Michael Strogoff

This is rather a different Jules Verne novel from any others of his I have read, being set entirely within Russia and featuring mostly Russian characters (with the exception of an English and a French journalist who are there merely for comic relief). The title character is a courier for Tsar Alexander II (the Tsar who liberated the serfs in 1861), who must make a desperate journey into a Siberia which has been invaded by the Tartars, aided by a Russian traitor. While the novel starts a bit slowly, the second half is exciting with a number of dramatic and some quite shocking episodes. The ending felt a bit rushed and was as cliched as might be expected. Overall, a good read.

This was an amazing book by Jules Verne. Not only was I taken along for the wild ride across Russia with all of the things it had to offer, but the twist I did not see coming and it managed to propel me towards the climax of the story and imbue the ending with so much grandeur. This is a darker Verne book, yet one that will surely be remembered and that I felt had a very strong plot-line, characters, and descriptions. Overall, a great novel!

4.5 stars!

It is the 19th century. Michael Strogoff is a courier for the Czar, and is tasked with bringing a letter to the Czar's brother in Siberia. This is a very long journey, and there is peril, as there have been uprisings along the way. Michael is travelling under a pseudonym.

It was ok. I found sections more interesting that included the women characters in the book: Nadia, who Micheal meets part-way; she is also travelling to Siberia; and his mother, who he is supposed to avoid, so as not to reveal who he really is.

What I like most about Verne's books is the way in which they may be read simultaneously as pure adventure fiction and as curious historical artifacts. The most famous examples of the second type are his science fictions works for both their astounding clairvoyance and fascinating misjudgments (like cities powered by compressed air), but in Michael Strogoff there is a perfect example of a different sort. Here we see a story whose setting is a giant stereotype. With the benefit of retrospect it's interesting to see Verne glorifying the Czarist state as one worthy of the protagonist's single-minded devotion, rather than as the brutal, regressive autocracy it is now well-known to have been. Verne's version of Imperial Russia is as a bulwark against a faceless horde of murderous, half-savage "Tartars". Again, with historical perspective a present-day reader almost can't help but envision this same story flipped to the alternate point of view, with the villains recast as a subjugated indigenous people struggling to regain self-determination from a distant overlord.

Worth a read for its typically compelling Jules Vernian episodes as well as for its portrait of--not simply one man's, but an entire era's--ethnic prejudices.