20,000 Leagues under the Sea by Jules
Verne
Another one of those classics you think
you know but have never actually read. I must admit I did not connect with it
at all and I am not quite sure why it was seen as such an iconic book. It might
have been quite revolutionary at the time it was published and the mainstream audience
might have been different from today, but I found it a lumbering and rather aimless
story.
‘Professor
Aronnax embarks on an expedition to hunt down and destroy a menacing sea
monster. However, he discovers that the beast is metal – it is a giant
submarine called the Nautilus built be the renegade scientist Captain Nemo. So
begins an underwater adventure that takes them from the South Pole to the lost
city of Atlantis.’
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
by Claire North
I enjoyed this book thoroughly and
although the subject is about a version of time travel the science played
second fiddle to the personal struggle of the main character and his ever
powerful nemesis.
‘Harry
August is on his deathbed. Again.
No
matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always
returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has
already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes.
Until
now.
As
Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside.
‘I nearly missed you, Doctor August,’ she says. ‘I need to send a message.’
This
is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries
to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.’
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