Sir Arthur Conan Doyle using characters from Lost World to experience a mysterious belt of ether that the earth will pass through.

By isolating themselves in a small room with a supply of oxygen they are able to survive a horrible fate.

This book is a quick read but somethimes the heavy British language stalls the story. ( )

In The Poison Belt, the characters from The Lost World get an encore performance, which they mostly spend discussing heavy shit in Professor Challenger's living room.

The basic idea is that Challenger realizes, with barely any time to spare, that the world is about to pass through a patch of poisonous ether. He summons his Lost World companions to his country estate, where they seal themselves inside a high-oxygen room, which slows the action of the poisonous ether on their systems. Thus, they get a chance to observe universal death and the end of the world.

The scientific hook in The Poison Belt has been obsolete for nearly a century. Fortunately, once you strip all the science away, you're left with a book that is still plenty entertaining. Professor Challenger, quick to anger and unbelievably arrogant, is a comic figure in the middle of horrible events. His tirades supply plenty of laughs, which leave the reader open to the body blow of the disaster Conan Doyle is painting. Universal, inevitable death. This scope makes "Deep Impact" look like a movie about a guy stubbing his toe.

Challenger's foresight, and the dismissal of his warnings by the public, make for some interesting parallels with current tensions between the scientific and broader communities. Says Challenger, "The flippancy of the half-educated is more obstructive to science than the obtuseness of the ignorant."

Conan Doyle seems wholly on board with the British colonial project of his day, and The Poison Belt is at points shocking in its casual racism. You'll have to cut the author some slack on this point to enjoy the book. On the other hand, it's encouraging to read these sorts of things and see that society has, indeed, made some progress in the last hundred years.

It's a short, quick read. Not very substantive, but fun nevertheless. Recommended for reading in train stations. ( )

Professor Challenger in a Science fiction yarn from the pen of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ok it is one of this author's lesser works,but saying that, Doyle's worst is many other author's best.Plus he can do no wrong for me.Thus 5 stars.
Enjoyable on a light level. ( )

The bad news is brief.

There is a reason people don't talk about this one much I think. That reason being it is bad.

The earth is going to enter a nasty phenomenon, no-one believes Challenger when he warns them.

So, he and his mates are prepared, no-one else is.

However, rather than dying, everyone gets better, and nothing really happens, except an offhand remark about the problems from accidents etc. when the poison gets everyone.

It is lacking in the entertaining banter and blustering of some of the others.

Not well done.

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/126

http://freesf.blogspot.com/2007/09/po... ( )

Interesting Wells-era SF from a man usually associated with mystery. His hero, Professor Challenger, was supposed to be as venerable as Holmes, but never had quite the popularity. ( )