Book Report 3 - Journey to the Center of the Earth

Verne, Jules. Journey to the Center of the Earth. New York, NY. Barnes and Noble Books: 2005.

I chose this book because, like I said in the book report for "80 Days," I like Jules Verne books and this was one I have been wanting to read. I would classify it as an action adventure book. Sweet. It takes place in 19th century (1863 to be exact) Hamburg, Germany.

The book starts out with Professor Lidenbrock arriving at his house. He shows a really old Icelandic book he just bought to his nephew Axel (who is the narrator). While looking through the book a piece of paper falls out with Runic letters written on it. The gents translate it to Latin but once they do they find the letters are jumbled up. They try for a long time to crack the code and Lidenrock even locks himself, Axel, and the maid in the house until it is cracked. Axels cracks it by accident but doesn't want to tell his uncle because the paper says the way to enter the center of the earth. He knows his uncle will want to try it and it will be a dangerous journey so Axel keeps it to himself. After two days he is starving so he just tells his uncle. They depart for Reykjavik, hire a local guide named Hans, and travel to the volcano known as Snaefellsjokul. The piece of paper instructed to go to this volcano and go down the chimney that the shadow of a nearby mountain called Scartaris touches at noon in late June. They go to the top and eventually the sun comes out and casts a shadow over the chimney they must go down. They travel to the bottom and find a tunnel that goes even deeper, presumably the one that leads to the center of Earth. They take it and after a while they run out of water but before it's too late they hear a subterranean river through the walls of their granite prison and Hans uses a pick axe to get some water to come through. They don't plug it up because it can supply them water throughout the journey because the floor slants downward and the river will easily be able to travel. As they travel on, Axel gets separated from the other two and the river somehow but finds them again by being able to talk against the granite wall and have his voice travel to them. They communicate and Axel heads in their direction but falls down a vertical shaft and gets knocked out. He wakes up to find himself back with his uncle and Lars. They are in a huge cavern that is lit by some electrically charged gas floating around above. There is a forest of giant mushrooms and prehistoric trees that lead up to an underwater beach. Yes, an ocean underground. Lars builds a raft (he comes in handy a lot in this book) and they set sail. They go on forever until they come across two prehistoric dinosaur/monster/fish fighting each other. They then run into a crazy storm and eventually they land. They look at the compass and they realize they are back at the north coast they started on! Reluctant they still explore the place more since it is in a different spot than exactly where they started off. They find piles of bones of prehistoric creatures and they walk through it until they find they body of humans. The corpses are mostly in tact and even have skin. They travel on surprised until they reach a forest. They look ahead and see a live heard of mastodons! And that's not all, they see a twlve foot, hairy human being watching over them! Stunned, wierded out, and scared they trio runs back to the coast where they find a passage with the initials of Arne Suknassem (the guy who wrote on the piece of paper how to get to the center of Earth) engraved in it. They head inside the cave to find it has been blocked by a cave in. Hans sets up some gun cotton and a fuse, Axel lights it, and runs back to the raft with the others to be safe on the water. The explosion blows a hole that sucks up water and it sends the raft zooming down a steep tunnel. For hours this happens until they are blasted upwards. The temperature rises due to water and magma that is blasting them up. For hours they rise quickly until they burst out of a hole in the side of the volcano Stromboli in Italy. They make their ways back home and Hans goes back to Iceland. They are all famous and their story of their journey is spread worldwide on newspapers. Axel marries his sweetheart and Lidenbrock solves the mystery of the compass. They find it points south instead of north, so when they thought they landed on the same coast they started on during the underground storm, they were really on the south coast they originally were headed for. The poles of the compass got mixed up by a fire/lightning ball that spun out of control near the raft, magnetizing all the iron on board. So, when that happened, the compass got jacked. THE END.

Hans is the greatest character ever. The young Icelander with long red hair and a beard stays incredibly cool during all the hectic times in the book. And plus he had a solution to EVERYTHING. And plus plus he says about 10 words throughout the whole book. The plot doesn't change him at all. Like I said, even during the crazy times, his cool spirit stays the same.

The novel was good. Better than "80 Days" but not quite as cool as "20,000 Leagues." It was definitely interesting and imaginitive but I was expecting the subterranean world to be even more strange. What Verne did was just put preshistoric creatures in the bowels of the globe. That's cool and everything but it would have been more fun with a dark, wierd, gross subterranean environment that would have been less predictable. The deeper meaning I got out of the book was, "you never know until you try."

Obviously the book is fiction because the real center of the earth is only a magma core (boring). But then again, how do WE even know that? We haven't been there either! But anyway, if someone wanted to excape reality and go on a fun little adventure, read this book.

If I was in Hans' position throughout the book, I would have asked for more money. This intense journey should have paid better. But then again, if Hans would have asked for more money, he wouldn't be Hans!

Jules Verne. Cool guy. Good books. Will I read again? Nope. I have read all the Verne I have wanted to. And plus I really don't know any more of his titles than the three I have read. But, if I do come across one that looks interesting, I will read. But until then, the mext books I'm reading are Farewell To Arms (Hemmingway) and then the Stand (King).