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QUARTERMAIN

                                              December 12, 2004
                                        Rev:  February  4, 2005


H. Rider Haggard
"King Solomon's Mines" (1885)           Why didn't I read "She"?
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2166     I've been meaning to read
                                        that one since 1990 or so...

  Not a terribly                                       I tried doing a
  impressive book.        Haggard's first              printout of "She"
                          novel, the first             via Gutenberg,
                          of 14 about Allan            and renewed my
  A troupe of             Quartermain.                 appreciation of
  cardboard characters                                 the bookmaker's art.
  (less memorable even
  than Doc Savage's
  henchmen) goes off                                Reading about
  on a quest to turn                                Quartermain was a
  up a lost                                         whim influenced by
  civiliation, a lost                               fact that he was
  treasure, and a lost                              pressed into service
  treasure hunter (not                              in the "League of
  necessarily in that                               Extraordinary
  order).                                           Gentlemen".

  Lots of action, but with                          But I was
  very little sense of                              unimpressed by
  reality, not even that                            the comic, and
  weird fictional                                   haven't seen the
  quasi-reality where                               film.  So?
  exaggerated behavior is
  accepted and certain
  improbabilities expected
  by convention.


  One detail I like:
                           SPOILERS
  Our heroes make their
  way into the lost land
  following a route that
  almost kills them,
  across a desert and
  over a mountain range;        This "oh, you mean we
  but on their way home         didn't have to that?"
  they're directed to           turn of events I find
  take a much easier            quite believable...
  route, around the
  mountains and through         The isolated land isn't
  a desert oasis.               really all that
                                isolated, and if you're
                                daring to risk all
                                you're probably working
                                too hard.

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