Review: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Title: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Author: Jules Verne
Source/Format: Purchased; Paperback
More Details: Science Fiction; Classics
Publisher/Publication Date: ; March 20, 1869

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Synopsis from Goodreads...

French naturalist Dr. Aronnax embarks on an expedition to hunt down a sea monster, only to discover instead the Nautilus, a remarkable submarine built by the enigmatic Captain Nemo. Together Nemo and Aronnax explore the underwater marvels, undergo a transcendent experience amongst the ruins of Atlantis, and plant a black flag at the South Pole. But Nemo's mission is one of revenge-and his methods coldly efficient...

Its official, I think I’ve gotten a pretty good start on my year. At least, I feel like I’m going in the right direction.

I have finally read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne. It’s the first book I tackled this year and the first book I’ve read by Verne. There were a lot of things I enjoyed about the story, including the characters, setting, and technology.

The book was told from the perspective of Pierre Aronnax who was a relatively interesting character. His internal monologue was particularly great. It was interesting to see how the situations were viewed from his perspective and how his conflicted feelings about his new circumstances effected his thought process. The rest of the characters were just as wonderfully developed. They each had their distinctive traits and the development they underwent shed light on their histories, motivations, and personalities.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is one of those books that involves a lot of travel, but by no means was this a boring book. It’s as much about the characters as it was the setting and how the two ultimately effect one another. There were a lot of clues cleverly placed throughout the story. So, when I actually got to those pivotal moments the pieces just fit together. In some ways, this book reminded me of The Martian. Of course, they’re two very different books and aren’t very comparable—since one is set on Mars and the other takes place on or underwater. What I mean is that they’re both heavy-handed when it came to the science and terminology, which is actually one of the things I really enjoyed about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

The writing was very descriptive and I could envision all the cool places the characters got to visit.  I loved all the details that Verne included, and at times, the underwater setting was vivid and surreal. And as cool as the setting was, my favorite part of the story was still the Nautilus. Clearly, I’m a sucker for cool technology.

So, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was a very entertaining read. I can finally cross this one off my list.