Thursday, January 27, 2011

Fish, fish, fish!

So many fishes. AH!

*breathes*

I finished 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea on Tuesday evening and let me tell you, there is lot of fish names in there. Think Tolkien's description, but fish-wise! Fishes all over the place!

Whew. I still enjoyed the book a lot. It's slow-moving, true, but intriguing and marvelous at the same time. As soon as you learn to speed-read when he lists species and genus, you have a nice ride ahead of you.

The Quirky Thing that Made Me Squee
Ned Land, one of the three main characters (excluding Captain Nemo here) is a whaler from Quebec. Not just any part of Quebec, either: Quebec City. It's stated twice through the novel and call me silly, but I love the idea one character from a famous novel is from my hometown.

What I Learned From Jules Vernes
Know your shit. Do your research. There is not one part of this novel that seems fake or impossible. Jules Verne was up to date about the technologies of his time and used them to justify the new technologies he presented in his novel. The Nautilus might not seem like much today. It's just a submarine. This novel, however, comes from 1870, and Jules Verne takes the time to explain how such a thing could exist.

His research and attention to details bring the tale to life. Don't mess yours. Get familiar with every aspect of your story.

3 comments:

  1. Holy moly!!! I am reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea right now too! I started last week and would have finished but for being temporarily derailed by the book Shipbreakers.

    I'm enjoying it so far except for that century's problem with starting every fiction book off with the most boring info dump pages ever written in the history of man. Love!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds like a great read. I'm going to go looking for it now.

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sommer: Wow, with all the books to read out there, what are the chances we were reading the same? Now you have to tell me what Shipbreakers is. My TBR pile needs to get bigger. (no. REALLY not, but whatever ;).)

    Misha: It can be a slow read at times, but if you like the sea even a *little* bit, this is a MUST read. Jules Verne had an undying passion for it, and it shows.

    ReplyDelete