Customer Reviews:
 Classic of science fiction, some minor flaws to a modern reader June 9, 2010
T. Simons (Columbia, SC United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
This is Jules Verne's classic tale of undersea adventure, as best I can tell based on the 1873 translation by Lewis Mercier. Since that's been the standard English translation for over a hundred years, it's probably the one you remember reading way back when, and the edition you'll be familiar with.
Re-reading this as an adult, and an adult who's spent twenty-plus years since then reading science fiction, I did have to remind myself more than once how amazing the then-future technologies Verne describes, like electric rifles, undersea diving suits, electric motors, etc., would have been to his contemporary readers; the book was first published in 1869, a mere five years after the Confederate submarine Hunley became the first submarine to sink an enemy warship (and sank itself in the process). At times I found myself mentally substituting "outer space" for "under sea," just to help me analogize the situation. Despite that, the plot and action were as riveting now as they were when I first read it twenty years ago. I did find myself, now as then, skimming over much of Verne's extensive scientific descriptions of undersea flora and fauna, etc., but that might be my own failing as a reader -- when I did take the time to read Verne's descriptions, I did sometimes catch the same sense of aquatic wonder I remember from watching films like _The Life Aquatic_.
From what I've read, the Mercier translation this is based on contains a number of translation errors, cuts out about 20% of the text, etc. Corrected, completed, updated ebook editions of this classic are available on Amazon, but they cost money -- I've been unable to find an out-of-copyright, corrected, complete, and free edition. For readers on a budget, though, this is probably the version you remember, and if read in the right way -- keeping in mind the era in which it was written, and skimming whenever the science gets too dry or detailed for you -- it's still quite entertaining.
Verne did write a sequel, _The Mysterious Island_, also available in the kindle free store; the better translation is available here: The Mysterious Island.
A bit riveting... May 14, 2010
Thomas Tarter (Washington, DC)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Most of the book was interesting although the spots classifying the sea life boring and I breezed through those pages to get to the more interesting areas. All in all, a good read and worth the time. Besides, you can't beat the price to read a classic!!
 Classic May 11, 2010
G. Anderson (Los Angeles, CA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a classic book written by an iconic writer over 100 years ago. They were a little wordy in those days. Well worth a read.
 Dry, but good Read April 23, 2010
Robert Larez
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
It is a good book, but overall, felt like half the time he was overly descriptive and made it DRY, got 70% done and tried to finish it, but had to come back to it... Felt as though the Prof does want to stay but the other part of him wants to leave, half the time is spend describing things, or fish, or coordinates, and history, it is a very descriptive book, but it does get very dry at times as you want to just move to the next page to stop reading the over drawn descriptions
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