Axel Misses His Couch, aka "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

So this will be my first review - the first book I actually finished this year. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.

To be fair, I started it in October. That's not to say the book was slow...well. Yes, I'll admit it - I found myself moving a bit slowly with this book. Sci-Fi is not my usual sort of thing, which left two challenges: either the scientific bits were TOO scientific for me, or the science is so old that we know it's wrong now.

That did not at all stop me from enjoying this book. Mostly because of the immediate connection I felt with the main character, Axel. This is because. much like me, Axel does not want to do a god damned THING. I really appreciate that sort of thing in a man. He's a scientist just like his uncle - Prof. Otto Lidenbrock, scientific weirdo about town - but he's not quite as eccentric. When his uncle thinks that he found a path to get to the center of the earth, Axel isn't too worried, because he doesn't believe him. Yet Axel's the one to translate the key document that leads the way.

So he doesn't tell his uncle. He KNOWS that Prof. Lidenbrock won't be satisfied with just finding the way. He will want to go, and Axel WILL be going with him. The last thing Axel wants is to go on a journey that could get his ass killed. So he keeps it to himself. In fact, he almost destroys the evidence. That's how badly he doesn't want to go on this stupid thing. But he's a good guy, and gives it up to Prof. Lidenbrock, knowing that he has an ace up his sleeve. His girlfriend. He tells her about this mission, thinking she'll fight for him to stay.

"No, you should go! It'll be fun!" she says, and Axel is heartbroken. His supportive woman has thrown his life into chaos. How dare she. He wanted to be told no. I appreciate that because I too want someone else to tell me I can't go somewhere or do something that I didn't really want to do in the first place. If I can say, "I wanted to go, buuuuut my fiancée/boss/cat/etc says I can't," I'm happy.

So they pack up and go to Iceland. Axel spends a good amount of the time mentioning how handsome various big strong men are, which, mood. The entire time, Axel is back and forth. Half the time he wants to be at home in sweats watching Forensic Files, half the time he is thrilled to be part of something that could change the world. As someone filled with equal parts anxiety and wanderlust, it's nice to see a character who wants to like his passions but also wants to...y'know, live.

The ending was odd, I'll admit. Once I had put the book down and thought about it for a little while, however, I realized that the ending fit in perfectly with the tone of the rest of the book. It seemed rushed at the end, but the story being told was never about the destination. It was about the journey. (I thought about this mild joke for about 20 minutes before deciding that while it's not funny and probably not even a joke, I personally liked it.)

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I definitely plan on reading it again at some point - not soon, but eventually - and I will grab another Verne when I get the chance. This book was unexpectedly hilarious. I had to look up a LOT of new fancy words while reading, that I will now pepper into my vocabulary when I feel like being pretentious. I also found the entire story to be a look into human nature and spirit. I found it endearing and fantastic that this book, originally published in 1864, in French, defining a genre I usually don't care about, had characters that seemed so human. The professor's excitement at something brand new yet validating, Axel's desire to please his family while fulfilling his own desire, even down to strange, stoic Hans, a man who was in it to get that bread and just did his job with his head down...I know all of them, and have been all of them.

Highly recommended for fans of sci-fi, science (or what it was once thought science could be), history, dry humor, and of course, classics.

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