(53) Maître du monde (Master of the World, 1904) (1 volume) 41K words

The 53rd Extraordinary Voyage takes place in the United States, and brings back one of Verne's most eccentric inventors.


First read or reread?: Reread. It impressed me on my first read.


What is it about?: Set in the summer of 1903, a series of unexplained events occur across the Eastern United States, from unexplained volcanic activity to objects moving with great speed along the roads and rivers. The first-person narrator, John Strock, 'Head inspector in the federal police department' in Washington, DC, travels to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and other locations to investigate.


This is one of those shorter Verne novels that are little more than a novella. It has a good pace, even though not that much actually happens, and I see why I was impressed when I first read it. The mysterious going-ons, the fantastic vehicle, the megalomaniac personality of Robur...

On the other hand, this was one of the first Verne novels I read, and I was very young then. Rereading it now, I notice that Verne was retreading some of his usual plots and themes. This is true of much of his later work: he does reuse his more successful formulas, although often he manages to make it different enough to seem fresh. Perhaps you could say this one is more derivative than usual, but it still worked for me, mostly.

The first part of the novel is devoted to the investigation of unexplained events, and is therefore very similar to the start of "Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", although in this case a much larger part of the novel is devoted to the investigation.

This section of the novel, when the police inspector is trying to figure out what's going on, is full of questions rather than actual advances of the plot. Then the investigator is captured and gets to witness the technology that was behind the unexplained events. But, again, nothing much happens until the sudden end. The whole time, the point is more the sense of wonder rather than the actual plot. In that sense, it makes me think of later science fiction novels like "Rendezvous with Rama", and I'm not surprised it captured my imagination as a kid. This time around I'm familiar with Verne's typical stories, and I remembered very well the plot of this one, so the mystery does not have the same impact.

The resource of having the outsider, who serves as the audience surrogate, captured and thus getting to witness all the truth is also typical of this kind of Verne stories ("Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas", "Robur the Conqueror", "Facing the Flag"...). This, and the megalomaniacal personality of the villain, makes it a precursor of stories like James Bond's.

The fact that the point here is the wonder rather than the actual plot may bother some readers, but it fits my personal taste, so I was fine with it.

It is the second to last Verne novel published during his lifetime, just one year before his death, and it's typical of the more pessimist last part of his career. Science and technology can still be wondrous, but they now represent a threat to the human race, as well as an opportunity.

This is a sequel to "Robur the Conqueror", in the sense that it continues the story of the title character, but it is a separate story rather than a direct continuation, so it can be read independently. In fact, as Verne does when writing sequels, at some point in the novel he gives the reader a summary of the previous story when it becomes relevant.


Enjoyment factor: I enjoyed it, although I was less impressed than the first time round. It's short, and places more emphasis on sense of wonder than on plot. The pacing seemed good to me. In many ways it is derivative of other Verne stories.


Next up: Invasion of the Sea


See all my Verne reviews here: https://www.sffworld.com/forum/threads/reading-vernes-voyages-extraordinaires.58... ( )

Kind of a fun character, but Verne forgot to write a story for him. ( )

Follow-up to Robur the Conquerer. This time he's back and with a vessel that can run on land, sea or sky, or underwater. Slightly more interesting than its predecessor as events are investigated by a proto-fbi agent. Overall though it still pretty pointless and boring. ( )

This was another one of Verne's lesser works. Although the plot was somewhat interesting, the writing came across as a bit stale and old-fashioned and the plotting was not as strong as it could have been. Even for myself, who likes Verne, I don't think this is a very impressive novel.

2 stars. ( )

I like Verne very much even though much of his works I have read so far are cartoonish.

Nonetheless, there is just a positive, forward looking sense that I find invigorating.

This is not the best I have read to date , and I understand the last he wrote. Some say it is a poor cousin of Captain Nemo, and I get that.

It is also a sequel apparently to Robert the Conquerer, which I have now obtained via Gutenberg so will report on that later

Big Ship

11 March 2020 ( )