The Poison Belt

Sir Arthur's most famous creation, Sherlock Holmes, is a character so realistic, so true to life, so three-dimensional that dozens of novels, hundreds of short stories, and thousands of articles have been written and tens of thousands of people have gathered themselves together in fan clubs under the premise that Sherlock Holmes was a real person. If it weren't for Sherlock Holmes, no one would ever have tried to make a similar leap over this two-dimensional piece of pure cardboard, Professor Challenger. Part of the problem is that Sir Arthur pretty clearly had an agenda in mind, an idea he wanted to push, an argument he wanted to win behind each story. Now that isn't necessarily bad, science fiction has become rather known for a healthy tradition of didactic polemics, but the good ones never forget that the story MUST come first. Too often Sir Arthur forgot that, and it doesn't help that he invariably got the science wrong. The Lost World (1912) is the first and the best, the one I can recommend without hesitation as a fine story, a classic Boy's Own Adventure that introduces the irascible Professor Challenger and his memorable companions: the boyish and naive journalist Ned Malone, the phlegmatic and imperturbable hunter Lord Roxton, and the if anything even more irascible Professor Summerlee who together live the ultimate adventure of finding a lost world, populated with extinct monsters and peoples. The plot is so familiar it barely needs describing: scientist claims to have discovered lost world; scientist leads expedition back to prove he's not lying; expedition finds lost world, is trapped in lost world, survives great dangers in lost world, and escapes from lost world; scientist sics pterodactyl on disbelievers. Sir Arthur's not so hidden agenda? Well, accusations of support for imperialism or racism seem a bit extreme, but he is clearly advocating Evolution here, which is somewhat ironic in light of current evolutionary theory on the extinction of the dinosaurs. Suffice it to say that the discovery of living dinosaurs today would have Creation scientists doing handstands and Evolution scientists racing back to the drawing board. After this rollicking adventure The Poison Belt (1913) is quite a disappointment. In a more egregious bit of bad science, Professor Challenger correctly predicts that the Earth has moved into a belt of poisonous "ether", presumably inspired by the equally laughable fears resulting from Earth passing through the tail of Halley's Comet in 1910. Challenger's brilliant solution? He has the old crew bring oxygen tanks and gather at his house along with his wife to watch the world come to an end... and die a few hours after everybody else. Frankly this struck me as something less than a solution. It also results in a very talky, actionless novel as our heroes sit on their rears and discuss the Meaning of Life and Man's Existence, from which I conclude that the author didn't have that firm a grasp on it either. Fi

I still wonder how the author can think out the idea that the Earth would pass a Poison Belt, and can think out its consequence. A writer must see or imagine something amazing from the simplest fact to plot a book.

While Professor George Edward Challenger, a short, stocky, hirsute bull of a man is physically the complete opposite of Doyle's more well known protagonist, Sherlock Holmes, the same cannot be said of his pomposity, arrogance and mental dexterity. In that regard, he could well have been Sherlock's and Mycroft's long lost sibling. As a scientist of the first order, comfortable in his astute, complex analysis of "the blurring of Frauenhofer's lines in the spectra both of the planets and of the fixed stars," Challenger concluded there had been a fundamental change in the ether that would "involve the ultimate welfare of every man, woman, and child upon this planet." In fact, his private prognostications were that the end of the world was at hand and, on the basis of that certainty, he issued a peremptory summons to his friends and colleagues from the "lost world" expedition - young Edward Malone, the reporter for the Daily Gazette; Professor Summerlee, a fellow scientist; and Lord John Roxton, gentleman adventurer and sportsman - to join him and his beloved wife as witness to the world's final hours! Having only recently completed Conan Doyle's "The Lost World", I expected "The Poison Belt" to be a garment cut of the same cloth - a swashbuckling Victorian adventure tale of the exploits of heroic men's men! Not even close ... instead Doyle served up an optimistic, post-apocalyptic tale of a world given a taste of Armageddon and an unexpected second chance. Doyle's philosophical musings, disclosed through the conversations of the last five people to remain on the face of a dying earth, touched upon such tender ideas as love and friendship in the face of death. While Doyle might not have recognized it by the more modern label, his musings even wandered into what a modern cosmological philosopher would label the "anthropic principle". A modern reader of "The Poison Belt" will know that the notion of an all-encompassing ether in the universe has long since been debunked. But that single failing detracted not one whit from the quality of the story. That same modern reader, I expect, will also be unlikely to share Doyle's optimism regarding the world's reaction to a second chance at life. But, for myself, when I finished the story, I smiled and silently prayed that Doyle was right and I was wrong! Enjoy! Paul Weiss

Professor Challenger is still throwing his bulk, and his vast intellect, around, making enemies and inevitably being proved right. And so, when reporter Ed Malone receives an emergency telegram from him, demanding that he bring oxygen at once, Malone hastens out and gets the oxygen! It seems that Challenger has learned that the Earth is moving towards a poisonous section of space, and has figured out a way that he can save a few members of the human race - the last people left on Earth. Professor George Edward Challenger is the lesser known creation of Sherlock Holmes' creator, Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Unlike the cool and calculating Homes, Challenger is irascible, domineering and extremely outspoken. In short, he is a lot of fun to read. However, unlike Holmes, Professor Challenger never caught on and as such only five Challenger stories were ever written, and this was the second of the five (written in 1913). Although more than a little dated, scientifically, I found this story to be well written and quite exciting. It reflects a world that is now gone, but is quite interesting to read about. If you like adventure stories, then you will like this one. Read this book, and learn about A.C. Doyle's other hero!