Sometimes Fogg is described as having to feign ignorance in order to maintain the image of a British gentleman but practically everyone he meets in the original log is here given some new role to fit the idea of the hidden narrative. Why they need to send Fogg around the world to do this was explained but isn't clear to me. They use "distorters" to teleport about the place and one side is trying to stop the other from obtaining one of those. I didn't pay close enough attention in the end to follow all of the details, but there are two alien species fighting in the shadows on Earth for the eventual control of the humans. Coded messages in the Whist cards, ok fine, but it seems like this works anywhere in the world at any time and it just doesn't make sense to me. There's not much subtle at all about the butchery performed to make the new idea fit the old story. The aliens are shoehorned into the log with reckless abandon. A lot of the charm of the original journey was in the delightful language employed to tell the story. It comes across to me like the sort of writing exercise we might have had at school, not the kind of thing you'd publish and charge readers good money for.įarmer's prose doesn't come close to matching Verne's, I don't think any effort was made in that regard and I personally found that rather dissatisfying. Unfortunately, the result isn't very impressive. It's not a bad story in concept, Farmer retells Phileas Fogg's famous journey but imagines aliens are involved. There is the a long running conflict between two groups of aliens who have been stranded on earth.įarmer does an excellent job of finding inconsistencies in the original Verne novel and then creating elaborate explanations and adventures to explain what really happened.įolks, have you ever finished a book that you enjoyed thoroughly and then thought to yourself, "I'd like to read that again, but not written as well?" No? Me neither, I must admit.Īlright, it's possible that I've finished a book and thought, "could have had more aliens in it." The book uncovers the “real” story behind the classic Victorian age Jules Verne novel "Around the World in 80 Days”. There is little of his output I have not thoroughly enjoyed. It is written in quite formal English, in keeping with the story’s Victorian origins and the narrative is far from conventional halting continuously to examine details of the plot in comparison to Verne’s version and very rarely allowing the reader to immerse themselves in the story for its own sake. Indeed, in places it is hard to distinguish where one ends and the other begins.įarmer is certainly a very ingenious and convincing writer, this book however may not for everyone. His attention to details such as important dates in the characters’ lives, character lineage, comparisons between this “unknown” version of the story and Verne’s version, and detailed description of real historical settings in the novel is such that the fictional elements become blurred into fact. Farmer purposefully writes to transform the classic characters found in the novel into real historical people and throughout, despite its obvious science fiction setting. However, what sets this novel and in fact the ‘Wold Newton’ series it is a part of, apart from the rest, is not its story line, as much as the convincing style of the writing. This is new action not included in the Verne version, of this well-known Victorian novel and may may not seem much like many other re writings of the genre. Name: Farmer, Philip José, Birthplace: North Terre Haute, Indiana, USA, (26 January 1918 - 25 February 2009Īlternate Names: Tom Wode Bellman, Cordwainer Bird, Paul Chapin, Charlotte Corday-Marat,įarmer tells the reader how Phileas Fogg is in fact an adopted lien secret agent, setting out to save his “race” from annihilation.
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