrow blade. He's unapologetic over the way he acts, thinks and his beliefs though there are moments were it wavers due to preference but overall the one-mindedness I believe stems from the fact no one person is greater than Egypt herself, a concept no doubt ingrained in Khafre from birth.
I truly don't want to give spoilers for this book, I will say that there are moments were I wish I hadn't been eating when I ate, and that you do truly see Khafre grow as a character. That Condon has given us a tale I would love to see turned into something on the 'silver screen' and that if you love Egyptology, if you spent hours in museums looking at Mummies, and the finery of the Land of the Pharoahs, and its Gods, you will love The Tethered God: Punished for a Crime He Can't Remember.
