The Other Log of Phileas Fogg: A Wold Newton Novel

In retrospect it reminds me a lot of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula, both in terms of concept and style. Enough to make me wonder if Newman wasn't inspired by it. The book claims to be based on a recently discovered manuscript written by the hero of Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days. This manuscript tells a distinctly different version of the events that Verne recorded. Instead of a wealthy dilletante with a taste for odd wagers, Phileas Fogg is an agent of an alien race who have been conducting a secret war on earth for years. His race around the world is part of this arcane war generally designed to help ferret out Fogg's nemesis: Captain Nemo. This premise alone should give you a feel for the book. Farmer doesn't work in quite so many literary references as Anno Dracula does but he does a great job of weaving his story into the interstices of Verne's novel and inventively "explains" a lot of oddities in the earlier book. He also manages to work in real life mysteries of the time such as the Mary Celeste. The book has a great pulp adventure feel involving secret wars, classic characters, and teleporting watches. There's also an essay in the back which dissects Nemo's character (with an aim towards refuting the idea the speculation that Nemo was a heroic Indian freedom fighter). It also advances the highly original notion that Captain Nemo is none other than Professor Moriarty.

This book is a must for those who have read Farmer's biographies of Tarzan and Doc Savage. Farmer, a pioneer in uncovering the secrets behind literary characters, dares to reveal the intergalactic conspiracy behind Verne's classic AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS!

I think I was 19 when I first read this novel. It was my first encounter with Farmer's brand of 'behind-the-scenes' stories and i have very fond memories of the book since I loved "Around The World In 80 Days" as a kid. Now I've really got to turn my mother's basement inside out and find the damn thing and re-read it.

Farmer is one of the premier literary gamesmen of the day, as his two "biographies" of Tarzan and Doc Savage showed. Here, he turns his attention to Verne...explaining discrepencies in Verne's AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, involving the more famous Captain Nemo in the process (who is revealed not to be an Indian Prince, but Professor Moriarity). Infuriating to the literalist, but excellent fun for anyone with imagination. A little too dry in areas, and the dialogue is forced sometimes...which may be more Verne's defect than Farmer's, since he had to work with other author's concepts and characterizations. Still, quite excellent