Simon Berington (1680–1755)

Who are these people who make entries on goodreads for books which they nor anyone else has evidently read? Are they even sure that these books exist, will i at some point find entries for works lost in the great fire at Alexandria? ;), but i digress.

A man is overheard talking about a strange non-christian people and is dragged before the Inquisition to explain himself. The story has several layers to it.
On the one hand there are adventure elements, a pirate battle, a trek across a vast desert etc. Then there are the interruptions to the narrative by questions of the Inquisition. It gets fairly densely religious in places, although i can't really tell if its a satire or not.
It also feels a little like a Jules Verne story at times with numerous notes to explain its assertions. However since it was written in the 1730's its facts are woefully and sometimes hilariously out of date.
One moment its discussing the difficulties with measuring latitude and longitude, the next its how the Chinese are descended from the Egyptians or how the Egyptians became great sailors because they knew a guy who worked on Noah's ark etc.
Once however we finally reach our destination things grind to a halt as we get into an incredibly boring description of a, maybe utopian society although even the narrator can't seem to fully commit to his utopian ideals. The people are perfect... except their eyes are too small. Their the most beautiful people in the world because they're so incredibly inbred... except its annoying they all look alike. Make up your mind already!
In the end we get back to the adventure story with some awful coincidences and Deux Ex Machina's just to fully ruin any good will i had left.
There are a few interesting incidents and ideas but probably one best left on the scrapheap of history.… (meer)