Skip to main content

Book Review: Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the EarthJourney to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a science-fiction adventure book. If you are a science-fiction fan, like me, then you are for a treat in reading in this book.

I really loved this book and the narration. It started as a simple story but quickly jumped to an adventure plot, and before I realized it had excellent science mixed into every element of this fictitious story. It has references to Fourier, Poisson and you find calculations for measuring the distances based on sound lag, it has adventures of an Iceland hiker, a cave explorer, a climber, and then you will you biologists in trilobite, yes, a trilobite! and then you find all the pre-historic animals and reference famous explorers, biologists, taxonomists all present in a single story.

When I choose the book, and read the plot, I wondered "How is this possible"? But when I read it, I was taken into a real adventure by the author.

I read this book in "Kindle-In-Motion" format, and illustrator, Killian Eng is a class on his own. He did excellent work and justice for this Jule Verne's timeless work.

Here are some of my notes and highlights from this book.

Here is something about Fourier.

Was it not always believed until Fourier that the temperature of the interplanetary spaces decreased perpetually?

About Poisson.

“Well, I will tell you that true savants, among them Poisson, have demonstrated that if a heat of 360,000 degrees existed in the interior of the globe.

A trilobite!

“Very well,” said he quietly, “it is the shell of a crustacean, of an extinct species called a trilobite. Nothing more.”

All these pre-historic animals.

leptotheria, mericotheria, lophiodia, anoplotheria, megatheria, mastodons, protopitheci, pterodactyls, and all sorts of extinct monsters here assembled together for his special satisfaction.

And the adventurers!

Mr. Milne-Edwards! Ah! Mr. de Quatrefages, how I wish you were standing here at the side of Otto Liedenbrock!”

This book was a thorough adventure, with so many references to explore further!