The Clipper of the Clouds - Jules Verne

The Clipper of the Clouds (Verne, 1886)

Though a lot shorter than the more famous Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne's The Clipper of the Clouds (the original French title translates to Robur the Conqueror) is very similar - a borderline megalomaniac inventor kidnaps skeptics and takes them on a trip around the world in his invention.  The kidnapped spectators can't help but admire the ingenuity and power of the invention, but ultimately they realize they must escape if they hope to rejoin the world of men.  Only instead of a submarine, Robur's invention is a heavier-than-air flying machine - styled an "aeronef" by Verne, though he considers using the terms "aeroplane" and "helicopter".

One of the best parts of this book is Verne's enthusiasm and awe for technology. His excitement and vigor are contagious, even when he waxes eloquent on the astounding speed of "one hundred and twenty five miles an hour" and the dizzying height of "four thousand feet above the ground"!  For me, these anachronisms add a charm to the book and shine a light into a different era, when the fastest forms of transport were locomotives and steamships.

The scenes of suspense and action are top-notch throughout.  The mysterious beginning of the book, where people all over the globe hear unexplainable music in the sky, is great science fiction.  There are also gripping moments when the ship gets caught in storms (including a mid-ocean waterspout) that are written at white-knuckle pace.

Unfortunately, the characters aren't too memorable, and one is a racist stereotype.  Robur kidnaps three Americans to convince them of his ship's superiority: the two leaders of a balloonist society and their black servant.  The two balloonists begin as fairly innocent victims but become vengeful and bloodthirsty by the end of the story, while their servant is portrayed more as a monkey than as a man, presumably for comic relief.  Meanwhile, Robur's crew is fairly faceless, and as for Robur... what to make of him?  One minute he's the villian, the next the hero; one minute a grand speechmaker, the next a recluse.  He's definitely the most interesting of the cast.

There were also a lot of distracting errors in geography.  Either Verne in his enthusiasm failed to research, or the translator was lazy.  My edition is a pretty cheap paperback, and I caught other typographical errors, so maybe we can blame the publisher for the idea that Yosemite is southwest of Nebraska, or Beijing is due east of Tokyo...

Arbitrary rating: 3.5 out of 5 aeronefs