I am trying to read Jules Verne, I really am, but with a few exceptions his work is filled with extremely unpleasant men. I don't know why he's so determined to fill his lesser novels with racist stereotypes - Robur has a particularly virulent and nasty example of such - and the slaughter of endangered animals - in this case, the use of explosive harpoon on a whale, for fun, as the killers were all on a balloon and didn't even have the excuse of using what they slaughtered - but I am sick of reading it. Does he really have to include this shit in every book that he writes?

Don't expect any sort of plot here, either. Robur kidnaps three men, refuses to speak to them, essentially tortures one of them (the black man, of course, and it's played for laughs; I told you it was nasty) and the book chronicles all the cities and landscapes they pass over, in lieu of conversation or, you know, actual character development. I include motive in that lack of development, because there isn't one. There is no actual reason for Robur to behave in the way that he does; his actions are contradictory in almost every respect. Worse, the book ends on a sort of triumphalist note, saying that Robur, this most excellent scientist, will return when the world is ready for his genius. Except his genius is wrapped up in the flesh of a total bastard who thinks nothing of kidnapping people who disagree with him, and trapping them on an island for the rest of their lives. If Verne is arguing that scientists should be totally devoid of ethics, he has done a bang-up job.

Why are all his characters so damn unlikeable? If everyone in this novel had fallen into the sea and drowned, the world would be better off. It certainly would have been a more satisfying ending.