"Nothing could be done. The thing was universal and beyond our human knowledge or control. It was death for young and old, for weak and strong, for rich and poor, without hope or possibility of escape."
Just returned from his famous adventure in the Lost World, the resourceful Professor George Challenger faces his greatest danger yet: Earth will pass through a belt of poisonous ether, and mankind might not survive. As the poison enters the atmosphere, terror and madness sweep the globe. Cities are wracked by riots, societies crumble, and soon all communication ceases. Professor Challenger and his friends, barricaded in a sealed room, can only watch their planet die.
The Poison Belt stands as one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's finest stories. A first-rate sequel to The Lost World, this novel continues the adventures of one of the most memorable characters in speculative fiction. Brilliant, witty, insufferable, and blessed with a booming voice and a huge black beard, Professor George Challenger is an eccentric and able champion of the human race.
Doyle's contribution to "post-apocalyptic" literature! While Professor George Edward Challenger, a short, stocky, hirsute bull of a man is physically the complete opposite of Doyle's more well known protagonist, Sherlock Holmes, the same cannot be said of his pomposity, arrogance and mental dexterity. In that regard, he could well have been Sherlock's and Mycroft's long lost sibling.
As a scientist of the first order, comfortable in his astute, complex analysis of "the blurring of Frauenhofer's lines in the spectra both of the planets and of the fixed stars," Challenger concluded there had been a fundamental change in the ether that would "involve the ultimate welfare of every man, woman, and child upon this planet." In fact, his private prognostications were that the end of the world was at hand and, on the basis of that certainty, he issued a peremptory summons to his friends and colleagues from the "lost world" expedition - young Edward Malone, the reporter for the Daily Gazette; Professor Summerlee, a fellow scientist; and Lord John Roxton, gentleman adventurer and sportsman - to join him and his beloved wife as witness to the world's final hours!
Having only recently completed Conan Doyle's "The Lost World", I expected "The Poison Belt" to be a garment cut of the same cloth - a swashbuckling Victorian adventure tale of the exploits of heroic men's men! Not even close ... instead Doyle served up an optimistic, post-apocalyptic tale of a world given a taste of Armageddon and an unexpected second chance. Doyle's philosophical musings, disclosed through the conversations of the last five people to remain on the face of a dying earth, touched upon such tender ideas as love and friendship in the face of death. While Doyle might not have recognized it by the more modern label, his musings even wandered into what a modern cosmological philosopher would label the "anthropic principle".
A modern reader of "The Poison Belt" will know that the notion of an all-encompassing ether in the universe has long since been debunked. But that single failing detracted not one whit from the quality of the story. That same modern reader, I expect, will also be unlikely to share Doyle's optimism regarding the world's reaction to a second chance at life. But, for myself, when I finished the story, I smiled and silently prayed that Doyle was right and I was wrong!
Enjoy!
Paul Weiss
Well written and quite exciting! Professor Challenger is still throwing his bulk, and his vast intellect, around, making enemies and inevitably being proved right. And so, when reporter Ed Malone receives an emergency telegram from him, demanding that he bring oxygen at once, Malone hastens out and gets the oxygen! It seems that Challenger has learned that the Earth is moving towards a poisonous section of space, and has figured out a way that he can save a few members of the human race - the last people left on Earth.
Professor George Edward Challenger is the lesser known creation of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Unlike the cool and calculating Homes, Challenger is irascible, domineering and extremely outspoken. In short, he is a lot of fun to read. However, unlike Holmes, Professor Challenger never caught on and as such only five Challenger stories were ever written, and this was the second of the five (written in 1913).
Although more than a little dated, scientifically, I found this story to be well written and quite exciting. It reflects a world that is now gone, but is quite interesting to read about. If you like adventure stories, then you will like this one. Read this book, and learn about A.C. Doyle's other hero!
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
