Book Review - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne  Somehow in all the years of science fiction reading I've done I have somehow managed to never read this classic by Verne.  It is a classic story of a man who turns his back on civilization after his family is presumably killed.  But rather than disappear into the wilderness of the land Captain Nemo chooses the ocean as his refuge.  He builds the greatest ship of the age, the Nautilus, and wanders the oceans free from the constraints of anyone's wish except his own.  The seafaring nations of the world believe the Nautilus to be some vicious animal of the deeps and attempt to kill it.  In once such attempt three men, Professor Aronnax, his servant Conseil and Canadian whaler Ned Land are rescued after their ship is severely damaged.  Nemo chooses to rescue them but his condition is severe.  They are never to leave the Nautilus again.

Verne does a stellar job of weaving the complicated character of Nemo and the individual personalities of the other three into an engaging story.  In film versions Nemo is often left as a one dimensional martinet which is a terrible disservice to Verne's creation.  The author isn't afraid to play with ambiguity either.  We're never really clear what happened to Verne's wife and daughter and you can draw your own conclusions about what happens to the Nautilus at the end.  For a book written over 140 years ago it's predictions on technology are pretty good.  The story telling is even better.

I read this as a Nook book and found the footnotes and additional information links to be much better laid out and useful than some.  It really added to my enjoyment of the book and made great use of the special "talents" of an e-book reader.

For science fiction fans this is a 5 star must own.  For everyone else it should be on your lifetime reading list somewhere.

Rating - **** Recommended