I’ve seen this story many times in its various movie and television incarnations. I’ve avoided reading the book because I tried to read Sherlock Holmes (by the same author) once in middle school and found it terribly dry and boring stuff. But when I saw this book in the local library I thought I would give Conan Doyle another try and see if I’ve matured any as a reader since my middle school days.
This book suffers slightly from a dry and formal style common to all Victorian era books, but it’s highly readable. And the breakneck speed at which the story progresses more than compensates for the dry style. Once the story gets going, Doyle wastes very little ink on boring literary descriptions as the heroes escape from one danger right after another. There’s also a lot of humor mixed in. Dry humor, but occasionally pretty funny at times.
The basic story is that four explorers find deep in the Amazon jungle a hidden land where dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures still exist. Doyle invents new prehistoric creatures (“previously unknown to science”) as well as the old standby dinosaur classics. And if all the danger from the dinosaurs wasn’t exciting enough, the explorers also find themselves in the middle of a war between the native tribes and the strange ape-men.
This book is slightly racist, in the sense that every old book written by Europeans about new lands is always racist. The native Indians, the “half-breed” guides, and the faithful Negro servant Zambo are all described in terms which, while not malicious, would not be considered political correct today. Perhaps I might feel different about this if I were one of the disparaged ethnicities, but I find myself very forgiving of racism in old books. (Recent books are a different story).
On the whole, I’d say this is an exciting book, a quick read, and would recommend it to anyone who likes adventure stories.
Useless Wikipedia Fact
In part because the film's trailer gave away the ending, "Soylent Green" has become a popular example of a twist ending that is already known by the public at large, even those who have not seen the film
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