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The World #1
The World Below
When George is transported to a far-future Earth, he finds himself caught between two very different species of humanity--the Amphibians, dwellers of the deeps, and the giant Dwellers, rulers of the large island that constitutes the major land mass. With the help of one of the Amphibians, George goes looking for any sign of two earlier time-travelers, neither of which has returned. His adventures among the strange flora and fauna of this brave new world constitute one of Wright's most original and compelling imaginative fictions.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1929
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133 people want to read
About the author
S. Fowler Wright
103 books12 followersSydney Fowler Wright (January 6, 1874 – February 25, 1965) was a prolific British editor, poet, science fiction author, writer of screenplays, mystery fiction and works in other genres. Most of his work is published as by "S. Fowler Wright", and he also wrote as Sydney Fowler and Anthony Wingrave.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 15, 2022
240515: later addition: just learned that the two parts of this volume could be known as short books by themselves, that share the same world, in different aspects: part one is 'the amphibians', part two is 'the dwellers', so others may have read them in this other format. mostly, looking for more work by this author... yes more than reading more ER Burroughs...
first review: reading this concurrently with a contemporaneous adventure/fantasy of the radium age: The Moon Maid by ER Burroughs. this is of the sf radium age, 1929, that is, the era between gaslight classic sf authors like verne, wells, before the rise of golden age pulps like Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke. this is interesting comparison, reading what they have in common, what they have different...
common: fantastic other worlds, perhaps too easily accepted- discovery, adventure, history and worlds, environments entirely new, radically other than that of intended readers. much fantasy, little science, framing devices of tales told. fortunate friendships with the right kind of somewhat human people. languages quickly learned or evaded by telepathy, everyman-ish here uniqueness there, reliability of first-person narrator...
different: in this, attitudes, capabilities, tendency towards action and understanding very different, for in this work the narrator is weak or incapable, both in thought and body, who is burden or otherwise pathetic, who requires superior knowledge, abilities, of the local friend. to whom a human is a lower animal, puzzling, interesting only as a dog to a human, not romantically. in burroughs, the first-person narrator is an idealized modern (therefore white) human, who is fantastically capable, athletic, intelligent (but not intellectual, and not consistently), easily beloved by local Girl (who just happens to be beautiful humanoid woman), who really does not need to understand world, mostly because fighting, killing, escaping, so forth, are all that matters...
contrasts: well this is obvious- in this one it is primarily the world that is dangerous, that must be overcome (nietzsche?), and to do this must be understood, according to our natural human limitations, and aside from to our curious local friend, we humans are basically seen as uninteresting, pathetic, flawed etc... there is a lot of room, taken happily, for satirical jabs at human pride. in Burroughs, it is as if this world is just waiting for us, in the sense all adversity, all trials, are here for our first-person narrator to overcome, to win the Girl, and it is an obvious villain we must defeat in order to rescue the love object...
intellectual, conceptual, in this book humans are revealed as not the endpoint of evolution, only a stage to overcome (nietzsche?), and there is some beauty in imagining such immediate knowledge of physical body, of having over it such remarkable, conscious, wondrous control. but this is natural for the future beings. one of whom is so impressed by the bravery of being within such limited body, and this is the only somewhat positive aspect of our contemporary human being...
much less flattering to humans... so it is not surprising you the reader have heard of ER Burroughs but not S Fowler Wright...
first review: reading this concurrently with a contemporaneous adventure/fantasy of the radium age: The Moon Maid by ER Burroughs. this is of the sf radium age, 1929, that is, the era between gaslight classic sf authors like verne, wells, before the rise of golden age pulps like Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke. this is interesting comparison, reading what they have in common, what they have different...
common: fantastic other worlds, perhaps too easily accepted- discovery, adventure, history and worlds, environments entirely new, radically other than that of intended readers. much fantasy, little science, framing devices of tales told. fortunate friendships with the right kind of somewhat human people. languages quickly learned or evaded by telepathy, everyman-ish here uniqueness there, reliability of first-person narrator...
different: in this, attitudes, capabilities, tendency towards action and understanding very different, for in this work the narrator is weak or incapable, both in thought and body, who is burden or otherwise pathetic, who requires superior knowledge, abilities, of the local friend. to whom a human is a lower animal, puzzling, interesting only as a dog to a human, not romantically. in burroughs, the first-person narrator is an idealized modern (therefore white) human, who is fantastically capable, athletic, intelligent (but not intellectual, and not consistently), easily beloved by local Girl (who just happens to be beautiful humanoid woman), who really does not need to understand world, mostly because fighting, killing, escaping, so forth, are all that matters...
contrasts: well this is obvious- in this one it is primarily the world that is dangerous, that must be overcome (nietzsche?), and to do this must be understood, according to our natural human limitations, and aside from to our curious local friend, we humans are basically seen as uninteresting, pathetic, flawed etc... there is a lot of room, taken happily, for satirical jabs at human pride. in Burroughs, it is as if this world is just waiting for us, in the sense all adversity, all trials, are here for our first-person narrator to overcome, to win the Girl, and it is an obvious villain we must defeat in order to rescue the love object...
intellectual, conceptual, in this book humans are revealed as not the endpoint of evolution, only a stage to overcome (nietzsche?), and there is some beauty in imagining such immediate knowledge of physical body, of having over it such remarkable, conscious, wondrous control. but this is natural for the future beings. one of whom is so impressed by the bravery of being within such limited body, and this is the only somewhat positive aspect of our contemporary human being...
much less flattering to humans... so it is not surprising you the reader have heard of ER Burroughs but not S Fowler Wright...
April 30, 2009
S. Fowler Wright's 1929 classic novel, "The World Below", is as enjoyable today, as it was when first published. The novel is divided into two books, the first is "The Amphibians", which was first published by itself in 1925 (1924 according to some sources). The second book continues the story started in "The Amphibians', and bears the same title as the novel, "The World Below".
The story is one of time travel, where the narrator travels half a million years into the future in an attempt to find two previous explorers who have failed to return. What he finds is a world as completely different from ours, as ours is different from when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. He encounters several new intelligent peoples whom he names: `The Amphibians', `The Killers', and The Dwellers".
As with the novels of Verne, as well as some of Wells, this story is more adventure than science fiction, but it is very enjoyable and well worth reading. This book was tied for 7th on the Arkham Survey of 'Basic SF Titles' in 1949. It was also ranked 28th on the 1952 Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll for books. Although this work is in the shadow of H.G. Wells "The Time Machine", it is still an intriguing and highly imaginative work worth rediscovering.
The story is one of time travel, where the narrator travels half a million years into the future in an attempt to find two previous explorers who have failed to return. What he finds is a world as completely different from ours, as ours is different from when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. He encounters several new intelligent peoples whom he names: `The Amphibians', `The Killers', and The Dwellers".
As with the novels of Verne, as well as some of Wells, this story is more adventure than science fiction, but it is very enjoyable and well worth reading. This book was tied for 7th on the Arkham Survey of 'Basic SF Titles' in 1949. It was also ranked 28th on the 1952 Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll for books. Although this work is in the shadow of H.G. Wells "The Time Machine", it is still an intriguing and highly imaginative work worth rediscovering.
December 23, 2018
This is a work of speculation about a future half-a-million years to come. How will our species have changed? Or will we have made it at all, and if not, what kind of sentient minds might replace us and why?
First, a few words of caution: Wright's original novel, "The Amphibians," ended abruptly, without resolution to the main goal, which was the search for missing time travelers, and never explained the fates of the main characters. In the sequel, sometimes called "The Dwellers," but also referred to as "The World Below," we finally get the unanswered questions. It reads as a direct continuation of the original story, so a reader unfamiliar with "The Amphibians" would be hopelessly lost here, because there is absolutely no exposition to reintroduce you to the ongoing plot or characters. In some editions, however, both novels are combined to make a full and complete story arc, also titled "The World Below," so be wary of what version you are getting before you begin.
The other important thing to know before you start is that this is not a piece of pulp sci-fi, as some reviewers have wrongfully assumed. If you go into this novel thinking this will be a space opera, or H. G. Wells' "Time Machine," you will be disappointed. This is written as an allegory in the same vain as Dante's Comedia.
"The World Below," at least as a sequel, is a bit weaker than "The Amphibians," mostly because the plot is much more frequently interrupted by long philosophical dialogues between the two main protagonists. Even in the midst of danger, they pause and ramble on about how they each perceive and interpret events differently. It can really pull the casual reader out of their suspension of disbelief. But I think the author meant for these long exchanges to be occurring instantaneously between two telepathic characters, so that all of the information in the dialogues really were not meant to be taking place for hours while they are supposed to be fighting monsters. Still, the dialogues do get tedious, and the novel is much more preachy for it, rather than using allegory and good story-telling to unravel the author's intent.
Nevertheless, the dialogue does contain some mind-bending examples of how the same experience can be interpreted by two different people. It is the very essence of modern dialectical behavioral therapy. The main human character does change and grow as a result of realizing how his automatic assumptions, so normal in his culture, are really alien to his amphibian counterpart. Rather than rejecting the thoughts and behaviors of the strange world around him as "other," he realizes that his own ideas are completely biased by his own limited experience. He evolves as his outlook expands, and this is the real beauty of this journey, as opposed to the common "Us vs. The Alien Others" popularized in fiction from the 30s through the 50s, especially in America.
Speaking of aliens, we are not introduced to the variety of strange creatures in this story as in the original, though I do love the giant amphibious hippo-like monsters that feature as a minor threat in this tale. Also, the Dwellers themselves are quite terrifying, yet are made strangely and eerily sympathetic.
In summary, "The World Below," when together with "The Amphibians" as a solid whole, is a brilliant and underappreciated work of science fiction that I hope more modern readers rediscover and discuss.
Fun fact, the prolific sci-fi author Brian Stableford completed Wright's intended third part of the story called "The World Beyond." I will happily review that entry when I get my hands on it.
First, a few words of caution: Wright's original novel, "The Amphibians," ended abruptly, without resolution to the main goal, which was the search for missing time travelers, and never explained the fates of the main characters. In the sequel, sometimes called "The Dwellers," but also referred to as "The World Below," we finally get the unanswered questions. It reads as a direct continuation of the original story, so a reader unfamiliar with "The Amphibians" would be hopelessly lost here, because there is absolutely no exposition to reintroduce you to the ongoing plot or characters. In some editions, however, both novels are combined to make a full and complete story arc, also titled "The World Below," so be wary of what version you are getting before you begin.
The other important thing to know before you start is that this is not a piece of pulp sci-fi, as some reviewers have wrongfully assumed. If you go into this novel thinking this will be a space opera, or H. G. Wells' "Time Machine," you will be disappointed. This is written as an allegory in the same vain as Dante's Comedia.
"The World Below," at least as a sequel, is a bit weaker than "The Amphibians," mostly because the plot is much more frequently interrupted by long philosophical dialogues between the two main protagonists. Even in the midst of danger, they pause and ramble on about how they each perceive and interpret events differently. It can really pull the casual reader out of their suspension of disbelief. But I think the author meant for these long exchanges to be occurring instantaneously between two telepathic characters, so that all of the information in the dialogues really were not meant to be taking place for hours while they are supposed to be fighting monsters. Still, the dialogues do get tedious, and the novel is much more preachy for it, rather than using allegory and good story-telling to unravel the author's intent.
Nevertheless, the dialogue does contain some mind-bending examples of how the same experience can be interpreted by two different people. It is the very essence of modern dialectical behavioral therapy. The main human character does change and grow as a result of realizing how his automatic assumptions, so normal in his culture, are really alien to his amphibian counterpart. Rather than rejecting the thoughts and behaviors of the strange world around him as "other," he realizes that his own ideas are completely biased by his own limited experience. He evolves as his outlook expands, and this is the real beauty of this journey, as opposed to the common "Us vs. The Alien Others" popularized in fiction from the 30s through the 50s, especially in America.
Speaking of aliens, we are not introduced to the variety of strange creatures in this story as in the original, though I do love the giant amphibious hippo-like monsters that feature as a minor threat in this tale. Also, the Dwellers themselves are quite terrifying, yet are made strangely and eerily sympathetic.
In summary, "The World Below," when together with "The Amphibians" as a solid whole, is a brilliant and underappreciated work of science fiction that I hope more modern readers rediscover and discuss.
Fun fact, the prolific sci-fi author Brian Stableford completed Wright's intended third part of the story called "The World Beyond." I will happily review that entry when I get my hands on it.
March 14, 2020
Picked this one up somewhere ... an old sci-fi tale printed complete as Galaxy Novel #5. It's the sequel to another story called "The Amphibians." The original copyright is dated 1930(Longmans, Green & Co.), and the copyright for this edition is 1949 So ... just started reading last night and am behind the 8-ball a bit for not having read the previous book. Oh well ...
I finally started to read this early sci-fi classic yesterday. It's not exactly a thrill a minute. Like "The Time Machine," the pace is rather stately and there's a LOT of talk about the difference between the Man and his Amphibian Female companion in the ways they think and make decisions. Still, it maintains interest adequately. Unfortunately, I haven't read the first book so I miss out on understanding some things that are referred to. This book apparently has a lot to do with the "Fate of Mankind," as does "The Time Machine," of course.
- I just saw "The Shape of Water" and see the Amphib. gal as the female version of the creature("the asset") in that movie. She also reminds of the heroine of James Schmidt's "The Demon Breed" - a very resourceful female.
- The author was a classical scholar and this is based on "The Inferno" - according to the Foreword.
Finished last night as the time traveler returns without his two companions. Very reminiscent of "The Time Machine." The ending of this story strongly implies that there'll be a third and final story, but according to wiki, though planned, it never was written. Too bad. I enjoyed this story despite it's stately pace and lack of action. There was a LOT of interesting talk of the limits of human understanding and reason, especially as compared with that of the human-like beings of the far distant future. It's hard to explain ... there was a kind of mysterious profundity to it all.
- Planet of the Apes, The Eyes of Heisenberg
- tunnels ... lots of sci-fi stories with tunnels
- 3.25* rounds down to 3*
I finally started to read this early sci-fi classic yesterday. It's not exactly a thrill a minute. Like "The Time Machine," the pace is rather stately and there's a LOT of talk about the difference between the Man and his Amphibian Female companion in the ways they think and make decisions. Still, it maintains interest adequately. Unfortunately, I haven't read the first book so I miss out on understanding some things that are referred to. This book apparently has a lot to do with the "Fate of Mankind," as does "The Time Machine," of course.
- I just saw "The Shape of Water" and see the Amphib. gal as the female version of the creature("the asset") in that movie. She also reminds of the heroine of James Schmidt's "The Demon Breed" - a very resourceful female.
- The author was a classical scholar and this is based on "The Inferno" - according to the Foreword.
Finished last night as the time traveler returns without his two companions. Very reminiscent of "The Time Machine." The ending of this story strongly implies that there'll be a third and final story, but according to wiki, though planned, it never was written. Too bad. I enjoyed this story despite it's stately pace and lack of action. There was a LOT of interesting talk of the limits of human understanding and reason, especially as compared with that of the human-like beings of the far distant future. It's hard to explain ... there was a kind of mysterious profundity to it all.
- Planet of the Apes, The Eyes of Heisenberg
- tunnels ... lots of sci-fi stories with tunnels
- 3.25* rounds down to 3*
February 14, 2016
Acabo de recordar la existencia de este libro. Fue uno de mis primeros libros de ciencia ficción, que saqué de la estantería de mamá sin saber ni qué era.
Es imposible para mí describir lo extraño que es, lo increíble de ese mundo y sus criaturas. Mis recuerdos de él me invaden en forma de imágenes más que de palabras.
Debería releerlo.
Es imposible para mí describir lo extraño que es, lo increíble de ese mundo y sus criaturas. Mis recuerdos de él me invaden en forma de imágenes más que de palabras.
Debería releerlo.
November 9, 2018
This book starts off interesting. A man gets transported to a far future earth and is met with an alien world and alien species. He describes an interesting fauna and flora and it starts off as a good classic sci fi. After he runs in to the amphibians and starts traveling with them, it goes down hill quickly. They interact with telepathy and they are proud creatures that view themselves as above violence and think for a great long time before making a decision. They find the narrator a barbarian and make great effort to remind him of that regularly. Where the book gets painful, is every decision is a philosophy discussion. Every single decision. Page after page after page the amphibian that is travelling with him is discussing why she thinks he is a barbarian and why she is different but she guesses she'll help him because of this. By the time you get through the book you are tired of it and you can't even really enjoy the story. I read through this book because it was a classic, don't. It is not worth it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2019
4.5*. I first read this as an old, old ex-library book that my father had when I was a young boy in the 1960s, and which I still have. Wordy and moralising in parts, but still a great read. Interesting that a 90 year old book can still hold the interest so well and still intrigue with new ideas and tropes.
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February 20, 2024Feo
August 8, 2025
This book is extremely dated and difficult to read. The only reason that I read it is because it is only a list of best SF books in Baird Searles' Readers Guide to Science Fiction. I don't read many books published prior to 1940, but I have read Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, Lovecraft, William Hope Hodgson and others, so I can handle dated language.
This novel is similar to The Time Machine in that the narrator, Danby, is transported to the very far future where the Earth is inhabited by the Amphibians, the Dwellers, and the Antipodeans. Danby encounters a dying Amphibian and promises to complete her mission. The amphibians are very human, but they are also similar to seals in that they can live in the sea and are covered with a short pelt. Danby then spends the bulk of the book on an adventure with one of the Amphibians with which he can communicate by thought. They cross a strange landscape encountering some bizarre beings, and ultimately, descend into the realm of the Dwellers.
This sounds marvelous in some summaries, but the book is extremely tedious. The narrative frequently stops as Danby tries to describe and/or defend some aspect of human society ranging from the use of poison to kill rivals to a defense of animal domestication for food. Generally, this has little connection to the actual events of the story.
This was nearly a DNF for me (and I don't think that I have ever entirely abandoned a book), but I stopped after Book I (This edition is an omnibus of two shorter works) to read something else. Sometimes, books are just hopelessly dated, and maybe not the good in the first place!
This novel is similar to The Time Machine in that the narrator, Danby, is transported to the very far future where the Earth is inhabited by the Amphibians, the Dwellers, and the Antipodeans. Danby encounters a dying Amphibian and promises to complete her mission. The amphibians are very human, but they are also similar to seals in that they can live in the sea and are covered with a short pelt. Danby then spends the bulk of the book on an adventure with one of the Amphibians with which he can communicate by thought. They cross a strange landscape encountering some bizarre beings, and ultimately, descend into the realm of the Dwellers.
This sounds marvelous in some summaries, but the book is extremely tedious. The narrative frequently stops as Danby tries to describe and/or defend some aspect of human society ranging from the use of poison to kill rivals to a defense of animal domestication for food. Generally, this has little connection to the actual events of the story.
This was nearly a DNF for me (and I don't think that I have ever entirely abandoned a book), but I stopped after Book I (This edition is an omnibus of two shorter works) to read something else. Sometimes, books are just hopelessly dated, and maybe not the good in the first place!
November 14, 2015
Cualquiera diría que una novela sobre un viaje al futuro lejano (500.000 años, nada menos) sería entretenida y sorprendente, pero este no ha sido el caso.
'El mundo subterráneo' es un clásico de la ciencia ficción, escrito a principios del siglo XX, al estilo 'La máquina del tiempo' del Wells. Un hombre es contratado para buscar a otros dos hombres que han desaparecido en el tiempo. Este hombre es un aventurero que nos narra cómo fue su aventura. El principio del libro es algo misterioso; no sabemos qué se encontró en su viaje. El problema viene cuando nos va contando la historia, que no es tan sorprendente ni emocionante como cabría esperar. Los capítulos son cortos, pero aun así se hace una novela muy pesada de leer. Ni comparación con la maravillosa novela de Wells.
'El mundo subterráneo' es un clásico de la ciencia ficción, escrito a principios del siglo XX, al estilo 'La máquina del tiempo' del Wells. Un hombre es contratado para buscar a otros dos hombres que han desaparecido en el tiempo. Este hombre es un aventurero que nos narra cómo fue su aventura. El principio del libro es algo misterioso; no sabemos qué se encontró en su viaje. El problema viene cuando nos va contando la historia, que no es tan sorprendente ni emocionante como cabría esperar. Los capítulos son cortos, pero aun así se hace una novela muy pesada de leer. Ni comparación con la maravillosa novela de Wells.
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