Round the Moon by Jules Verne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I was very disappointed by this sequel to From the Earth to the Moon. It seemed to me that the author followed an advice to change the narration style from narrator-focused to dialogue-driven, which diminishes the fantastic element that made the first part so interesting and adventurous.
Having said that, as a result of focusing more on the dialogue between the three characters present and the nature of the story and narration as a whole, these three men felt absurd in their behaviour and speech. The progress of the journey and the “science” behind such a journey to outer space cannot be easily described purely through dialogue alone, therefore the majority of the story felt more like a badly scripted after-school special.
Reading this story, which was so dragged out and uninteresting, made me look forward to the end of each chapter so that I could take a break from continuously rolling my eyes.
I was hoping for a story of great adventure, narration and science fiction, unfortunately I was left with nothing more than 148 pages of boredom. There were of few glimpses within the narration that resembled the narration in From the Earth to the Moon, which I so enjoyed and actually inclined me to give its sequel two stars instead of just one. Sadly it wasn’t enough for me to reach for another Jules Verne book for a while.
