Jules Verne Translations That Don't Stink

Shortly after I graduated from college R. Talsorian published their fantasy steampunk RPG, Castle Falkenstein. Having missed out on Space: 1889 when it first came out this was my first steampunk RPG, though I had been exposed to the genre by Gibson and Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (a novel which, though I though I found the setting compelling, I did not particularly care for - must reread some day).

Jules Verne was one of the authors in the inspirational reading section of Castle Falkenstein. Heck, the game also made him into France's scientific advisor, having him responsible for their massive Verne Cannons which formed a sort of nuclear deterrent. 

With that in mind, one Sunday afternoon I was at a Barnes & Noble bookstore my new girlfriend (now my wife of nearly 16 years!).  On a whim I decided to pick up a Jules Verne novel. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That night I started reading it, never having read any of his works before but having vague memories of the Disney adaptation of that work. I did not care for it at all. I found it boring, the dialogue awkward. Trying again - at least the Verne books were cheap - I picked up A Journey to the Center of the Earth. (I just realized this was about a year before amazon.com went online - you pretty much had to go to bookstores for your books. It was a nice bonus that Barnes & Noble had coffee bars...)

Move forward to early 2001 when I pick up GURPS Steampunk. It too talked about the awesomeness of Jules Verne. However it also specified which translators you should look for. Curious, I picked up the Naval Institute Press' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea/Completely Restored and Annotated translated by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter. And it made a huge difference. I learned what a shoddy job the original 19th century translator had done. Dialoge compressed into summaries. Scientific research done by Verne horribly mistranslated. Much of Verene's humor removed. And anything offense to the United Kingdom removed or changed. With that in mind I began pursuing newer translations of his works. I learned what a masterpiece From the Earth to the Moon was and I journeyed up The Mighty Orinoco River. I haven't come close to completing my reading of Verne but I have made a habit of grabbing good translations when I find them so I have them in my library. With the advent of ebooks many of his books are also available digitally but that presents a problem - sites like amazon.com and bn.com tend to separate the newer translations from the old ones, meaning you have to go through a lot of work to find the right one. Here's a hint - if it is free or 99 cents it is probably not a good translation.

You could run an excellent 19th century game using Verne's works as your primary inspiration. Heck, every once in a while I wonder if it'd be worth it to learn French to read them in their original tongue. 

I'd like to offer people some tools to find the better translations. First, there are some specific translators to look for. The two who translated 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea above, Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter, are two of the best Verne translators, sometimes alone and sometimes as collaborators. Other translators to look for include Stansford Luce, Peter Schulman, Edward Baxter, Sidney Kravitz, and William Butcher. 

There are three publishing houses who have been putting out a number of excellent Jules Verene translations. First is Wesleyan University Press' Early Classics of Science Fiction. They have published translations for:

• The Begum's Millions (Verne, Jules, Stanford L. Luce, trans; Arthur B. Evans, ed; Peter Schulman, intro and notes)
• The Mighty Orinoco (Verne, Jules; Luce, Stanford, trans; Evans, Arthur B., ed.; Miller, Walter James, intro. & notes)
• Invasion of the Sea (Verne, Jules. Edward Baxter, trans.; Arthur B. Evans, ed. and introd.
• The Mysterious Island (Verne, Jules. Sidney Kravitz, trans.; Arthur B. Evans, ed.; William Butcher, introd. and notes.)
• The Kip Brothers (Verne, Jules. Stanford L. Luce, trans. Arthur B. Evans, ed. Jean-Michel Margot, intro and notes)

The University of Nebraska Press' Bison Frontiers of Imagination is another source of several excellent Jules Verene translations. Unlike Wesleyan University's titles I have found a number of these as ebooks. Their catalog includes: 

• The Golden Volcano (translated by Edward Baxter)
• The Chase of the Golden Meteor
• Lighthouse at the End of the World  (translated by William Butcher)
• The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz (translated by Peter Schulman)
• The Meteor Hunt (translated by Frederick Paul Walter and Walter James Miller)

The third publishing house is Oxford University Press' Oxford World Classics. Their website is a bit confusing but these are readily available at most online bookstores (with ebooks for some of them as well). All were translated by William Butcher.

• The Extraordinary Journeys: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (appears to be out of print)
• The Extraordinary Journeys: Around the World in Eighty Days
• The Adventures of Captain Hatteras 
• The Extraordinary Journeys: Journey to the Centre of the Earth 

There are also some translations which don't fit into a series but are still worth picking up. I'll provide links to the US amazon.com store but they tend to be available elsewhere:

• The Annotated Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon (translated by Walter James Miller) - sadly out of print but usually not too hard to find
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea/Completely Restored and Annotated (translated by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter) - from the Naval Institute Press
• Amazing Journeys (translated by Frederick Paul Walter) - the link is to the Kindle version, available physically as well. This is an omnibus containing translations by Walter of Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, Circling the Moon, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, and Around the World in 80 Days.
• Paris in the Twentieth Century (translated by Richard Howard) - a fairly recent find, this is I believe the only English translation

Robin Williams travels through time and takes Jules Verne for a trip...

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Frank Herbert's Dune

I'd first heard of Dune when I was in middle school. There was some magazine distributed at our school which described the book and the upcoming movie - I believe this was in 1983 - I do remember it was a while until the movie finally came out. I also remember it was one of those movies I wanted to see in the theaters but never managed to. My parents got me a movie tie-in novelization (same text as the classic novel but with a cover from the film) but I never managed to get too deep into it.

Several years later, during my sophomore year of college at UConn, I was looking for a new book to read at the co-op. At the time my taste in fiction wasn't too spectacular, being dominated by Star Trek novels and the novels TSR put out. Still enjoyed Stephen King, though he was unfairly in the ghetto of "genre writers". Wanting something different, I decided to splurge on a new copy of Dune, my original copy some sixty miles away at my parents' house. This time it truly clicked for me. Not only that but it unleashed a fury of classic science fiction and fantasy reading. I devoured all six of the Dune novels in short order and then worked my way to Asimov, Heinlein, Bradbury, etc. During my fifth year (my time at UConn stretched out due to taking time off to co-op) I took a science fiction class which exposed me more writers. But it all started with Dune.

With that introduction, let's take a look at the novel itself. It is a coming-of-age story, about Paul Atreides, heir-apparent to his father Duke Leto Atreides' fief of Caladan. As the book begins Duke Leto Atreides has been granted a great prize, the fief of Arrakis, also known as Dune. Arrakis, a desert planet, is the only place in the galaxy where the spice melange, which grants prophetic visions and is required for there to be any hyperspace travel. The Atreides are to replace their enemies, the Harkonnen family.

Duke Leto correctly recognizes it is a trap, one designed to destroy him and his house but he takes his family there nonetheless, the alternative being becoming a rogue house. He is also determined to succeed. It is not giving much away to reveal that he fails in this effort. However, owing to his training and generations upon generations of selective breeding, his son Paul manages to survive and becomes one of the natives of the desert, the "fremen".

It's best not to discuss much more of the plot. Rather it is the setting we will discuss. This is an old, very old empire.It takes place at least ten thousand years in the future to judge by the dates being used. The setting is shaped by the "Butlerian Jihad" which, per the book's glossary, was:

[T]he crusade against computers, thinking machines, and conscious robots begun in 201 B.G and concluded in 108 B.G. Its chief commandment remains in the O.C. [Orange Catholic] Bible as "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind."

Everything about the setting is informed by this Jihad. Most have translated this crusade as a war against machine overlords and as I understand it the novels written by Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson took this approach. I don't know if this was Frank Herbert's intent but I myself always viewed this rebellion as more being an effort to reclaim humanity from its dependence on computers and machinery - something which might involve quite a bit of fighting if there were to be any disagreement on the matter.

Either way, the end result was a great evolution in humanity. It saw the creation of the Spacing Guild, a group who had a monopoly on space travel, relying on extensive physical and mental training and the prescience granted by the spice melange to navigate through hyperspace. It also saw the Bene Gesserit, a mystical sisterhood that was founded on physical and mental training that allowed them to become the "witches" of the setting. Without computers beings known as mentats came to replace them, humans trained in logic to become human computers. This is a very human book, with no alien civilizations orsuper-computers. As we'll see, this is not a technologically-impaired civilization but rather one which rejects technology that does what a thinking human can do.

The weaponry of the setting is both primitive and advanced. There are weapons such as atomic weaponry (its use forbidden by convention) along with lasers ("lasguns"). However the lasguns are near-useless as the main defense consists of shields which can block any fast attack - but a laser shot will create a nuclear explosion This has led to knife-fighting with specialized techniques -  a fast attack will be blocked by the shield, requiring attackers use slowness to penetrate the shield.


I've just touched the tip of the society. You've also got feudal houses, assassins, religious crusades, giant sandworms, elite savage warriors, stillsuits to reclaim all of a body's moisture in the desert, etc.


Though Frank Herbert is not one of D&D's "Appendix N" (inspirational reading) authors, he is still a fantastic inspiration for such games. Hopefully my description gives the impression that Dune and its sequels contain excellent material worth mining for ideas. And one need not use it for science fiction gaming - with its feudal elements and near-magic powers of the Bene Gesserit and Spacing Guild it would not be much of a stretch at all to borrow much of it for a fantasy game. And even without mining anything specific Dune gives an excellent example of what sort of fun could be had by members of a noble house. It doesn't appear in the recommended reading section for Adventurer Conqueror King System but I think it fits in with the other works there perfectly.

There's a lot of controversy about the quality of the later books in Frank Herbert's Dune series and especially for the novels written by his son Brian Herbert with Kevin J. Anderson. My own opinion is Dune is probably the best of the novels and that I personally found the next two novels, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, to also be of excellent quality. I found the remaining three novels, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, and Chapterhouse: Dune, to still be enjoyable but not quite up to the level of the first three. I'm definitely on the side of the fence with those who did not enjoy the later works by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.

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H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth

I made my first attempt at reading H.P. Lovecraft in the summer of 1989, between high school and college. I was taking a pre-calculus class that summer to allow me to start my engineering studies at the University of Connecticut with that prerequisite met. It was an awfully boring class as I'd taken non-AP pre-calculus and calculus in high school (though regretfully didn't do well enough to test out of it). Summer classes were rather long and had an intermission. I usually brought along a book to read during break in case I wanted to be alone. One of the authors I brought along was H.P. Lovecraft.

The first few stories I read didn't grab me too much. I wasn't much into Lovecraft's evocative descriptions at the time, wanting more to get to the point. Then one afternoon I came upon the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth. That was the story that got me hooked.

For those unfamiliar with the work (and as usual I will stay clear of  big spoilers as much as possible) it deals with the young narrator taking a tour of New England on the cheap. While in Newburyport (a real Massachusetts town) he learns of nearby town of Innsmouth (a fictional town) which the residents of Newburyport view with superstition and dread. Researching Innsmouth he learns how the town had once been wealthy but had fallen upon hard times and decides to visit it.

The visit to the town is where the story truly comes to its own. The town itself just isn't right. Boarded up houses, natives with a strange "Innsmouth look" - a fishy look to them. Touring the town he learns much of the town from an out-of-town boy who works in the local supermarket and from the town drunk. He learns how Innsmouth merchant Obed Marsh made bargains with undersea creatures and as time goes on the price they must pay for what they get from these creatures, known as the Deep Ones, increases.

The boy had planned on spending just the afternoon in Innsmouth but the only bus that can take him out has "broken down", forcing him to stay in a hotel in Innsmouth. Needless to say the townspeople are on to him and what follows that night is Lovecraft at the peak of his powers as he weaves a tale of horror with the townsfolk coming after the narrator and the narrator engaging in an effort to escape, sending him in a chase throughout the hotel and out into the town. Here is where Lovecraft's wordy, evocative style pays off. The narrator sits in his bed while the natives make their first attempts to get to him as the doorknob is attempted and then the narrator hears a scuffle in the hallways around him. Lovecraft builds up the tension slowly, allowing it to seep into his readers.

Every year or two I find myself rereading this story. During a vacation in New Hampshire I once found myself in a hotel that greatly resembled the hotel that Lovecraft portrayed in Innsmouth. Thankfully it was in a town north of the White Mountains and far from the coast, but it still brought back some chilling memories.

Now being a Massachusetts resident, a few years ago I had reason to visit Newburyport, a Massachusetts town along the North Shore. Lovecraft described Innsmouth as a "considerably twisted" version of Newburyport. While the residents were friendly and lacked any "Innsmouth look", the layout of the town was quite different from what I was used to in the western suburbs of Boston. Lots of narrow, twisty streets. The presence of the ocean felt inherent to the character of the town.


So for members of the gaming community, what does this story bring? Obviously if you are playing in or running a Call of Cthulhu game it is in your list of must-reads. But it is also an excellent work for those running any horror or fantasy game. It even is workable for science fiction, considering some of the strange alien planets visited in Star Trek or Doctor Who. The techniques Lovecraft uses for building the horror and, more importantly, dread, make for excellent study. Like in the films Alien or Jaws, Lovecraft takes his time building things up before revealing the full horror. In a role-playing game I believe this to be an especially important skill. In my experience genuine horror is a difficult feeling to evoke in a gaming session but dread is something that can be carefully cultivated and Lovecraft illustrates how to do so in a masterful fashion.

I believe that in fantasy games like D&D The Shadow Over Innsmouth provides special inspiration. There are a number of aquatic humanoid monsters that can be made a great deal creepier when viewed through the lens of the Deep Ones. Easily coming to mind are the lizard men, the Sahuagin, and the Kuo-toa. The Kuo-toa are clearly inspired by the Deep Ones and in later incarnations of the game the resemblance increases. Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG includes the Deep Ones themselves in their list of monsters.

The idea of a town like that of Innsmouth lends itself for a variety of fantasy adventures, from dealing with the cult infiltrating the town to an undersea adventure to the home of the Deep Ones.

If you've not read this story, read it. And if you're read it, it is in my opinion well worth a reread.

I believe The Shadow Over Innsmouth has entered the public domain and can be found at the H.P. Lovecraft Archive and is found in a variety of Lovecraft collections. I am also fond of the audiobook version as read by Phil Reynolds.

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Geek Gateway Drugs of the 70s and 80s

For most people my age (I'm 40) and older, their gateway drug into fantasy was  the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I was a little bit different, for me it was C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. When I was in kindergarten my family was in the process of moving from upstate New York to Connecticut. During the transitional period my father spent his time in Connecticut while my mother and I lived with my grandparents in Brooklyn, New York.

My mother and grandfather often took me to the Brooklyn Public Library - I think it was the Sheepshead Bay Branch but I could be mistaken. I remember always being drawn the collection of Narnia books they had - I seem to recall they had them on their own special display - though at the time they were a little above my reading level, though I was an early reader.

During that same period and before I got around to reading the Narnia books (which definitely did happen) another geek milestone occurred - the release of Star Wars (Just Star Wars. No Episode IV. No A New Hope.) During the summer that summer after I finished kindergarten my uncle took me to see it. I was, to say the least, stunned. I think I saw that movie a gazillion times that summer. When we moved to Connecticut in July one of the first things my parents did was take me to see it in the local theater- a single screen theater that sadly did not last much longer and became a roller rink.

With no VCRs, DVDs, or streaming when Star Wars left the theaters there was no way to watch it again. There was a narrated audio cassette version of the film my uncle got me which included dialogue and music from the film that I listened to over and over. (I still remember you'd flip it over as the Millennium Falcon  was captured by the Death Star). When the Star Wars storybook came out a year later I was all over that. I suspect that's the source of my being convinced I saw Biggs in the movie as I'm pretty certain he was featured in it and I read that book two gazillion times.

There was also a Scholastic Star Wars book which came out about real space travel. I can't find a link to it by scouring the internet so it must have been pretty obscure. It came out in the late 70s or early 80s and was the same format as the storybook above. It had information about the Viking probes, the space shuttle, O'Neill Colonies, Voyagers 1 & 2, etc. This is probably what got me interested in "real" science and put me on the path to becoming an engineer.


Inevitably, I did rediscover the Narnia books. My parents used to go to a flea market and I'd usually be able to get a matchbox car out of the deal. One time I found someone selling all the Narnia books and convinced my parents to let me get them (oddly, something I've noticed both as a parent and a child - parents are a lot more willing to part with money for books than for matchbox cars.) I of course loved the magical world of Narnia - though like many, not a huge fan of the final book. I'm guessing my elementary school self was not quite up for a fantasy version of the Book of Revelations. As an aside, I enjoyed the books as a fantasy story vs. the Christian metaphor they were written as, something I became aware of as I grew older.

Take your d20. Use it. Give in to your geekiness.

The stage was now set for the final step into the world of geekdom. I think it was in 4th grade that my next door neighbor got a copy of the D&D Basic rules for Christmas. Their family found it a rather confusing game. As I flipped through it I thought it was amazing. Confusing too mind you. "So big numbers are good. Except when you are rolling for thief abilities or for AC. And levels can refer to spells, characters, dungeons...".  But in short order I managed to get a copy of it - this was at the beginning of the D&D popularity surge of the 1980s. I still have a fond place in my heart for my first version of the D&D Basic set with the Erol Otus cover featuring the sorceress and warrior fighting the green dragon.

I do wonder what kids today use as their gateways. I have a hunch that the younger adults first encountered fantasy through the Harry Potter novels. With my two daughters (aged 9 and 6 with birthdays soon approaching for both) I've noticed that both have eagerly consumed the Barbie Fairtopia series of movies and books. And as they grow older there's the Twilight series (not if I can help it - Buffy yes, Edward no) and books like The Hunger Games. There's now RPG tie-in novels, something that did not exist when I first entered the hobby - and something of a mixed blessing, given the uneven quality of them. I thought they were awesome in high school though having flipped through a few in my adulthood I find they have not aged as well as Narnia or Middle Earth...

One thing I've noticed is the whole "geek culture" is a lot more mainstream than it was when I was a kid. Oh where were the trendy geek girls back when I was in high school...



Note -Originally I'd planned on using Saturday postings for more "real-world" issues. But I ran into the difficulty of making such topics fit thematically with the rest of the blog. So for the time being I'm planning on making Saturdays more of an open topic day which may overlap with other themes and also may touch on real world issues.

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