Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (Audiobook Review)

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Title: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Author: Jules Verne
Narrator: Simon Prebble
Copyright: 2008 Blackstone Audio
Duration: 7 hours, 42 minutes
Genres: science fiction, adventure, classic fiction
Filed in: Audiobook Reviews
Review copy provided by Blackstone Audio.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY: Geologist Otto Lidenbrock is perusing an ancient Icelandic manuscript when he discovers a mysterious encrypted note. The message reveals the account of a sixteenth-century explorer who claims to have found a passageway to the center of the earth.
In his quest to penetrate the planet's primordial secrets, the impetuous professor, together with his quaking nephew, Axel, and their devoted guide, Hans, sets off immediately for Iceland. Descending through the belly of a volcano into the bowels of the earth, they discover an astonishing subterranean world of prehistoric proportions.
A classic of science fiction that helped give birth to the genre, this imaginative speculation on the earth's nature is both a rousing adventure story and an apt portrait of the psychology of the questing scientist.
(P)2008 Blackstone Audiobooks

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW: When I was in the third grade, they used to pass out these little flyers or pamphlets from our Scholastic Reader service. Once a month or so, we could order paperbacks at a discounted price. From one of these, I ordered a copy of a book called Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was love at first sight, and I have been a science fiction fan ever since. Granted, my third grade brain probably didn’t understand half of what Jules Verne said, he is well known for his long technical descriptions of flora and fauna, or in this case mineral, but the very idea of following a tunnel to the center of the earth thrilled me. And finding dinosaurs in there? Fuhgeddaboutit! Needless to say, I was pretty happy to find this audiobook in Blackstone’s catalog.
The first thing that jumped out at me as I began the audiobook, was that some of the names were wrong. Yeah, instead of Professor Hardwigg, his nephew Harry, and Harry’s true-love Gretchen, this copy had Professor Lidenbrock, Axel, and Grauben. I was flabbergasted! Then I looked up the book in Wikipedia and discovered that these names are correct. Apparently there was one edition published that changed the names, and that happened to be the one I got in the third grade. It took a little getting used to, but I was glad to finally hear the story as Verne intended it. I noticed a few other very minor changes in wording, but really nothing worth mentioning.
It’s easy to see why Jules Verne is considered one of the founding fathers of science fiction. It’s not just his nearly limitless imagination, most writers have good imaginations, it’s that the ideas he dreamed up always seem so plausible. If you followed a tunnel into the earth, what else would you expect to find but a world forever locked in the prehistoric past? From the bowels of the earth, to the deepest depths of the ocean, to outer space itself, Jules Verne helped to usher us into an age of the fantastic, inspiring generations of writers to follow in his footsteps.
There’s one thing in particular that I would like to note about Journey to the Center of the Earth. Verne wrote this novel in 1864, and even at that early date, he was already admonishing that our fossil fuels were not inexhaustible. His Professor Lidenbrock predicted that we would run out of coal within three centuries. Talk about a man who was ahead of his time!
You would be hard pressed to find a more capable narrator than Simon Prebble. That said, I think it was a little odd for the German characters of this audiobook to be speaking in British accents. On the other hand, I listened to another recording of this book a while back, and the narrator sounded so much like Colonol Klink that I couldn’t stop laughing until I finally turned it off. I kept waiting for Professor Hardwigg/Lidenbrock to say “Hoga-a-a-an!” So maybe the British wasn’t so bad. Simon Prebble sounds good when he reads, and overall I liked his voices for the characters.
I have always considered Journey to the Center of the Earth to be my first science fiction novel, and it remains one of my very favorites. If you happen to find a tunnel that leads down into the earth, promise you’ll take me with you, okay?

FILM ADAPTATION:
Journey to the Center of the Earth has been adapted to film a couple of times. The 1959 version starred James Mason, and Pat Boone of all people. Another film was done in 2008, this one starring Brendan Fraser. I haven’t seen either one, but I noticed that the 2008 film had a woman as one of the main characters and all the names had been changed. I’m guessing it is only loosely based on the novel.

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER AUDIOBOOK REVIEWS:
Around the World In Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Audiobook Review)
1984 by George Orwell (Audiobook review)
The Time Machine by H G Wells (Audiobook Review)

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If you like this audiobook review, you can purchase the audiobook here:
Get “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne (Unabridged Audiobook) from Blackstone Audio.

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This audiobook review is based on the unabridged audiobook.
Audiobook review by Steven Brandt
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