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The last Lemurian
George Henry Firth Scott was a Scottish-born Australian journalist and writer, generally known as G. Firth Scott. He was the son of George Firth Scott, Land Commissioner and Emma Elizabeth (née Barnes). He was born about 1862 at Golspie, County Sutherland, Scotland.
- GenresScience Fiction
339 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 2, 2017
Written in 1898 as an Australian contribution to the high imperial fantasy genre pioneered by Rider Haggard, this cannot be called great literature but it is not entirely unworthy either. It is hard to know where to begin reviewing it since it mixes and matches so many sub-genres.
The best of it is a fine characterisation of the 'solid bloke', greedy and prejuduced but also hard-working and entrepreneurial, who created modern Australia. The matiness of the working man isolated in the outback is well drawn and convincing - the book is authentically Australian.
The worst of it is probably the utterly ridiculous central adventure involving a lost race of Lemurians, evil pygmies who are the dessicated creatures of an evil vampiric queen, a princess that is cross between Snow White and Ayesha and a cavernous mise-en-scene that is sub-Merritt.
Still, even the laughable plotting involving a bunyip (an aborigine monster), oodles of gold, the heroes living up a tree, a giantess and mesmerism is nevertheless fast-paced and (guilty pleasure!) quite a lot of fun.
Between the best and the worst is a derivative tale of reincarnation that is straight out of the world of the Mummy while the Lemurian angle is simply a rather weak use of contemporary pseudo-science to give cover to what is really a late Gothic story with a twist (no spoilers on that one).
All in all, it is worth a read, especially as Firth Scott likes to tell the tale in a rollicking down to earth manner with a bare minimum of pompous Victorian verbiage. I was also pleased to read that the racism was a little bit less sure of itself than might have been expected.
The reader will get a feel for defiant and independent-minded Australian sensibilities, still British imperial at heart, and experience an interesting attempt to translate into one Australian text a series of standard literary genres (fantasy, imperial adventure, romance, romance, the gothic).
The best of it is a fine characterisation of the 'solid bloke', greedy and prejuduced but also hard-working and entrepreneurial, who created modern Australia. The matiness of the working man isolated in the outback is well drawn and convincing - the book is authentically Australian.
The worst of it is probably the utterly ridiculous central adventure involving a lost race of Lemurians, evil pygmies who are the dessicated creatures of an evil vampiric queen, a princess that is cross between Snow White and Ayesha and a cavernous mise-en-scene that is sub-Merritt.
Still, even the laughable plotting involving a bunyip (an aborigine monster), oodles of gold, the heroes living up a tree, a giantess and mesmerism is nevertheless fast-paced and (guilty pleasure!) quite a lot of fun.
Between the best and the worst is a derivative tale of reincarnation that is straight out of the world of the Mummy while the Lemurian angle is simply a rather weak use of contemporary pseudo-science to give cover to what is really a late Gothic story with a twist (no spoilers on that one).
All in all, it is worth a read, especially as Firth Scott likes to tell the tale in a rollicking down to earth manner with a bare minimum of pompous Victorian verbiage. I was also pleased to read that the racism was a little bit less sure of itself than might have been expected.
The reader will get a feel for defiant and independent-minded Australian sensibilities, still British imperial at heart, and experience an interesting attempt to translate into one Australian text a series of standard literary genres (fantasy, imperial adventure, romance, romance, the gothic).
September 18, 2025
Dick Halwood is unfairly sacked from his job managing a small sheep station in Australia. Setting out for the gold diggings in the West, on the way he meets the Yellow Hatter, a bushman who is hiding his true identity. The older man tells Dick of a legendary land in the Outback where gold is lying around in great chunks on the ground. After a difficult journey, they reach it and discover that the gold is guarded by a giant, yellow-skinned Queen and the legendary folk monster called the Bunyip, the last remnants of the legendary land of Lemuria.
This tale of adventure is clearly heavily influenced by H Rider Haggard's 'She' with its elements of romance, reincarnation and an ageless Queen ruling over a ruined, lost civilisation. The novels main issue, however, is not its derivative nature but its lack of realism. A strange criticism when dealing with this kind of tale perhaps but when presenting a fantastical story like this you need to ground in its own reality or it compromises the suspension of disbelief that the audience needs to maintain. At the very least the actions and behaviour of your characters needs to be reasonable. Unfortunately, much of what our heroes do isn't always credible.
Dick runs off in search of this lost civilisation on an apparent whim after meeting an old geezer in the bush who spins him this terrific yarn about a giant Queen and her pet crocodile monster. Ok, it's later revealed that the Hatter has hypnotised him to make him receptive to the idea, but it's still pretty hard to swallow. A short while later, the Hatter hypnotises him again and it seems like his strange powers are going to play into his true identity and be a major part of the novel's plot. Nope, they're never mentioned again, let alone explained.
This problem of our hero's odd behaviour is also reflected in the awkward structure of the story. When Halwood & the Hatter find Lemuria for the first time, they are able to come away with lots of gold without entering the city. Halwood leaves for Europe to spend his fortune, but the Hatter stays behind because he intends to go back to Lemuria having realised, after a five minute encounter, that he’s in love with the giant Queen. However, he lets Halwood take all the money, insists on it in fact, which leaves him with no way to buy the supplies that he needs to mount another expedition once Halwood has gone. Oops.
Halwood returns a year later and just happens to run into the impoverished Hatter when he gets off the boat to stretch his legs on a stop for supplies in Adelaide. They mount another expedition, this time accompanied by Bill & Oates, two strangers who have worked out that Dick & the Hatter are up to something. Coincidentally, Bill just happens to hold the key to the Hatter’s true identity, although he doesn’t know it. When they reach Lemuria again, the two new guys escape with all the gold they need almost immediately. This leaves Halwood & the Hatter right back where they were much earlier on with the plot having gone almost nowhere since. This time spent between expeditions takes up almost one third of the novel’s length!
Scott does throws in some heavy themes of destiny and fate, but you can’t escape the feeling that he’s just using these elements as an excuse for a string of outrageous coincidences and lazy storytelling. It all comes over as very contrived and the results seem lot like a first draft that needed some major revisions and more than a little polish.
Some credit for the unusual setting, though, and it is nice to see Lemuria getting some love.
This tale of adventure is clearly heavily influenced by H Rider Haggard's 'She' with its elements of romance, reincarnation and an ageless Queen ruling over a ruined, lost civilisation. The novels main issue, however, is not its derivative nature but its lack of realism. A strange criticism when dealing with this kind of tale perhaps but when presenting a fantastical story like this you need to ground in its own reality or it compromises the suspension of disbelief that the audience needs to maintain. At the very least the actions and behaviour of your characters needs to be reasonable. Unfortunately, much of what our heroes do isn't always credible.
Dick runs off in search of this lost civilisation on an apparent whim after meeting an old geezer in the bush who spins him this terrific yarn about a giant Queen and her pet crocodile monster. Ok, it's later revealed that the Hatter has hypnotised him to make him receptive to the idea, but it's still pretty hard to swallow. A short while later, the Hatter hypnotises him again and it seems like his strange powers are going to play into his true identity and be a major part of the novel's plot. Nope, they're never mentioned again, let alone explained.
This problem of our hero's odd behaviour is also reflected in the awkward structure of the story. When Halwood & the Hatter find Lemuria for the first time, they are able to come away with lots of gold without entering the city. Halwood leaves for Europe to spend his fortune, but the Hatter stays behind because he intends to go back to Lemuria having realised, after a five minute encounter, that he’s in love with the giant Queen. However, he lets Halwood take all the money, insists on it in fact, which leaves him with no way to buy the supplies that he needs to mount another expedition once Halwood has gone. Oops.
Halwood returns a year later and just happens to run into the impoverished Hatter when he gets off the boat to stretch his legs on a stop for supplies in Adelaide. They mount another expedition, this time accompanied by Bill & Oates, two strangers who have worked out that Dick & the Hatter are up to something. Coincidentally, Bill just happens to hold the key to the Hatter’s true identity, although he doesn’t know it. When they reach Lemuria again, the two new guys escape with all the gold they need almost immediately. This leaves Halwood & the Hatter right back where they were much earlier on with the plot having gone almost nowhere since. This time spent between expeditions takes up almost one third of the novel’s length!
Scott does throws in some heavy themes of destiny and fate, but you can’t escape the feeling that he’s just using these elements as an excuse for a string of outrageous coincidences and lazy storytelling. It all comes over as very contrived and the results seem lot like a first draft that needed some major revisions and more than a little polish.
Some credit for the unusual setting, though, and it is nice to see Lemuria getting some love.
June 3, 2009
This is a pretty old book and definitely feels a bit dated, but it was a fun read for those who enjoy the older lost race kinds of stories.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews