The Shadow by James Patterson and Brian Sitts

 

This novel is based off the classic serial of the same name. In the 1930’s Lamont Cranston aka the Shadow and his girlfriend, Margo Lane are ambushed and left for dead by Cranston’s archnemesis Shiwan Khan. Dying Lane and Cranston enter into a cryochamber to await a day where they might be saved. Flash forward to over a century later and teenager Maddy Gomes inherits something very strange, Cranston’s and Lane’s cyrochambers. And in this dystopian future where Khan’s legacy can still be felt, only the Shadow can possibly hope to defeat him. One thing I appreciate about Patterson is that he always gives his ghost writers credit for their work. Yes, his name might be front and center, but their names are still there. 

Farscape (1999-2003)

 

American astronaut John Crichton flies into a wormhole and ends up in a distant part of the universe. He is picked up by fugitives from a corrupt military organization called the Peacekeepers. They all live on their sentient ship Moya. There are several plot points such as Crichton’s search for a way home and outrunning the Peacekeepers. The creatures were all created by Jim Henson. Overall an enjoyable scifi adventure.   

The Lost World by Michael Crichton

Very different from the movie, Ian Malcolm and a group of fellow scientists go to Site B to research the dinosaurs that are left on the island. Dino mayhem ensues. It is a great book. 
 

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

 

A long time ago, a Prime violated the rules and built a star harvester on Earth. He became “the Fallen” the first Decepticon. Back in the present day, Sam Witwicky is going a little crazy because he held an All Spark shard. Both the Decipticons and the Autobots believe that the symbols that Sam has been seeing could lead to a new source of Energon source. Then of course they have to fight the Fallen that has been revived by Megatron. It is a fun romp. 

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

 

One of Ray HarryHausen’s creature features, this tells the story of a trip to Venus goes horribly wrong. The astronauts crash land off the coast of Sicily and on board is a small alien creature. Our atmosphere soon makes the creature to grow gigantic and he goes on a rampage throughout Italy and must be stopped. A fun fact: HarryHausen reused the model for the 1981 movie Clash of the Titans. 

    

War Games (1983)

In this scientific romp, the government builds a supercomputer to control all their military operations. Thinking that he is hacking into a new game system, teenager David, accidently starts a nuclear war and has to stop the computer before things get out of control. A fun movie even if the tech is outdated at this point. 

 

Jules Verne

 In the original books of Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mysterious Island, and In Search of the Castaways are all part of the same universe. Of these three books I have only read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island although In Search of the Castaways is on my to read list.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

This is the book in which the world was first introduced to the antihero Captain Nemo and his fantastical submarine, the Nautilus. The story follows Professor Pierre Aronnax, Ned Land, and Conseil who are sent to destroy the Nautilus, which they believe at the time to be a sea monster. When they climb into the sub they learn its true nature and go on adventures with Nemo. There is a movie adaptation from 1954 that I have never seen.

Mysterious Island

I have seen quite a few versions of Mysterious Island which is why the book surprised me so much. It takes place during the American Civil War. Cyrus Smith, Neb, Bonadventure Pencroff, Harbert Brown, Gedeon Spillett escape a southern prisoner of war camp and land on a “mysterious island.” There they meet a character from In Search of the Castaways and Captain Nemo. I was waiting the entire book for the giant monsters I had come to expect from Mysterious Island but I guess the “mysterious” part of the book came from the fact that they could find everything on this island from tobacco to nitroglycerin. There are several movie adaptations, but this blog post will only cover the ones that I have actually seen.

Mysterious Island (1961)

A movie with special effects by Ray HarryHausen, one of the best special effects geniuses at all time. This seems to be one of the first adaptations to feature the giant monsters. We also introduce women onto the island so that the young people can have a romance. The movie is a fun science fiction romp. 

Mysterious Island (2005)

In this version Captain Nemo is played by Patrick Stewart and has a much more prominent role than in the previous one. In fact he can be a little whiny when the others do not immediately fall into his plans. A good version though.

Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island (2010)

In this version the mysterious island is in the Bermuda Triangle and acts as some sort of time trap. Our characters from the original story crash land here but so do two women from modern day. They all need to find a way to escape the triangle and get back to the real world. 

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

A sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008), teenager Sean Anderson is back. With his stepfather, Hank they travel to the Mysterious Island that they learn is a combination of Treasure Island, Gulliver’s Travels and Mysterious Island. It is a modern retelling but like the earlier film, tells us that the events of the original 1874 novel happened in the past and this is more of a sequel. A good twist on the tale.

In Search of the Castaways (1962)

When Professor Paganel finds a message in a bottle from missing Captain John Grant, he and Grant’s two teenage children approach Grant’s boss Lord Glenarvan in order to try to find him. They then go on an epic quest to attempt to find Captain Grant. The film starred Hayley Mills and was always one of my favorite movies.