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The Master of the World (Extraordinary Voyages)

3.47 of 5 stars 3.47 · rating details · 779 ratings · 46 reviews

pubOne.info thank you for your continued support and wish to present you this new edition. If I speak of myself in this story, it is because I have been deeply involved in its startling events, events doubtless among the most extraordinary which this twentieth century will witness. Sometimes I even ask myself if all this has really happened, if its pictures dwell in truth...more

ebook, 120 pages

Published December 2nd 2010 by Pubone.Info (first published 1904)

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Sep 28, 2011 Manny rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: french, science-fiction

- Excuse me sir, you're Jules Verne, aren't you?

- And if I am?

- Well, I'd just like to say I'm a fan.

- Ah, thank you! And did you enjoy my latest book?

- Maître du monde?

- Indeed.

- Well, to be honest, I didn't think it was one of your best. No offence, sir, but I'd have done some things differently.

- And what exactly would you have done differently, young man?

- Ah, to start with I wouldn't have had just one machine that could be an airplane or a submarine or a supercar. I'd have had four or five...more

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Jan 27, 2013 James rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adventure, french-lit, science-fiction

Master of the World is a short novel published in 1904 by Jules Verne, shortly before his death. The story begins with a series of unexplained mysteries that are occurring all over the United States. On the roads of America, a road vehicle, traveling much faster than thought possible, is sighted in various areas of the country. At the same time, mysterious events are taking place on the oceans of the world. This opening is somewhat reminiscent of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea which Verne...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Russell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 24, 2011 dragonhelmuk added it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 24, 2013 Shannon Renee rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

2.5 really.

Ok. COnfession time.

I (as a rule) do not like reading comic books. I'm not a huge fan. However, I do have some students that aren't strong readers and having the visual to go with the written helps out a ton with comprehension.

I have one student that loves Jules Verne. Why? I have not figured that out. Since there were not physical copies of Master of the World at our library at school, I ordered one and this graphic novel too.

I must admit I have not read the book (well the REAL book...more

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Dec 30, 2010 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, classic, hard-sf, french-literature, owned

This was a surprisingly good page-turner. A science fiction novel written in 1904, it was one of Jules Verne's last works. It shows its age, of course, but considering it is about a combination automobile/surface ship/submarine/VTOL airplane back when the latter two were very much confined to the realm of science fiction, Verne's descriptions are almost believable. The plot is a bit weak -- so, the "Master of the World" has this wonderful transforming vehicle that can achieve the awesome speed o...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Taro Shijuukara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, french, public-domain, scifi-fantasy, war

OH MY GODS.
This children, this book is a perfect example of why you must always, always plan, proofread and edit your papers. I'm thinking either Mr. Verne wrote it with this in mind, or his son wrote it for high school English and begged dad to publish it. I wanted to be generous in it and give him at least two stars (I did love Verne's other books, seriously! Maybe it's been too long since I read them and they really are this bad)
Ok, there's adventure. Some. And the geography, well is describe...more OH MY GODS.
This children, this book is a perfect example of why you must always, always plan, proofread and edit your papers. I'm thinking either Mr. Verne wrote it with this in mind, or his son wrote it for high school English and begged dad to publish it. I wanted to be generous in it and give him at least two stars (I did love Verne's other books, seriously! Maybe it's been too long since I read them and they really are this bad)
Ok, there's adventure. Some. And the geography, well is described very, creepishly accurately. But the repetition! MY GODS THE REPETITION! I wanted to throw my Kobo across the room so many times. It reads like a those essays you did in high school English, were you pad the shit out of it, so that the padding will make your essay that you did for your high school English class will mean the word length minimum that your high school English teacher set for the essays in the class. But alas, it's totally padded up to shits that anyone in your English class can tell, and it's annoying to the teacher to have to read through all these essays with so much padding. So the padding makes it annoying. Oh yea, and then things are introduced in the middle of nowhere which have little precedence, and are padded all around and then it's a very annoying read.
So I can't be generous and I can only give one star, I really want to give more because I liked 20,000 Leagues and Journey to the Centre of the Earth, among others, but seriously this book is padded to shit like a secondary paper with minimum word length requirements and it makes it very annoying.
Spoilers, and a warning that these spoilers may spoil (though may not), and thereby be annoying:
Pre-FBI Police chief investigates fast car. Eventually meets the guy with the fast car which is a boat/submarine/car/plane. The end.
I felt not a single bit of sympathy for the protagonist nor disdain for the antagonist, Verne leaves no reason to. Any character development is marred by seriously annoying padding. It's really annoying. Remember those essays you wrote in high school? Yea, that annoying.
And then there is the conclusion that comes out of the blue, like thrown in, that really makes it a strong reminder to plan, proofread and edit your books people!

---End comments:::
NOT RECOMMENDED to anyone as their first Jules Verne book. Others are much, much better.
RECOMMENDED as required literature, for schoolchildren, in parallel to say, "scared straight" jail visits, to scare them into planning and proofreading their books so that they don't look like retarded high school essays that were padded to shit just to get the word count up that just end up annoying the teacher.(less)

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Jun 02, 2011 Jon Forisha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Perhaps it's the fact that I read this some 107 years after it was published, but I had some issues with it. For one, our American police detective protagonist doesn't feel American or very much like a police detective. His style of investigating is far more akin to a news reporter. Due to the near constant reminders of how things are different in America ("this being America, the land of gambling, then there were many gamblers present..."), it most certainly felt like a French writer trying to...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Felipe Guerrero rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Acabo de terminar este genial libro y es francamente excelente, no esperaba menos de Julio Verne para ser sincero. Trata de una maquina que alcanza casi 300 k/h en tierra, se convierte en barco, en submarino e incluso puede volar por los aires. Es increíble como es que se le pudo ocurrir algo como esto a un hombre del 1800.

El libro esta escrito en primera persona y eso es bastante bueno dado que le da un mejor sabor a esta aventura en particular.

Cien por ciento recomendado. Lo que no entiendo es...more

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Jun 09, 2013 Jim Dooley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book made a huge impact on me when I read it at a much younger age. I recall having seen the movie version on television, and I wanted to read the original. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the movie had switched titles with the second of the two books in this story. The first book, ROBUR THE CONQUERER, was the basis for the movie. MASTER OF THE WORLD was the sequel and very, very different from the movie.

When we last left Robur and his magnificent flying ship, the Albatross, they we...more

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Dec 23, 2012 Bill Bradford rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

One of the lesser known Verne works and somewhat of a follow up to" Robur the Conqueror".

Unlike "Robur", the protagonist is fairly likeable. "Robur" is almost a travelogue - The antagonist, Robur, appears quickly. In "Master", the story is more of a mystery - Robur appears at the end of the story. In this it is somewhat like Nemo's appearance in "Mysterious Island", though "Master" is certainly not up to its story-telling and depth.

I enjoyed reading it as a technological mystery. It does not hav...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Bennett rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not one of my favorite Verne novels. The author apparently did plenty of research about the United States (particularly the geography) before writing the book, but unfortunately he seemed to feel obligated to share everything he learned, such that the novel (which really ought to have been an average length short story) often feels more like a travelogue than a thriller. The dialogue is spectacularly stilted and, despite Verne's best effort, very definitely not American. Finally, the ending is s...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Anoop Chatterjee rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't know how of this adaptation is in line with the original work of Verne. At a 77 page length the story moves rapidly from one strange observation to another. From rumbling mountains to fast cars to sea monsters. It has all the elements of the fiction of yester years. The entire plot remains much to be developed and the characters do not really emerge out distinctly. The story ends abruptly with a sudden twist leaving you wanting for much more.

After this I'd really like to read the origina...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Kooshmeister rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: jules-verne, science-fiction, adventure, classic

A mysterious "something" is causing explosions and mysterious lights at the top of a mountain in North Carolina called the Great Eyrie, near the town of Morganton.

Morganton's Mayor Elias Smith is understandably worried and turns to the federal government for assistance. Chief Inspector John Strock is sent from Washington to get to the bottom of things. Or, rather, the top. Of the Eyrie, that is. He, Smith and some guides make a failed attempt to scale the pinnacle and have to return empty handed...more A mysterious "something" is causing explosions and mysterious lights at the top of a mountain in North Carolina called the Great Eyrie, near the town of Morganton.

Morganton's Mayor Elias Smith is understandably worried and turns to the federal government for assistance. Chief Inspector John Strock is sent from Washington to get to the bottom of things. Or, rather, the top. Of the Eyrie, that is. He, Smith and some guides make a failed attempt to scale the pinnacle and have to return empty handed. What, Strock wonders, is up there...?

Following the Eyrie incident, Strock returns to Washington and receives a threatening letter, posted from Morganton, warning him stay away from the Eyrie. The writer is identified only by the initials "M.O.W." For some reason, Strock elects not to tell his superior, Mr. Ward, about the letter, locking it in his desk. In the meantime, he realizes his house is being watched by two strange men.

Ward assigns him to a very bizarre case. It seems someone has been terrorizing the country using a "tri-phibian" vehicle, which can, at will, go on land as a car, in the sea as a submarine and in the air as an airship, transforming effortlessly between all three. It's going to be Strock's job to discover who is doing this and why. Various countries, including the US, publicizes offers to buy the triple-changing car and/or enlist the services of its inventor.

Another letter is sent, this time to Strock's own agency. In it, the writer refuses all offers made for either his services or his vehicle, and states flatly that he intends to take over the world with it. The letter is said to have been posted from "aboard the Terror," which Strock takes to be the name of the fantastic vehicle he's been pursuing, and is signed "Master of the World."

He quickly makes the connection between this letter and the other one, and realizes it was the Terror's inventor who was threatening him! He shows it to Mr. Ward and explains he wants to check out the Great Eyrie again. Ward, however, tells him a guy named Arthur Wells has claimed to have spotted the Terror at a place called Black Rock Creek, near Lake Erie. Strock and two policemen are sent to investigate.

Wells takes them to Black Rock where indeed they discover the moored Terror in submarine form, the captain and crew having come ashore to re-provision. An attempt to arrest them ends with one of Strock's men wounded by gunfire, and Strock himself tangled in the mooring line and dragged after the escaping Terror when its crew flees the authorities. Strock blacks out and thinks he has drowned... only to later awaken safe and sound in a cabin on board, having been rescued by the criminals.

In short order, Strock meets the Terror's captain, the so-called Master of the World, who he recognizes as none other than Robur, a madman who had years prior terrorized the skies with his heavier-than-air ship the Albatross. Robur says little to his captive during their journey back to the Great Eyrie, which is Robur's new headquarters, leaving Strock to wonder exactly what Robur is planning to do with him...

This novel, sadly, was a letdown. It's too short. And not only that, but over half of it is buildup. The early chapters of Strock in Morganton, and the mystery of the triple-form vehicle terrorizing the US, are quite interesting, but the book falls apart once Strock finds himself a prisoner aboard the Terror. In addition to rushing towards a very climactic and frankly nonsensical ending wherein Robur for some reason flies the Terror into a huge storm, he and Strock don't interact much at all. Neither he nor any of his grand total of two (!) crewmen even so much as speak to Strock for the entire remainder of the novel. It's very odd.

We learn nothing new about the Robur character we didn't already know in the earlier Robur the Conqueror, gaining no new insights into his personality and goals. And the Terror, while a great idea, is criminally underused, especially the car form; the submarine form is used the most. And the ending, as I already said, is quite abrupt; out of nowhere Robur flies the Terror into a huge storm, declaring himself "master of the world" out loud and prompting Strock to overpower his men and try to arrest him. A lightning bolt hits the ship and down she goes into the ocean. Only Strock survives, rescued by a random ship. And that's pretty much it. What a weak ending after all that buildup!

Despite this, I enjoyed it. Unsatisfying conclusion aside, it was at least a fun ride to get to the end. Definitely not one of Verne's best, though.(less)

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Jul 15, 2007 Scott rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: dummies/ people who like bad books

So, this summer I was all like "oh, it's summertime; I should read a book for fun" and then decided to start off slow because I haven't read a non-comic book in a long time, so I bought this short book by jules verne from the thrift store. Mostly I judged it by the fact it was written by someone famous, it had a cool title, and it had a cool cover. [http://web.mit.edu/~hertel/www/random...] Turns out, though, that the book sucked really badly, and has been forgotten for good reason. Jules held y...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Margaret added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2004_and_before

This is not necessarily just a children's book. A mild mystery/adventure, the language is formal and I thought the character of Inspector Strock was a little dim-witted. Probably not Jules Verne's best work but still entertaining.

From the back of the book:
"Who is making the eerie noises? What could be causing the strange glow? When Inspector John Strock begins his investigation, he discovers a trail that leads to an evil genius - a man who wants to become the Master of the World!

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Nov 01, 2009 Ilene rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Commical. It's not meant to be commical, it's meant to be suspenseful and it is somewhat. I just found that in todays world with our current understanding of technology and current attitiudes it came across commical. I like that though, it was a little like watching a child talk aout somehting they think they understand with complete confidence, but as an adult you know there are plenty of things they dont' understand. However, they're so confident that it's cute. That's how I felt abou this boo...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Jessica Hollo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I had never read this particular Jules Verne book, love his works over all, so I was eager for a preview. I don't think this one encouraged me to pick up the longer version though. It seems to similar to his others, as far as eccentric inventor, revenge on the world...especially the vehicle partially travels in water...it sounds very much like 20000 leagues, which I really do like.

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Dec 28, 2011 Patrick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-sci-fi, kindle

Not one of Verne's strongest works and it doesn't hold up under the scrutiny of time. A vehicle going so fast it can't be seen, but that speed being under 100 mph? Cars can now go over 200 mph and are a spectator sport.

The vehicle being able to go in three modes is something that eventually gets borrowed by others.

I read a Kindle edition of this story.

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Feb 17, 2013 Grace Best-Page rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: general-fiction

"You want me to write another book?! Don't you realize how old I am? I'm retired!! Oh, all right." Scribble, scribble. "Here you go."
Seriously, Verne couldn't even be bothered to look at a map. A mountain range, and one with a volcano to boot, in KANSAS. All the Americans are stereotyped. It's hilarious! Too bad it wasn't supposed to be.

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Jun 15, 2012 Benjamin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An OK book though I would not consider it one of Verne's best. It is somewhat of a sequel to Robur the Conqueror. If you read the first one, it is worth it to see the conclusion to the story. It is funny to read some of the 1860s science ideas as plot elements (not being able to see something moving at 150mph or becoming lighter as it moves faster).

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Sep 26, 2010 Larry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another good read from Verne! This one was his final novel and is actually a sequel to an earlier novel called The Clipper of the Clouds (aka Robur the Conqueror). I only discovered this when part way through I found out the name of the antagonist! But anyway I found it quite entertaining and fast paced (the e-book I have is a mere 91 pages, not the 192 pages as shown on this edition).

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Feb 19, 2013 Chris Bare rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I decided to read this after seeing the 1960s movie starring Vincent Price and (wait for it) Charles Bronson.
It turns out that the movie, in spite of it's title, is based on the book that preceded this one.
At any rate, there was way too much waiting around and reading of newspaper reports rather than action.

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Oct 26, 2012 Artie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found this on Gutenberg. I was inspired to read it after finding out that Verne spent time in North Carolina and was inspired by Table Rock, an ominous looking mountain near Morganton. It's James Bondish, a mad genius with a diabolical plot. Nice little read. Naturally it's much better than the movie that ensued.

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Jun 10, 2012 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Maybe I've read too much of this type of book lately, but I was pretty bored with this story line which is too much like Verne's more famous 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. This book is ok, but not super duper.

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Mar 07, 2011 Satishch Salam rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

More or less alike to his "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea". Just to listen to whatever the narrator is speaking, without much of an action, it appears paradoxical that Jules Verne made it.

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Feb 19, 2011 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

classic? typical? verne. a fun, quick read sci-fi adventure that made me really really want a combo plane/sub/boat/car ... a fitting conclusion of sorts to robur the conqueror.

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May 11, 2012 Menjol Almeida rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I heard the audio book because I wanted to train my listening in English, but I really liked the book. It is necessary to consider the book was written very long ago and the technology imagined by Vernes is really fantastic for that year. Certainly it was a more fantastic book when it was released, but considering this difference in years it is a good book.

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Jan 20, 2012 Peacegal rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The rather generic illustrations that are an unfortunate hallmark of this series don't improve upon a relatively weak storyline.

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Sep 08, 2009 Mark W. Cole rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this book because it was part adventure, part science fiction (for that era), and part mystery.

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About Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the genre of science-fiction. He is best known for his novels "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1864), "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1870), and "Around the World in Eighty Days" (1873).

Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before navigable aircraft and practical submarines were invented, and before any means of spa...more

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