Inscrit le: 14 Fév 2007
Messages: 619
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This month, our new release is THE PEOPLE OF THE POLE (200 p., $19.95, cover by Gil Formosa) by Charles Derennes.
Derennes only wrote one true SF novel, that one, rather early in his career, although he later wrote of couple of "fantastic adventure" novels, lost cities, jungle treasures, etc.
THE PEOPLE OF THE POLE is rather amazing: two explorers, one rich man in search of adventure, the other a somewhat crazy scientist, go on an Arctic expedition aboard a super-dirigible. They come across a "hidden" valley with jungle and prehistoric beasts -- and a whole race of advanced intelligent humanoids evolved from dinosaurs!
PEOPLE OF THE POLE was written in 1907, five years before Doyle. That alone makes it a ground-breaking work in the "Lost World" subgenre. Further, unlike Doyle, Derennes assumed that the creatures in his Lost World evolved just as we did -- hence the intelligent reptilian race.
Like many other French proto-SF works of the times, the twin influences of Verne and Wells are visible; yet, Derennes is startingly original in his description of the saurian society.
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