The Floating Island

Rating:
Summary: Dull and uneventful story.
Review: Having read 13 other books by Jules Verne, most of which are considered classics, I went into this lesser known novel with high expectations. Simply put, FLOATING ISLAND sunk, excuse me, stunk. It goes on and on about nothing. The reader follows four French musicians as they find themselves on a large manmade floating island in the Pacific Ocean. As the story goes along they visit island chain after island chain. In typical Verne fashion there are endless details and descriptions of the islands they visit. Unfortunately, that is pretty much all the book is about, describing islands and their inhabitants. There is a plot buried in there somewhere which features the observations of the musicians, and the social structure and events of the island's inhabitants. There is a good bit of social commentary by Verne to be found late in this novel as the island's inhabitants begin to argue and the island is split politically and socially. Unfortunately, there is too little excitement and too little plot to save this sinking ship.

Rating:
Summary: A GOOD BOOK
Review: I disagree with statements that say that the book is dull and uneventful. It is true that it is not the best novel written by Jules Verne, but it is still interesting. It has a scientific element in it (the idea of a ship-like structure that is about size of a small island is not too far-fetched), characters with whom you can identify or find interesting, cultural and anthropological insights into various islands in the Pacific Ocean, humor and social satire. In fact, I would rank it higher than most of the books in the bookstores' Science Fiction sections.