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Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely fascinating
Review: I was amazed by the uncanny smilarities between Doctor Omega and the Other Doctor. For a novel written in 1906, this is remarkably prescient. A wonderful sf classic.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Tale: Dr. Omega
Review: It begins in a small village in Normandy, France in 1905. The narrator, Denis Borel, suddenly wealthy by the standards of the time has purchased a small cottage and retired from the hectic life of Paris. Alone except for the company of a manservant and a gardener, he spends his days playing his beloved Stradivarius violin and enjoys his solitude and music. Then one night, as he sits in his gazebo thinking about music, a strange light fills the night sky and a thunderous roar shakes the valley.He learns from a neighbor that a hanger belonging to Dr. Omega has exploded. Borel knew nothing of Dr. Omega but learns quickly that others know of him and consider him something more than eccentric. According to his gardener.... "'He's an old gentleman with white hair dressed in black. There's something odd about him. The farmers think he's some kind of warlock, that he's got powers...Some are afraid of him, they think he has the evil eye....They avoid him like the plague....'" (Page 17) After another night of strange dreams he sees Dr. Omega walking nearby and he becomes an obsession for Borel. He can't get the man out of his mind and constantly wonders what Dr. Omega is doing. He eventually goes to see the damage for himself and meets Dr. Omega. After a few more days and more visits with Dr. Omega he is stunned to learn that Dr. Omega is building a ship out of some strange metal and it planning to go to Mars. Dr. Omega wants Borel to make the trip with him. "'I am looking for a man of courage to be my companion on a fantastic voyage-the word is not too strong-an extraordinary journey that I have long labored to make possible.'" (Page 33) Dr. Omega wants Borel to make the trip not just to Mars, but a visit to a Mars of the distant past, as the spaceship will cross space as well as time. Borel agrees and what follows is his narrative of the shipbuilding process, launch, and resulting numerous perilous adventures on Mars. Reminiscent of Jules Verne, it truly is a fantastic voyage across space and time that catapults the reader into a world that might have been. Fans of Doctor Who will surely note the amazing description of Dr. Omega and his ship, Cosmos, and the many similarities. And maybe that is why this reader enjoyed the book so much. Or maybe it is because as part of classic pulp fiction, it harkens back to a wonderful time, when anything was possible in the intermingled worlds of science fiction and fantasy. Unlike many movies and novels of today that set a scene of cataclysmic destruction with a planet destroyed by chemical, biological, nuclear, or something else, this novel presents wondrous possibilities while occasionally mixing in for the more critical reader a little social commentary. In short, this was simply a wonderful novel written in a style that just isn't done anymore. The added black and while illustrations from the original French publication in 1906 in the collector's edition are a very nice touch. They, along with the surrounding incredible story, make the collector's edition well worth owning as well as passing down to children. With all the violence and negativity reflected in today's fiction, regardless of the genre, it is very refreshing to read a work full of the potential of the human race and full of wonder.
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