Novel that fills the gaps of the 80 Days Around the World, didn't really hook me. ( )

nice premise, dull execution ( )

I finally had to admit to myself that I had no desire to read any more of this book.

In theory, a behind-the-scenes look at Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days is engrossing. According to Farmer, Fogg really made the trip to further the interests of the Eridani; as part of the secret ongoing Eridani-Capellan war. However, as I have found with many of Farmer’s books: the idea is genius – but the execution leaves much to be desired.
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It would be pointless reading this novel without a knowledge of Around the World in Eighty Days. It also ties into Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but you can get away with, like me, just knowing who Captain Nemo is. The concept is a very clever one. If you read the first two chapters of Eighty Days, where the character of Phileas Fogg is outlined, you’ll see that he’s a most singular man. No doubt Verne is using hyperbole, but if you read it literally, you find him to be inhuman. This novel uses this, and other oddities in the text, to create an alternative history.

Farmer refers to Verne calling Fogg a bearded Byron and that he might live a thousand years. Neither of these terms appear in the British translation, but they do in the American one. If you have a e-reader you can download a free copy here:

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/103

but I don’t think the differences are great enough to make difficulties.

Now, I’m a fan of Farmer’s, but I’ll be the first to admit that his work is of variable quality. Unfortunately, this novel is not his finest moment. It’s what happens if you give a fan-boy a publishing contract. It has no life of its own and the hidden history is unsatisfying. ( )

I was really disappointed with this book. I had read other books by Farmer many years ago (mostly the Riverworld books) and enjoyed them very much but this one just did not measure up. The idea was very interesting and clever (as you would expect): the story that Verne tells in Around the World in Eighty Days is just a cover for Fogg’s secret mission involving aliens and teleportation devices. The writing, however, was rather flat and colorless (which you would not expect from Farmer). Much of the story reads more like the summary of (or proposal for) a novel rather than the novel itself. There are also numerous instances where a character (or the narrator) mulls over different courses of action. The character could do A (with usually a long explanation of A) or he could do B (explanation of B) until we get to C or D, which he then does. This normally happens in the middle of what should be an action scene which is brought to a halt. You think to yourself: just get on with it. The two afterword essays were really more interesting and readable. As I said, I have enjoyed other works by Farmer and will try more but this one will certainly not go on my “read again” list. ( )