Subject: Retrograde Reviews--Philip Jose Farmer:The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Date: 7 Jun 1994 08:09:30 GMT

Philip Jose Farmer: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg

A Retrograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey

This book is somewhat after the style of Farmer's Doc Savage and Tarzan
novels.  As the title implies, it concerns itself with the protagonist of
Verne's _Around The World In 80 Days_, with the premise that the story did,
for the most part, take place as Verne described.  It even goes so far as
to come up with explanations for things that were most likely just
sloppiness on Verne's part.

The simple explanation for most of these anomalies is just that Fogg is on
one side of a long way between the Eridaneans and the Capellans on Earth. 
There are, actually, very few of the original alien races left, but the
humans they've raised consider themselves equivalent.  Each side paints the
other as horrors, and claims that once they rid the world of the others,
they can bring Earth to a golden age.  (One is not necessarily convinced of
their sincerity, though.)

Fogg himself, his 'man' James Forster, Forster's replacement Passepartout,
Andrew Stuart (Fogg's whist partner and the one who proposes the eighty-day
jaunt), and Aouda (the woman they rescue in India) are all Eridaneans.  Fix,
the detective who attempts to arrest Fogg for the robbery he allegedly
committed before his departure, is a Capellean.  His master behind the
scenes (whom Verne does not mention in _80 Days_, but in another of his
novels) is the Capellean Captain Nemo.

The events in _80 Days_ are not altered appreciably--the premise is that
Verne was, for the most part, telling the truth.  They are summarized for
those who haven't read the book (I confess, I myself have only seen the TV
version), but most of the meat of the story takes place while Verne assumed
his characters are sleeping or engaged in other harmless activities.

It's a diverting tale, especially if one has read the original book, but
that isn't entirely necessary.  If you're a fan of Captain Nemo, then you
may not like the picture this book paints of him, but this edition, at
least, includes an essay by H.W. Starr, a Baker Street Irregular, whose
thesis is that Sherlock Holmes's nemesis Professor Moriarty is none other
than Captain Nemo at a later age.

It may not be in the front rank of Farmer's fiction, but it's readable.
Were I to rank it on a scale of ten, I'd give it about a 6.5.

%A Farmer, Philip Jose
%T The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
%I Daw Books
%C New York
%D 1973
%P 191 pp.
%O Paperback, USD0.95

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