The Science Fiction Novel - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

In yesterday's post, I highlighted the work of Jules Verne as one of the early contributors to the Sci-Fi genre. Today I'm going to look at Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Arthur Conan Doyle was born Edinburgh Scotland in 1859 and he died in Crowborough England in 1930. Over his life he was a prolific writer who was best known for his famous detective series featuring Sherlock Holmes and his faithful sidekick, Dr. Watson. However he wrote historical fiction; Sir Nigel and the White Company, the adventures of Brigadier Gerard, set during the Napoleonic Wars. He wrote non-fiction, short stories and stage works.

Brigadier Gerard

I've enjoyed the Sir Nigel books and his history of the Boer War and have the adventures of Brigadier Gerard on my book shelf. Bur my focus here, since I'm discussing Sci-Fi, is Doyle's Professor Challenger series.

Professor George Edward Challenger was the subject of three novels by Conan Doyle and of 2 short stories. Challenger was an aggressive, hot-headed explorer. Like Holmes, he was based on a real person, explorer Percy Fawcett and a professor of physiology William Rutherford. If you wish to read the complete biography of Doyle's fictional character you can check out this link to the article in Wikipedia.

The three books featuring Professor Challenger are - The Lost World (1912), The Poison Belt (1913) and The Land of Mist (1926). I have so far read The Lost World and have searched for the other two. I will find them. My review of The Lost World is below. I caveat it by saying back in 2014 when I read it, I wasn't doing as detailed of a review as I do now.








"A good solid adventure from the pen of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Professor Challenger and a team of associates head to South America to prove that his original discovery of a plateau where creatures from the deep past still live. A well-written and interesting story. I've seen the movie adaptation and also enjoyed. Doyle writes with a nice flow and creates interesting heroic characters. I enjoyed the story very much. Supposedly there are others in the Professor Challenger series. I will definitely look them up."

The synopsis of the other books is as below -
- The Poison Belt - in which the Earth passes through a cloud of poisonous ether.
- The Land of Mist - a story of the supernatural, reflecting the strong belief in Spiritualism Conan Doyle developed later in life.

Doyle also wrote one other novel, his last, that might fit into a similar category as those above and that is The Maracot Deep (1929). It could be classed as a fantasy / adventure, in which one Professor Maracot and his team of intrepid explorers discover sunken Atlantis. My review is below.

"The Maracot Deep by Arthur Conan Doyle published in 1929, brings to mind his adventure books such as his Professor Challenge books; The Lost World and others of that type. It also reminds me of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, of John Wyndham's early The Secret People. If you're of an age like me, you might remember those serials that you would watch at the movie theater where the heroes ended each episode in a perilous situation....

In The Maracot Deep, which starts off at a fast pace and just moves steadily along after that, Professor Maracot hires a ship and brings along scientific acquaintance Cyrus Headley to explore the depths of the Atlantic. These two and the designer of their diving bell, Scanlan, are lowered into the depths of the Maracot Deep (a deep sea channel discovered by Maracot) to see what is down there. Disaster strikes as a large sea denizen cuts the diving bell off from its umbilical chord to the ship and they are lost, sinking to the bottom. This information is discovered by some objects which float to the surface at a much later date.

I won't ruin the story by going into any more detail. But suffice it to say that the intrepid trio discover amazing life under the sea and have other adventures. The story is short but filled with action, not a lot of deep thought. It's entertaining in the way of so many books of the time; did you ever enjoy Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan or other series? Well, there you go. I will say for all this stories fantastical materiel, it even goes a bit further at the end but even that doesn't ruin this neat little adventure. It would have excited the imaginations of all young boys and, heck, even a crusty old fella like me. Good read and a nice change from the creator of Sherlock Holmes. (3 stars)"

There have been a number of movie adaptations of The Lost World as well. Claude Rains played Professor Challenger in this 1960 Irwin Allen version of the book. In 1925, Wallace Beery portrayed Challenger. Below is a photo from that version.

Scene from The Lost World (1925)

So there you go, my second author from my look at the Science Fiction novel. I'll keep working up the years as I continue with my entries. I hope you find it interesting.