I was only familiar with this story from the '80s Hollywood version, which I had been told was drastically different from the book. Sure enough, it absolutely was. So much of it is utterly different as to be (nearly) a different story. But anyway...

Putting aside the problems we may find in Victorian literature with how it portrays Africans versus Europeans...

This was apparently the first "Lost World" novel, and for that I guess I need to acknowledge that it's a significant landmark. It's also the only "Lost World" novel I have read (though I have seen plenty of movies!), so I guess everything that seems to me cliche was established with this novel, and that's something that's really rather significant and astounding.

However, sometimes being first isn't necessarily being best. This story was apparently written on a dare to try to write something "half" as good as Treasure Island. Well, Haggard is no Robert Louis Stevenson. And I must say that, though I haven not read Conan Doyle's The Lost World, I have read all the Holmes stories, and I would put money on The Lost World being a superior type of this genre. Haggard's story feels like too much adventure cliche, too much glossing over seemingly important details (to keep it short enough to publish in the era?), and, most importantly, supreme ignorance of South Africa and the people in it. Some of the latter is excusable of the era, but some of it is utterly ridiculous. Here are two examples: chainmail (chainmail!!!) armour and the locals fighting as if they were Roman legionaries (and, bravely led by the white men, but of course). And this is all the more surprising that the man lived in South Africa for seven years prior to writing this. Maybe he didn't get out enough? And it's the details like that that really keep me from enjoying what should be a pioneering work. I just can't get my head around them.

Of historical interest (in terms of the evolution of the adventure novel) but that's about it.

If you have ever been in any underground system then you know the mystery. Okay, maybe it lacks the history of London’s – for instance, my city’s underground system(s) has never been used as a bomb shelter - , but it has many similarities – “lost” stops, a schedule only a psychic can figure out, a what is that smell feel, an in comprehensible map.

 

                You get the idea

 

                King Solomon’s Carpet is book where the subway system plays an important part. In fact, it’s the central character. Don’t let the blurb on the back cover fool into thinking otherwise. The star of the show is neither Alice nor her lovers. It’s not Tina and the kids. It’s not Jarvis.

 

                It’s the UNDERGROUND!

 

                It’s the threatening nature of the Underground, any underground really, that makes the book work. It makes all users equal, and it has its own rules that you don’t really know until after a while.

 

                And then I’m sure that SEPTA (my local public transit) is using its underground to call forth the dreaded Schuylkill River Monster!

 

                Go ahead, laugh at me, but when Philly is taken over by the hideous monster, flooding the tunnels, ringing the Liberty and making me head of the library system, we’ll see whose laughing at whom then, won’t we? Especially when we take over the cheese steak market!

 

                Seriously, no Philly Cheese steak is authentic unless you got it in Philly.

 

                Seriously, though, the Underground and mood are the stars of the novel. It is curiosity and familiarity that compels the reader to finish the book. Not Rendell’s best work, but not bed.

"King Solomon's Mines" ist der erste Allan Quatermain Roman (zumindest zu erst erschienen). Hier trifft er auf Sir Henry Curtis und Captain John Good, die auf der Suche nach dem Sir Henry's verschollenem Bruder sind, der auf der Suche nach Salomon's Mine war. Nach einigem Überlegen schließt Quatermain sich an. Zusammen mit drei Eingeborenen machen sie sich auf den Weg durch die Wüste. Zwei der Eingeborenen sterben schon recht früh, der dritte im Bunde ist ein wichtiger Charakter, wie man auch schon recht früh erfährt. Kurz vor ihem Ziel treffen sie auf einen ihnen unbekannten Eingeborenen Stamm, die Kukuanas, von denen der dritte Eingeborenen der rechtmäßige König ist.

Die Geschichte an sich ist eigentlich ganz gut, teilweise sogar richtig lustig. Was mich aber unglaublich gestört hat waren die ständig rassistisch angehauchten Bemerkungen, auch wenn es damals üblich war. Aber einen Einegborenen als Hund zu bezeichnen und immer gleich halb auszurasten, wenn er mal was sagt, ohne vorher die Erlaubnis bekommen zu haben, find ich nun mal nicht in Ordnung. Die Elefantenjagt hätte auch nicht sein müssen, bei der sie die Elefanten schön in die Enge getrieben haben, fröhlich drauf los geschossen haben und sich dann tierisch drüber gefreut haben, wie viele Elefanten sie getötet haben.

Holly McDowell has continued to bring her story of King Solomon's Wives to life in this third installment. This one was the shortest of the books so far and while I am still not thrilled with how it is put out, bit by bit, I feel this book was more well done than the previous two.

This book goes back to Sumarra from first book, Hunted. She is being held captive along with another Wife/sister and is slowly being tortured. While we do get some insight into her, I was hoping for more. Yet I liked learning what a strong, caring line she comes from. The other character we finally get some insight on is Dilara. Sumarra's clan leader. Actually, she is basically the Leader of all the sisters. While she is a caring person in one way, she is also extremely selfish and deceitful in other ways. Quick to punish others for their 'sins' yet she has a few of her own that start to close in on her. While she is a neat character to learn about, she is far, far, from my favorite.

This story starts to pull some things together from where the previous books left off in a very clean way. The story is still far from over, but I am starting to see loose ends being tightened together. Also, the editing on this book seemed to be a vast improvement from the second two. It seems the longer gap between stories paid off in a fresher book! I look forward to continuing the series!

This is an old fashioned adventure yarn and its hero, Alan Quatermain, is a direct ancestor of Indiana Jones. I'm not going to claim that Haggard even at his best is the same order of classic as the best by Charles Dickens, the Brontes, George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. But like fellow Victorians Arthur Conan Doyle or Robert Louis Stevenson or Rudyard Kipling, Haggard really could spin a good yarn. Ten of his books are on my bookshelves. I gobbled those up in my teens and most I remember very, very well even decades later. My favorite of his novels involved Ayesha, known as She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, especially the book Wisdom's Daughter. King Solomon's Mines is his most famous novel though, probably helped by the film of that title. It does have humor, some unforgettable scenes and images, and lots of adventure and daring do. Yet I could list several novels by Haggard I liked better. And I think that has to do with Quatermain himself, the epitome of the "Great White Hunter" with the kind of casual racism of the age and glory in bagging game you might expect. I prefer Haggard's Eric, the Viking from Eric Brighteyes. Or Olaf from The Wanderer's Necklace. Or his Odysseus from his Homer homage written with Andrew Lang, The World's Desire. And above all his indomitable Ayesha, one of the great heroines of Victorian literature. So while this is Haggard's best known work, I don't think it's necessarily his best or the one a contemporary reader would enjoy the most.