The Master of the World by Jules Verne

Slow-moving story about fast-moving vehicle

Jules Verne spent his life writing a series of adventure novels known as his Voyages Extraordinares. Published in 1904, the year before his death, The Master of the World is the second-last of the 54 novels in that series published during Verne’s lifetime (Verne’s son wrote a few after his death). The novel is narrated by John Strock, an agent with the USA’s “Federal Police.” Some mysterious occurrences have taken place on a mountaintop in North Carolina, leading some to believe a volcanic eruption may soon take place. Strock is sent to investigate. He leads an exhibition to summit the peak, but can’t reach the top. Not long after, a superfast automobile is spotted tearing down America’s roads at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, terrifying those who encounter it. Who is this mad motorist, and how could he build such an advanced machine? Could this vehicle be related to the strange lights and sounds on that mountain in North Carolina?

This novel takes place entirely in America, but Verne doesn’t just settle for adventure in New York City or Washington, DC. As you read through The Master of the World, you can just see Verne poring over his atlas to pick out lesser-known locations from the map. For example, the plot features an automobile race across the state of Wisconsin, from Prairie du Chien to Milwaukee. In this book, Verne pays similar attention to the Great Lakes, the Atlantic Coast, and the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. On the other hand, however, he inexplicably invents a fictional lake in the nonexistent “mountains of Kansas” that is large enough to support a fishing industry and steamship traffic.

This is very slow-moving story which teases the reader in anticipation of a few reveals at the end of the novel. There are only two surprises in this novel, or intended surprises anyway, because the first one is so predictable you can see it coming as early as chapter one. This revelation has to do with the vehicle, and there’s a good chance the cover art of whatever edition you’re reading has already spoiled that surprise. The book’s second surprise is that it’s actually a sequel to an earlier Verne novel. I won’t tell you which one, because that would be a spoiler. I had not read that previous novel, but it really wasn’t necessary because here Verne spends a chapter summarizing that earlier book.

The character who calls himself “The Master of the World” is the most boring James Bond villain imaginable. Sure, he has a secret high-tech lair hidden in a remote location, and he drives a cool, technologically advanced vehicle. He doesn’t actually do anything nefarious with his vehicle, however, except drive really fast and scare people. At least Captain Nemo sunk ships with the Nautilus in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Speaking of which, the villain here seems like just a watered-down redux of Nemo, inferior in every way. One really gets the idea that here at the end of his career Verne had run out of ideas. The title itself is ridiculous, in that how can someone aspire to world domination with just one superior vehicle? Maybe if The Master had a fleet of hundreds, he might be a serious threat, but that idea is never even suggested.

I like the geographical aspect of Verne’s adventures, how he provides his (usually) informed take on various locations of the world. Even if he’s never traveled to the place he’s describing, one can always sense the joy of travel and exploration in his writing. That element of his fiction is even more prevalent in his body of work than the science fiction for which he is now famous. His adventure plots, however, are hit and miss, and The Master of the World is a hard miss. You’d be better off rereading one of his Nemo books, Twenty Thousand Leagues or The Mysterious Island.
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