When the World Screamed & Other Stories (Professor Challenger Adventures, Vol 2)

Rating:
Summary: Conan Doyle's Best
Review: It's not often noted that Conan Doyle was one of the funniest writers ever. Many readers seem to miss the humor, if the largely clueless online reviews of "The Lost World" are any guide. Get that book first; it's Conan Doyle's masterpiece and one of the great books of the 20th century. Then try to get a copy of this one (it's out of print), containing three other stories about Professor Challenger. The title story, written at the end of the author's life, shows him at the height of his powers, right down to the magnificent final sentence.

Rating:
Summary: Conan Doyle's Best
Review: It's not often noted that Conan Doyle was one of the funniest writers ever. Many readers seem to miss the humor, if the largely clueless online reviews of "The Lost World" are any guide. Get that book first; it's Conan Doyle's masterpiece and one of the great books of the 20th century. Then try to get a copy of this one (it's out of print), containing three other stories about Professor Challenger. The title story, written at the end of the author's life, shows him at the height of his powers, right down to the magnificent final sentence.

Rating:
Summary: Two good stories, and one absolute disaster!
Review: This book contains three stories. The first is When The World Screamed. In this story the formidable Professor Challenger sets out to prove that the Earth itself is a gigantic creature swimming through space. The second story is The Disintegration Machine, wherein Professor Challenger has to deal with a foreign scientist who has created a machine of mass destruction.

And now for the unfortunate part: the bulk of this book is taken up by the third story, The Land of Mist. In this story, Edward Malone and subsequently Professor Challenger are introduced to Spiritualism. The story is long (about four times as long as the other two combined), and rambling. A.C. Doyle wrote this story as a polemic, and it makes very poor fiction indeed. If you don't need to read this story, then don't.

So, let me sum up by saying that the first two stories warrant 5 stars, and the last warrants one (or zero).