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lobeliaparides's review
5.0
It. Was. AWESOME!! I am overjoyed that Nemo was finally able to find peace and happiness after all that he had gone through, though, I do feel sorry for Verne. But regardless, awesome!
ekeiser8's review
5.0
This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. I've always been a huge fan of Jules Verne, and especially "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," so this book had immediate appeal to me. That being said, the best part about this book was the way Anderson tied in all of Verne's novels and stories and wove them together, as if Verne's books were inspired from his real life experiences. The story is fast paced and exciting and will certainly be enjoyed by anyone, even if your knowledge of Verne and his work is limited. However, I can say that having read Verne's major novels, particularly "20,000 Leagues...," "Journey to the Center of the Earth," "The Mysterious Island," and "Five Weeks in a Balloon," will make the read even better and more exciting. The characters are fantastically well developed and the love triangle between the three protagonists serves to enhance what might otherwise be a shallow and bland adventure story. The plot covers almost the entire lifetime of the three characters, making it rather epic, but it never drags or feels too long. Sometimes Anderson jumps ahead in time quite considerably, leaving out many years and summarizing those missing years quickly, treating them as rather inconsequential. At least he didn't want to waste the readers' time. I appreciated that. Definitely would recommend to adventure loves and especially Jules Verne fanatics, like myself.
markyon's review
4.0
Titan Books are re-releasing this book, which takes both Jules Verne, the writer, and his fictional character Andre Nemo (of 20 000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, amongst others) and mixes them up.
In this novel Andre Nemo, friend of the young Jules, is a real person, although one which Jules used in his writing. The key conceit here is that the adventures that Nemo has forms the basis for Jules’ prodigious writing later in life.
We begin the tale with both boys attempting to stowaway to sea. Unfortunately Jules is caught by his father and made to return home. Andre does escape and before long he is doing all the things that have become famous in Verne’s writing. He is set upon by pirates, shipwrecked, takes revenge, has to face dinosaurs, travels into the Earth, balloons across Africa, discovers Timbuktu, and ends up in the British cavalry fighting the Russians. Whilst doing this, Nemo also encounters a number of key historical people and is involved in a number of key events (such as the Charge of the Light Brigade) before returning home to France. Jules, still in France and pining after Caroline Arronax, eventually turns these real life tales of his friend into his popular novels.
This is a solidly written piece of entertainment. At times the info-dump exposition can be a little unsubtle, along the lines of ‘Character X thought of how the plants had adapted, based on Darwin’s Theory of The Origin of Species, written in 1838 as Darwin was sailing in the Galapagos Islands on the good ship SS Beagle with its crew of ....’, though this is not as bad as it could be. The characterisation is as you would expect, the prose determinedly straightforward, the tale told with barely a pause for breath before diving into the next exciting exploit. This, of course, gives the reader little time to think about the implausibility of one man appearing, Zelig-like, at all of these key historical events.
Part of the fun is of course spotting all the references to Verne’s work and others. There’s a great version of Verne’s ‘Centre of the Earth’, for example, as Nemo travels into it, with giant mushrooms, fluorescent plants and crystals. The chapter titles are often Verne titles, too: The Mysterious Island, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Master of the World, 20,000 Leagues, for example. There’s also a sprinkling of other Verne characters throughout, such as Ned Land and Professor Liedenbrock.
However, above all, this book celebrates what Verne’s tales did at their time of publication – the joy of discovery and exploration and the miracles performed by technology. It is gloriously steampunk, with Kevin using all the technological marvels of 1840: steamboat, locomotive, balloon, telegraph, submarine – as did Verne. As one of the characters puts it, “It is wonderful to see impossible dreams come to fruition.”
It is quite interesting to read Verne portrayed as a home-body, whilst Nemo is the more exciting and darker alter-ego, managing to do all the things Jules would like to do, but sadly does not. The novel has the break-neck pace of the old pulps, with the metafictional idea of using real-life people and fictional characters together. This is something of a trend at the moment from Titan: see also Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula for something similar.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to. Anyone who enjoys old action adventure tales of the Rider Haggard and Conan Doyle type, or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which, incidentally, Kevin wrote the film novelisation for) or, as mentioned above, Anno Dracula, would enjoy this one.
And if it means that some readers will then read Verne’s own tales, then so much the better. Great fun.
In this novel Andre Nemo, friend of the young Jules, is a real person, although one which Jules used in his writing. The key conceit here is that the adventures that Nemo has forms the basis for Jules’ prodigious writing later in life.
We begin the tale with both boys attempting to stowaway to sea. Unfortunately Jules is caught by his father and made to return home. Andre does escape and before long he is doing all the things that have become famous in Verne’s writing. He is set upon by pirates, shipwrecked, takes revenge, has to face dinosaurs, travels into the Earth, balloons across Africa, discovers Timbuktu, and ends up in the British cavalry fighting the Russians. Whilst doing this, Nemo also encounters a number of key historical people and is involved in a number of key events (such as the Charge of the Light Brigade) before returning home to France. Jules, still in France and pining after Caroline Arronax, eventually turns these real life tales of his friend into his popular novels.
This is a solidly written piece of entertainment. At times the info-dump exposition can be a little unsubtle, along the lines of ‘Character X thought of how the plants had adapted, based on Darwin’s Theory of The Origin of Species, written in 1838 as Darwin was sailing in the Galapagos Islands on the good ship SS Beagle with its crew of ....’, though this is not as bad as it could be. The characterisation is as you would expect, the prose determinedly straightforward, the tale told with barely a pause for breath before diving into the next exciting exploit. This, of course, gives the reader little time to think about the implausibility of one man appearing, Zelig-like, at all of these key historical events.
Part of the fun is of course spotting all the references to Verne’s work and others. There’s a great version of Verne’s ‘Centre of the Earth’, for example, as Nemo travels into it, with giant mushrooms, fluorescent plants and crystals. The chapter titles are often Verne titles, too: The Mysterious Island, Five Weeks in a Balloon, Master of the World, 20,000 Leagues, for example. There’s also a sprinkling of other Verne characters throughout, such as Ned Land and Professor Liedenbrock.
However, above all, this book celebrates what Verne’s tales did at their time of publication – the joy of discovery and exploration and the miracles performed by technology. It is gloriously steampunk, with Kevin using all the technological marvels of 1840: steamboat, locomotive, balloon, telegraph, submarine – as did Verne. As one of the characters puts it, “It is wonderful to see impossible dreams come to fruition.”
It is quite interesting to read Verne portrayed as a home-body, whilst Nemo is the more exciting and darker alter-ego, managing to do all the things Jules would like to do, but sadly does not. The novel has the break-neck pace of the old pulps, with the metafictional idea of using real-life people and fictional characters together. This is something of a trend at the moment from Titan: see also Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula for something similar.
I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting to. Anyone who enjoys old action adventure tales of the Rider Haggard and Conan Doyle type, or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (which, incidentally, Kevin wrote the film novelisation for) or, as mentioned above, Anno Dracula, would enjoy this one.
And if it means that some readers will then read Verne’s own tales, then so much the better. Great fun.
amelianicholebooks's review
5.0
One of the best books I have ever read (or reread). The style of writing is clear and beautiful without getting in the way. The novel seems to go on endlessly and it is pure bliss!
yonnyan's review against another edition
3.0
Captain Nemo is a swashbuckling tale about Jules Verne and his most delightful and adventurous character, André Nemo. The novel actually has a very interesting concept in that the two men are friends, one inspiring the other with his exploits. I could tell that it was decently researched, but the writing and overall presentation of the plot left me feeling very bored at times and mildly frustrated with repetitive character traits.
One of the key aspects of this story is that André Nemo, a character who thrives on thrill-seeking and wanting to experience adventures in his simple life, ends up having said multiple grand adventures due to life throwing him one curveball after another. His best friend and closest confidante, who also desires to have such experiences, ends up staying back and following the path that is laid out for him by his father. As much as Verne craves the same sort of excitement that Nemo does, he is always too frightened to take the steps necessary to make these things happen, which in turn leaves him feeling envious and a bit bitter.
This creates a really good contrast between the simplicity that is Verne’s existence and the complexity of Nemo’s. However, the character development that strings the reader along falls short, feeling mundane and horridly predictable. I also felt that the chemistry between the characters was at times uncomfortably forced. During the downtime between Nemo’s ventures, the storytelling reached an excruciatingly slow pace. It took everything I had not to skip pages to reach something that wouldn’t make me fall asleep.
Another element that I disliked about the novel was the ending. Because of the monotony in this book, I knew what the ending for Nemo would be eventually. What I didn’t expect was the abruptness of it all. One minute he’s having a moment of self-contemplation, trying to figure out the meaning of his actions unto this point and the next he’s reaching the chosen climax and ta-da “the end.” I felt that the point of the ending was maybe because the author got tired of writing the story and just wanted it all to end, almost as much as I did.
Stagnant storytelling aside, I really did enjoy the adventures. Those scenes were written with great detail and action that was actually very fun to read. The portraits in my head as I read those particular scenes felt like a movie-reel. It’s just sad that it came and went in bursts.
This may have not been the best book I have read in a long time, but it wasn’t a bad book either. Captain Nemo is not a book that I could see myself reading again, at least not for a very long time. If you are a fan of Jules Verne and his stories, then it may be worth checking this novel out as it was fascinating to read about his stories coming to light, but it’s not a must-read by any means; three and a half stars at best.
One of the key aspects of this story is that André Nemo, a character who thrives on thrill-seeking and wanting to experience adventures in his simple life, ends up having said multiple grand adventures due to life throwing him one curveball after another. His best friend and closest confidante, who also desires to have such experiences, ends up staying back and following the path that is laid out for him by his father. As much as Verne craves the same sort of excitement that Nemo does, he is always too frightened to take the steps necessary to make these things happen, which in turn leaves him feeling envious and a bit bitter.
This creates a really good contrast between the simplicity that is Verne’s existence and the complexity of Nemo’s. However, the character development that strings the reader along falls short, feeling mundane and horridly predictable. I also felt that the chemistry between the characters was at times uncomfortably forced. During the downtime between Nemo’s ventures, the storytelling reached an excruciatingly slow pace. It took everything I had not to skip pages to reach something that wouldn’t make me fall asleep.
Another element that I disliked about the novel was the ending. Because of the monotony in this book, I knew what the ending for Nemo would be eventually. What I didn’t expect was the abruptness of it all. One minute he’s having a moment of self-contemplation, trying to figure out the meaning of his actions unto this point and the next he’s reaching the chosen climax and ta-da “the end.” I felt that the point of the ending was maybe because the author got tired of writing the story and just wanted it all to end, almost as much as I did.
Stagnant storytelling aside, I really did enjoy the adventures. Those scenes were written with great detail and action that was actually very fun to read. The portraits in my head as I read those particular scenes felt like a movie-reel. It’s just sad that it came and went in bursts.
This may have not been the best book I have read in a long time, but it wasn’t a bad book either. Captain Nemo is not a book that I could see myself reading again, at least not for a very long time. If you are a fan of Jules Verne and his stories, then it may be worth checking this novel out as it was fascinating to read about his stories coming to light, but it’s not a must-read by any means; three and a half stars at best.
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