Remember reading Around the World in Eighty Days? Apparently, Jules Verne only knew half of the story. Here’s the other half, and the truth behind the mysterious Phileas Fogg.

“Of course, he had no way of knowing that Fogg was traveling to save the world, not just to girdle it.”

page 72

Published in 1978,The Other Log of Phileas Fogg is an early example of a mash-up. Not only do characters from Eighty Days show up, but so does Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock stories are also referenced.

Why is this on our bookshelf?

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

(It’s no longer on our bookshelf in fact– the public library can keep this one.)

Rating (2 stars)

The only reason this book gets two stars and not one is because the concept and idea had merit. The only reason I finished this book was so I could write a scathing review.

How can a book that has so many bizarre twists also be completely dull? I’d say the author was trying to emulate the matter-of-fact tone used by Jules Verne in Around the World in Eighty Days, but while Verne’s book was exciting, I found this book extremely tedious.

Farmer is considered an amazing science fiction author and won both the Hugo Award for Best Novel and the Nebula.

But not for this book.