Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea / Vingt mille lieues sous les mers (Bilingual Edition: English - French / Édition bilingue: anglais - français)

Need to reread because I liked the prose a LOT and I want to sit with Nemo’s issues more but the narrator made me sleepy. That said while it’s 19th century book written by a white man there is a lot of racism especially calling people savages for a book who’s speaking cast is entirely white that I think readers who care about racism should know before reading. It also doesn’t even seem that relevant to the story one way or another and if anything confused the novels awareness of some countries being oppressed with the implication by a European one.

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tiredcreature's review against another edition

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adventurous informative slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Much longer than it needs to be, but so it goes with serialized magazine novels.
Nevertheless interesting if one is curious about 19th century marine biology (if nothing else, then to compare and contrast what was already known and what wasn't), and the history of science fiction. Annotated edition recommended

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melancholymegs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I had picked up this book due to its method of story telling via a travel log/diary, because i had enjoyed Bram Stokers “Dracula”, (5⭐️) which makes use of the same format. Curiosity to read more literature that takes place in the sea/ocean was also a factor when i picked up this book. However, if you are expecting lush descriptions of the sublimity of the sea and its creatures, you will be disappointed.
Trudging through the mass amounts of scientific terminology as well as maths was not worth the pay off. The vaguely hinted at end reward would have been more impactful had more description and build up been provided; instead you get a bunch of anticlimactic explanations dumped into the last 20-30 minutes of the book.
I definitely can see why this book is enjoyed by many people. It does present the interest of sea travel, specifically submarine travel, during the 19th century, as well as giving insight into the scientific idiosyncrasies of various forms of sea life. However this book simply was not enjoyable to me🙃

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tangleroot_eli's review against another edition

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I found the prose boring, the plot almost nonexistent, and the characters uninteresting. Philistine I may be, but classic science fiction doesn't do much for me.

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ansoisreading's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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