Five Weeks in a Balloon

Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne, translated by Jules Verne

Some adventurers go in a hot air balloon to explore Africa. It felt like it should have been an interesting adventure, but I had trouble getting involved with it in the same ways as other Jules Verne books.

Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days adapted by Jules Verne, adapted by Anna Lea

I had a bit of trouble figuring out what this actually was. It credits an "adaptor", but not a translator. I'm assuming that this was adapted from some English translation of the original French. There were multiple characters and the pace was perfect.

Phileas Fogg is an eccentric British aristocrat. He places a bet that he can get around the world in the unheard time of 80 days. A new assistant, Jean Passepartout, happened to join him just before he makes this bet. They journey together to complete the quest. They have to deal with steamers, trains, and even elephant travel. Fogg is willing to throw vast sums at solutions due to the money that he has at stake. His assistant gets into a bit of trouble (for things such as not taking his shoes off at an Indian temple). They are also chased by police who mistake Fogg for a thief. They have many adventures, including the rescue of a woman from ritual suicide. They make it back in what they think is just a bit too late. Later they realize they forgot to take into account the date change and rush to make it back just in time. It is a fun adventure that has been well adapted to movies and other media.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This book in the Narnia series contains a series of "adventures" similar to Gulliver's Travels or a Jules Verne novel. A couple of the "Narnia" kids are with their do-gooder intellectual cousin (Eustace) when they get sucked in to a picture of a ship they see. On the ship with Prince Caspian, they participate in a number of fairly unrelated adventures. They are sold as slaves, only to depose the ruler of a realm. Eustace is turned in to a dragon, only to be eventually rescued by Aslan. They run in to invisible monopods that they help turn visible. (And in the process Lucy regrets that she cast a spell to learn what everybody thought of her.) And what magical adventure is complete without water that turns everything it touches to gold?

Eustace becomes the main thread through the story. He is a bookworm, snobbish teetotaler who is set in his ways. (Lewis also uses alcohol as part of his 'separation', with the others freely drinking while Eustace stays away.) Eventually, he starts to realize that perhaps he is part of the problem. When the kids finally return home, he is seen as having a much improved character.

This is a "fun" novel in the Narnia series with a number of small adventures. It ties in a few moral and religious messages (such as faith, and the disadvantage of knowing too much about others.) And it also ties in Lewis's views of the benefit of socializing and not being too uptight. Each of the adventures could just about be released as its own short story. Thus far, this is probably my favorite Narnia story.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

The science seems impressive, though the story gets tedious. The tone of the story felt more like Darwin than other Jules Verne adventure novels.

In this story, there are reports of a giant sea creature in the ocean. The narrator ends up on a ship that is going out to investigate. Through a series of events, he and two others end up being rescued by a the "creature" which turns out to be the ship "Nautalis". The captain of the ship, Nemo, has recused himself from society and lives now in the sea.

The narrator and his companions are now "prisoners" aboard the Nautilus. However, they are given freedom to explore, with their only main restriction that they are not permitted to leave the ship on their own. Through this they discover all of the great discoveries that Nemo has made, including submarine travel, undersea tunnels, electric ships, precious metal and mineral stores, strange animals and parts of the earth nobody has seen. Some of the science was ahead of its time, while other has been shown to be wrong.

In there voyages, they have a few adventures, including Nemo's attacks on some unknown enemy crews. However, the main conflict is against nature, rather than man. They have to fight giant sea creatures, escape from enclosing icebergs and endure horrid storms.

Eventually the narrator and his companions (the Narrator, Pierre Aronnax, his servant, Conseil, and the Canadian, Ned Land) escape the ship on a boat and live to tell their tale.