The Poison Belt

In Doyle's short novel featuring Professor Challenger, the earth moves through a poisonous belt of the "ether"--the stuff supposedly filling space--and the protagonists of the first Challenger novel, THE LOST WORLD, reunite to observe what seems to be the end of all life. The book, though a classic of science fiction, is painfully dated in its science and in its casual racism, which only surfaces occasionally but is off-putting. But Glen McCready's genial reading helps. He supplies appropriate voices for the major characters, including the rumbling, bull-like Professor Challenger, his dainty wife, and the drawling Lord Roxton. Overall, McCready delivers the somewhat talky text with careful expressiveness, helping to bring it to life. It's entertaining for those who can overlook the book's deficiencies. W.M. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine


Audiobooks sometimes recall our attention to works that have fallen into undeserved obscurity. Producers may simply be looking for material in the public domain, but occasionally they dust off a gem. The science in Conan Doyle's 1913 tale of global cataclysm is dated but not sloppy. The storytelling is state of the art. The writing has the flavor of the nineteenth century, a time when authors seem to have listened to themselves and tended to produce writing that is friendly to the tongue. The style is somewhat old-fashioned to modern ears and voices, but Paul Hecht sounds absolutely at home as he skillfully guides our rediscovery of a forgotten treasure. J.N. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine