Friday, April 9, 2010

Another Journey to the Center of the Earth

I recently finished reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' book At the Earth's Core.  It took me on a similar, yet different, kind of journey than Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth that I enjoyed so much a few years ago.

Burroughs deals much more with life in the center of the earth and the relationships between the humans of the outer world and the creatures of the inner world.  True, the story is as fantastical as can be with giant beasts and battles at every turn, but it certainly keeps your interest.

I must note that this book was written from an evolutionary standpoint.  In the inner world, the humans are subservient to the Mahers, or giant lizards.  There is also some mild mature themes such as the outer-earth human choosing a mate from the inner-earth and the mention of the way they dress (or half-dress).  These are handled rather delicately and are not over-exaggerated.

This book would probably be for high school and up.  Some of the battles are gruesome, and the Mahers have very disturbing temple practices.  It is a good page turner, but almost reads more like a modern CG movie script.  The ending could be viewed as genius or unsatisfactory, depending upon how you look at it.  In other words, the conflict is left unresolved.

Summary:
Genre:  Science fiction
Rating: ***
Possible Objectionable Content:  evolutionary themes, mildly sensual themes, violence
Reading Level:  high school and up

Download for Free:  At the Earth's Core

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I have never read it but I read Jules Verne's book which I found to be super-lame and very corny. Though it may just be that science fiction is always lame in my opinion. Not sure. :)

Lindsey said...

Probably, but I have to agree with you about it seeming to be lame. It is a older science fiction, and looks a lot more ridiculous to us today than it did in Verne's time. Think about how much science has advanced. You won't learn much reading it, but it can be a good adventure story.

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