Charles Derennes

Really nice early sci-fi, reminded me a lot of my favorite H.G.Wells novel the 'First Men in the Moon'.
There is a lot of different aspects to this one. Apart from some really quite interesting sci-fi ideas there's also a good bit of humour to be had, mostly derived from the 'odd couple' main characters. Then at other times we have a quite Lovecraftian horror of the strange, a good bit of social commentary and quite a different brand of visceral horror mixed in too.
I did find one or two dry spots, when the people of the pole are being described in detail and also the start of the epilogue but things picked up again after both of these dips and the very end was quite funny, dark and interesting all at once.

The BlackCoatPress.com edition has the usual amount of silly typos that seem to plague that publisher and the translation felt a little off at times compared to some of their other books. However this might also be my favorite of the half-dozen or so their titles i've tried.

If you like your early sci-fi or adventure stories this is a really good one.

Note: The BlackCoatPress edition also comes with some decent background info and an accompanying short story 'The Conquerors of Idols' which seems a bit like the 'Man Who Would be King' or at least the vague fragments of that film i saw as a child. Anyway it makes a fine addition to round out the text.… (plus d'informations)