20000 leagues under the sea – Book

Plot: 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.

Author: Jules Verne

3.5 stars

I wanted to read a book written by Jules Verne from ages. Finally got a chance to read one of his books. I am sure when this book came out, it was a super hit.  I would have liked it more if I had read it as a kid. It came out in 1869 and this novel invented “Electric Submarines”. Diving suits and compressed oxygen tanks were not even invented when this novel came out! There are very few sci-fi writers who came up with such imaginary things which were then invented by scientists. I wonder how they got such ideas?! I mean Jules Verne was not even a student of science. How did he get this idea and how could he give detailed explanations about how this vehicle was built?

Hubby watched this episode on aliens and there they showed how these “brilliant” people were abducted by aliens and through aliens, they got such groundbreaking innovative ideas. 😛 I am not sure if that is true, but some people are really great.

Another invention from this book: Taser

Source : National Geographic

Overall a really good book. But it became boring since more than half of the book is about the various animals and plants that he sees under water. It really got boring because of those elaborate descriptions. Wish there was more action and adventure in the book.

He deserves the title – “Grandfather of science fiction”.

I watched the 1954 movie which has won 2 Oscars.  It deviated from the book a lot and was sometimes more interesting. The movie had less of “marine” watching which the book had. At least the movie did not concentrate on showing different kinds of sea creatures and instead made up some extra scenes with some action. But I liked the ending in the book, rather than that in the movie.