Under the Andes

Rating:
Summary: Rex Stout before Nero Wolfe....
Review: First published in 1914, this story is one of Rex Stout's earlist novel. Two bothers, and their lovely female companion, are enjoying their sea trip. The bothers are rich and the woman is famous, so they are welcomed everywhere they go. But what happens when they enter a cave and find that the depths under the Andes are NOT empty.
The book can be called one of old fashion adventure or even a science fiction novel, but for a Rex Stout fan it is also a must, to place besides the mystery novels he is famous for. A grand, and very detailed, introduction by John McAleer adds to the delight of the reader.
An early art of words from the master of mystery. I am happy to see that it continues to be reprinted.

Rating:
Summary: Rex Stout before Nero Wolfe....
Review: First published in 1914, this story is one of Rex Stout's earlist novel. Two bothers, and their lovely female companion, are enjoying their sea trip. The bothers are rich and the woman is famous, so they are welcomed everywhere they go. But what happens when they enter a cave and find that the depths under the Andes are NOT empty.
The book can be called one of old fashion adventure or even a science fiction novel, but for a Rex Stout fan it is also a must, to place besides the mystery novels he is famous for. A grand, and very detailed, introduction by John McAleer adds to the delight of the reader.
An early art of words from the master of mystery. I am happy to see that it continues to be reprinted.

Rating:
Summary: Adventure, I must tell you, at its best
Review: I started reading this, and found myself entirely consumed with the characters and their survival. Constantly, they face danger, and overcome one way or another. Excellent adventure, with lots of surprises. Survival at its finest. The final chapter has a good twist to it also.

Rating:
Summary: For True Stout Fans-- all others avoid
Review: This earnest adventure novel reads like a silly pulp written by someone with only half the smarts of the man who created Nero Wolfe. Of course, Stout fans (and I am one) love the brilliant Nero Wolfe novels with an irrational passion-- they're truly fine reading and seem just as fresh to day as when they were written 70 or 60 or 50 years ago. That said, this very early novel by Stout is a stolid attempt at a cliffhanger-- once the caverns under the Andes are reached, the narrative becomes repetitive as escape follows escape follows escape from the evil denizens of the deep. Only true fans of Stout will be even remotely amused by this early work-- luckily, he learned a lot in the 20 years that followed this exercise, and the first Nero Wolfe was as good as the last. (Note: this work is available in its entirety on the net.)

Rating:
Summary: For True Stout Fans-- all others avoid
Review: This earnest adventure novel reads like a silly pulp written by someone with only half the smarts of the man who created Nero Wolfe. Of course, Stout fans (and I am one) love the brilliant Nero Wolfe novels with an irrational passion-- they're truly fine reading and seem just as fresh to day as when they were written 70 or 60 or 50 years ago. That said, this very early novel by Stout is a stolid attempt at a cliffhanger-- once the caverns under the Andes are reached, the narrative becomes repetitive as escape follows escape follows escape from the evil denizens of the deep. Only true fans of Stout will be even remotely amused by this early work-- luckily, he learned a lot in the 20 years that followed this exercise, and the first Nero Wolfe was as good as the last. (Note: this work is available in its entirety on the net.)

Rating:
Summary: Of Historic Interest Only
Review: This is a very bad book, but one very much worth reading, at least for Rex Stout fans. It was written at the beginning of his career, when he was much under the influence of the adventure writers like Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. It features all the outlandish elements of those books (beautiful women, romantic heroes, exotic locales, alien races), but much less deftly handled.

It is no surprise that after this fiasco, Stout took a long break before coming back with Fer de Lance, the first Nero Wolfe novels. Even then, he had not truly lost the brash, unsophisitcatd voice found in Under the Andes.

Don't read this book looking for a great plot, or nuanced characterization, or for the humor you will find in the Wolfe books. But if you love those books as I do, you might want to see how their author got to where he could write them.

Rating:
Summary: Of Historic Interest Only
Review: This is a very bad book, but one very much worth reading, at least for Rex Stout fans. It was written at the beginning of his career, when he was much under the influence of the adventure writers like Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. It features all the outlandish elements of those books (beautiful women, romantic heroes, exotic locales, alien races), but much less deftly handled.

It is no surprise that after this fiasco, Stout took a long break before coming back with Fer de Lance, the first Nero Wolfe novels. Even then, he had not truly lost the brash, unsophisitcatd voice found in Under the Andes.

Don't read this book looking for a great plot, or nuanced characterization, or for the humor you will find in the Wolfe books. But if you love those books as I do, you might want to see how their author got to where he could write them.

Rating:
Summary: Crude and monotonous early adventure novel by Rex Stout
Review: This reviewer loves Stout's sublime Nero Wolfe mysteries, and also the testosterone-fueled pulp adventure novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, and their contemporaries. Unfortunately, Under the Andes, a very early outing by Stout, is almost embarassingly bad. It lacks the situational humor and subtle characterization that give the Nero Wolfe novels their timeless appeal, and it's not creative enough in its situations or plot to succeed as an adventure novel.

The story is told from the first-person point of view; it involves the aristocratic hero, his younger brother, and a supremely desirable female who is reminiscent of Princess Dejah Thoris in Burroughs' John Carter books. What little plot there is centers around a series of adventures and escapes, literally Under the Andes. Here, the hero is as arrogant and abrasive as Nero Wolfe, but Stout hadn't yet discovered the secret of successfully portraying this type of protagonist, which is to look at him through a third person who can gently poke fun at him while still admiring him. Let's face it, if we had seen the world through Nero Wolfe's eyes instead of Archie Goodwin's, who among us wouldn't have been rooting for the bad guy to get away every time? It's tough to even tolerate, let alone sympathize with, two of the three main characters; only the hero's younger brother is likable in his naive bravery.

When compared to its adventure-novel contemporaries, this book doesn't have much going for it. It doesn't have humor, characters you can like, or subtlety (read even the first chapter of The Lost World by Conan Doyle for comparison); and it doesn't have the straightforward-yet-immensely-profound life perspective of Burroughs' early Tarzan books.

However, if you're an aspiring writer, give this a read; you'll see how even the great writers have to start somewhere. The book isn't really abysmally bad; it's just abysmally bad compared to what it could have been if written by a more mature Rex Stout.