Nemo Rising

by C. Courtney Joyner

An exciting sequel to the Captain Nemo adventures enjoyed by millions in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.Sea monsters are sinking ships up and down the Atlantic Coast. Enraged that his navy is helpless against this onslaught and facing a possible World War as a result, President Ulysses S. Grant is forced to ask for assistance from the notorious Captain Nemo, in Federal prison for war crimes and scheduled for execution. Grant returns Nemo’s submarine, the infamous Victorian Steampunk marvel Nautilus, and promises a full Presidential pardon if Nemo hunts down and destroys the source of the attacks. Accompanied by the beautiful niece of Grant’s chief advisor, Nemo sets off under the sea in search of answers. Unfortunately, the enemy may be closer than they realize...At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Steampunk, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Alternate History, Historical Fiction

361 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

is a screenwriter and director with over 25 produced movies to his credit, including the cult films PRISON starring Viggo Mortensen, CLASS OF 1999 directed by Mark Lester, and the new RETURN OF CAPT. NEMO. A graduate of USC, Courtneys first produced screenplay was THE OFFSPRING starring the legendary Vincent Price. His other scripts have included TV movies for CBS, (DISTANT COUSINS), the USA Network (BETRAYAL, GUILTY AS CHARGED), and Showtime (WHITE RUSH). He has written action films (VIETNAM, TEXAS and NAUTILUS) as well as a number of films for Charles Band's Full Moon company, released by Paramount, including installments in the very successful PUPPET MASTER series and TRANCERS 3 starring Academy Award winner Helen Hunt and Tim Thomerson. He also directed this film, as well as the H.P. Lovecraft adaptation, THE LURKING FEAR. Staying in the horror vein, Courtney co-wrote all 13 episodes of the series WILLIAM SHATNER'S FRIGHT NIGHT for the SyFy Channel.

As a film journalist, his articles have appeared in WILDEST WESTERNS, ROUND-UP, FANGORIA, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, and others. He has written chapters for such non-fiction books as JOHN FORD A LIFE IN FILM, THE CINEMA OF H.P. LOVECRAFT, THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR, and DUKE: WERE GLAD WE KNEW YOU.

His latest movie book is THE WESTERNERS INTERVIEWS WITH ACTORS, DIRECTORS AND WRITERS, which was published by McFarland in November to excellent reviews. He will be following it with a new book of interviews, VOICES OF THE WEST.

His short story Bloodhound was included in Express Westerns' FISTFUL OF LEGENDS, and his story Two-Bit Kill will be appearing in the new anthology LAW OF THE GUN from Kensington in November. He is currently finishing his first western novel, TRACKING THE DEVIL.

Courtney is a member of the Western Writers of America, the Horror Writers Association, and The International Thriller Writers. He lives in Los Angeles.

"

Reviews

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede]

DNF around 60%!

Love the cover. However, the writing style of the book just didn't rock my boat. I struggled with the book from page one and hoped I would come over my problem with the book. Instead, it sucked my will to live so I decided to stop before I died of boredom.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 2 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

This should probably be classified horror rather than science fiction since the author seems to take great pleasure and with particular emphasis on setting up or visiting people being brutalized or dying messily. Torture-porn enthusiasts will find nirvana here but for the rest of us, there wasn't much to enjoy. The writing was particularly stilted and disenfranchising with protagonists spending most of the book making statements rather than actually living or breathing. Add in an incredibly dreary mood of 'everyone is basically brutal/vicious, even when they supposedly have high minded altruistic values' and you get a reading experience more likely to make you clinically depressed than engaged.

Story: Nemo has been captured by the US Government and is held in a horrific prison in Virginia. When all ships coming to the US area are brutally ripped apart by various types of 'giant monsters' (flying manta rays, squids, etc.), Nemo is freed by President Ulysses Grant on the condition hetakes the Nautilus out again and finds the monsters. At stake is the likelihood of world war since all the foreign powers believe the US is behind the sinkings.

To understand the level of depressing brutality, the first 10% has vivid descriptions of how sailors are chewed up, skewered, drowned, or otherwise have limbs removed as they are crawling away to (never) escape death. Then we get to Nemo in prison where he is being systematically tortured along with the other inmates - just because. Grant doesn't care - just demands that Nemo get back in the Nautilus or he hangs. Nemo wants justice for the prisoners but takes bullets calmly while standing there - just because he expects no less brutality from the world. And meanwhile Nemo himself killed thousands to try to stop people from warring more, which doesn't make a lot of sense logically but paints him as a idealistic zealot. Cut away to another few pages of another ship, this time from Italy, with shipmates being ripped apart or having half their body eaten off while still alive. Then back to Nemo coming to the Nautilus, which is in poor state, and being depressed that the US couldn't even bother to keep a treasure like the ship repaired or in good working order.

If we had characters we could understand or get behind, I think I would have enjoyed this more. But the writing is stilted and the characters are so underwritten as to be cardboard. More frustratingly, I had to keep rereading whole passages to understand what was going on with the story. The segues were nonexistant and the story bounced around everywhere without really landing on any one person or subject.

Inexplicably, the author had the foreign sailors giving dialogue in their own language but thinking in English, which made their passages even more confusing (and put the focus completely on the horrifying death scenes). I'd like to say that this is gritty in a good way or even as engaging as a bloody Tarentino story. But honestly, this is Tarentino gore without the personable characters.

For me, I've always found Nemo to be a fascinating and highly nuanced character. But none of that is here and for that reason, I found this book particularly disappointing. I think Moore got Nemo best in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: a man disgusted by the imperialism/colonialism of the world and fighting back against it. In Nemo Rising, he is a superhuman who doesn't feel pain and just makes a lot of pronouncements and commands. He, like everyone else in the book, never really thinks or has depth of emotions.

Baen definitely has an audience for these types of stories and I feel that those who enjoy John Ringo's Black Tide Rising will find more of the same here. It's definitely a very macho book that pretty much ejected Verne's Victoriana in favor of Tarantino shock value gore and violence.

[Sam Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd like to start this review with saying that I read the bad reviews here and have one thing to say: what book did they read?! C. Courtney Joyner's "Nemo Rising" was terrific! It gave an affectionate and knowing nod to the classic writing style of the original "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" but updated its pleasures for today's genre-savvy audiences. The period understanding was spot-on and immersive in how people spoke and acted along with the details of the buildings, land and clothing. Many who read the book on this site cited the destruction and violence as off-putting. Did you look at that cover with the Nautilus being crushed by a steampunk mechanical squid? You were expecting hearts and kisses? The original novel was about Captain Nemo sinking the world's warships across the ocean with his fantastic submarine in a bid to end war. This book takes up with Nemo in prison and set to hang. President Grant, guiding the United States after many war battles, five million Americans killed and Lincoln assassinated makes a deal with this "devil" to avoid yet another war. It was a violent time as accurately reflected in the book's pages exploring the people molded by that destructive upheaval. And this book deals with a tormented Nemo trying to end that strife but is reluctantly forced to fight a new unknown menace employing bizarre mechanical creatures that rival his own. No spoilers here but Joyner has crafted a wonderful sequel to Jules Verne's epic science fiction story that still inspires the steampunk mania that continues to this day. The writing is filled with excellent characterizations from featured to minor roles and Joyner, after a leisurely paced beginning (to fix the who, where and why), shoots off like a torpedo into the thrills and adventure that you expect from a science fiction ACTION story. People who have actually read the work of Verne, Wells, Doyle and Burroughs will love this book and its updating of Verne's legendary character and hope that it is the start of a series of books about the tortured genius Captain Nemo and his amazing submarine, the Nautilus.

[Alain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't have a clue to what I just read. Book cover certainly had a lot of potential. Occasionally reads like a movie script.

The final act (literally) could not justify the book's initial glacial pacing, bizarre characterizations, multiple viewpoints of the many players (both relevant & not) & near-boring info-dumping. My head still hurts.

Oh well....recommended to the brave.

[Andi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Will write longer review. But man, this boring was confusing and boring and Nemo was way too bitchy. What the hell.

Okay. A little bit of added detail on this review.

As a 7 year old - 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea was my favorite Disney movie growing up. I lived and breathed for that film. Ask anybody. I did a diorama of the squid scene as a book report, since I had a read a children's version of the book. (I read the actual book years later, as you can tell.)

Nemo is probably one of my favorite anti-heroes. Is he a villain? Is he a hero? Is he both? He is so complex that you could write so many different thesis regarding him and you'd come back with different answers. He doesn't fall in one category, and he is a man of charisma, depth, intellect. Think of if you took Ahab and Sherlock Holmes and mixed them together.

I mean, the guy who penned this said he was going to make this into a film but he took the screenplay and turned it into a book. Right-o. Okay.

I liked the girl? That's all I can and will give it. Everything else was one, huge, corkscrew mess and I want to know if the guy read the same book as I did? This sucker had the most bitchiest Nemo I have ever read. Low and behold, his favorite Nemo was the Herbert Lom one, not the James Mason. (But now, if you were to take both actors into consideration, Nemo was actual a person of color.) But still - why that one?

Anyway. You have this story, about Nemo, SOMEHOW SURVIVING HIS SUB CAPSIZING AND HIS DEATH to be taken to a prison and awaiting a hanging. Apparently President Grant was like, lets get him out of jail because there is someone who is running around the waters, blowing up boats, like him no less, and what better way to find out who is doing this than to get the original terror of the ocean back on the sea.

Nemo is cruel, he is all over the place. Think of Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes x 2 and that's what Nemo is like through this whole book. In this book, I wanted him to slap him and tell him to shove a sock in it. (Nemo has many layers to his character where you found him relatable and other times where you just wanted to shake your fist at him.)

There is some weird side story about the President being up for assassination that sorta is involved with the plot. There is an ending that is bizarre and comes off like something out of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I kind of walked right into this with a cover like that (look at that book cover, ahem). But seriously - I'd stay far away from this book if you enjoy 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the character Nemo in general.

[Scott Marlowe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rating



Review

*** This review originally appeared on Out of this World Reviews. ***

Nemo Rising by C. Courtney Joyner is a continuation of the classic story begun by Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Nemo is rotting in prison while he awaits the carrying out of his death sentence for the ships he sunk and the lives he took as captain of the technologically advanced Nautilus. Meanwhile, the ships of all nations except the United States continue to be sunk, but by unknown parties. President Grant finds himself in a quandary as suspicions arise that no ships of his nation are falling prey to the mysterious attackers. The other nations of the world believe the United States is somehow using Nemo’s own technology against them in an attempt to seize ultimate power. Grant has no choice but to spare Nemo from the hangman’s noose and enlist his aid in solving the mystery of who is really behind the attacks. Once more, Nemo captains the infamous Nautilus, but this time in service to one of the warmongering nations Nemo hates the most.

So begins a very promising story that, unfortunately, is dragged to the depths of the deepest ocean by, amongst other things, the writing style of the novel’s author. The book cover alone for Nemo Rising is spectacular. Throw in the connection to the Jules Verne classic and Captain Nemo and who wouldn’t want to pick this book up? There’s a certain promise of quality I felt was understood between myself, the author, and the publisher. Granted, I received this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review, so the only investment I have in Nemo Rising is the time it took me to read it, but I still felt that when you slap such an incredibly awesome cover on a book that is also a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea that you have to deliver. Nemo Rising, sadly, did not.

First, there’s the writing style. Based on his bio on Goodreads, Mr. Joyner is an accomplished screenwriter, with many movies to his credit. Unfortunately, writing a screenplay and writing a novel are two very different things. Looking back, and now knowing of Mr. Joyner’s background, the writing style of Nemo Rising actually makes sense (perhaps it’s the only thing that makes sense during this entire reading experience). It’s written with such matter-of-factness, such mechanical structure, with little to no description or background or even the smallest setup for a scene or other occurrence, that I had to go back many times to figure out how or what just happened. Too many times, ‘something’ happens, with no preamble or buildup. It’s jarring at times, confusing at others, and disappointing overall.

Moving on, there’s the characters, which fall flat time and time again. There are no character arcs, no character descriptions, no character anything except names and a bit of discussion about Nemo or some other person’s philosophies. It’s a shame, too, because the author could have made Nemo a sympathetic character, one who we may never forgive for the countless innocent lives he took, but at least one we might have some understanding of with respect to his motives. There’s references to his wife and child, both driving forces in his mad acts of the Vernes’ novel, but not once does the author delve into the implications of that event. Nemo is a very driven man, but we are never given a glimpse into his psyche. There are so many lost opportunities there that I cannot begin to even document them here.

I could go on, but it’s almost depressing to consider Nemo Rising in any more depth than I already have because of how great of a novel this could have been. I’m giving it one rocket because I just don’t see any reason for anyone to read this book.

[Bon Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Nemo and his submarine. Very atmospheric, as expected. Nemo is true to his name, impossible character to deal with, but somehow always justified in his cinicism and right about everything. As a boy, I wanted to be Nemo and have cool sub for driving through depths with my friends. It seems, I still do. Hard not to like this. And there are spiders!

I don't get the overall low rating. This is good book. A bit more complex in writing than the lowest common denominator style people seem to be used to these days. There seems to be global attention crysis going rampant.

[Ben · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but I could not. I couldn't get into it no matter how hard I tried. This is the first book ever that I could not finish.

[Lauren Stoolfire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of Nemo Rising by C. Courtney Joyner, but I had a tough time getting into this.

[Derek McCaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and pulpy to start with, and I admit that i probably remembered more about Nemo from the Disney movie than having read Verne about 45 years ago. At a certain point, though, you have to think the Captain may be right. Joyner has riffed and continued two complicated heroes - Nemo and Ulysses S. Grant. I hope now that Nemo has risen, there will be more adventures.

[Clay Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was good in setting the historical time of the story. The very advanced rifle that Nemo had made the story completely unbelievable. It was like reading the movie version of The Wild, Wild West that came out in the 90's.

[Jarrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captain Nemo is back in the hands of a master. What a thrilling re-examination of the character. Bold and decisive. C. Courtney Joyner charts a course that would make Jules Verne proud.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good adventure story that was very fun to read.

[Phoef Sutton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rip-roaring adventure in the Old School. Nemo and the Nautilus rise again. And (spoiler alert!) he does battle with Verne's other mad-inventor, Robur the Conqueror! Delightful.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very exciting, especially if you don’t pay too much attention to the science poorly described. Reading Verne again (it’s been awhile) better written than he did, was quite fun.

[All Things Urban Fantasy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy.

I’ve got a lot of mixed feelings about NEMO RISING. I enjoyed the whole story, but when I sat down to write this review and really started thinking about it, I realized that I gave the book too much slack because of my love of 20,000 LEAGUES. If NEMO RISING wasn’t about Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, but about some other random submarine post Civil War I would not have liked it anywhere near as much.

I enjoyed the nostalgia of NEMO RISING. I’ve always been a big fan of 20,000 LEAGUES. I grew up watching the old Disney movie, and have read the book a couple of times. Joyner does a good job of capturing Nemo’s spirit, but there was often too much tell instead of show. If you aren’t familiar with Nemo and the Nautilus then some of the story might be confusing, because Joyner writes NEMO RISING assuming your familiar with 20,000 LEAGUES.

Joyner also really kicks up the violence way beyond what Verne would ever have done. But the discovery and exploration that was key to 20,000 LEAGUES is still present in NEMO RISING. My favorite part of NEMO RISING is the lack of over explaining for having Sarah be an important part of the story. So many historical fiction novels spend forever coming up with reasons to have a female character. Sarah was never treated any differently, she was just naturally part of the story, and it was a nice change of pace.

If you are a fan of 20,000 LEAGUES than I’d recommend giving NEMO RISING a try. If you've never read 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA then I highly recommend you give that one a try, Jules Verne was a genius who predicted many technological advances.

Sexual content: N/A

[Tien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, I do not recall much of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea except for the name of the Captain and ship? submersible? submarine? creature? you know what I mean...

In this "sequel", Nemo has been in prison and left to rot there by the authorities. However, there had been a slew of ships, from all other nations but America, destroyed with barely any survivors left to tell the tale but those survivors told of supernatural creatures. There rose the suspicion that the USA is behind these atrocities. The USA government were not. President Grant is preparing for war but at the same time is seeking for evidence to prove that USA was not the perpetrator. Therein, their daring gamble in breaking Nemo out of jail and into the water once again. This time, in their employ. Captain Nemo, however, has his own ideas...

I was never a huge fan of Nemo as a character anyway. Interesting in a way but not quite likeable. I did, however, really like the character of President Grant in this novel. I can't say whether it is in any way close to his historical personage but he was always ready for action and to take on any challenges presented his way. I also loved his relationship with his wife, Julia, in this novel; absolutely lovely.

The twist, when it came, was pretty unexpected though I was also thinking, well, it couldn't be anyone else! I just thought they chose a strange time to out themselves. An action-adventure book for those who love the genre. I'm a little miffed that there wasn't any hints of romance but that's just me!

[Kelli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up around the halfway point, and even with that I probably gave it too many chances to start getting better.

This book reads like the author actually wanted to write the screenplay for a multimillion dollar summer popcorn movie: big set pieces, dramatic visuals, larger-than-life characters, action scenes literally every other page. Unfortunately it's not a screenplay, it's a novel, and as a novel it's a nearly incoherent mess. There are zero transition scenes; it's just one action piece after another. The characters are a collection of tropes with clumsy-at-best attempts at nuance. The writing itself is either massively overdone, bogging the narrative down in mind-numbing blocks of descriptive prose, or so sparse that it's difficult to even get a sense of what's going on. Most of the scenes are super short and happen sort of randomly: for example, one chapter is told from the POV of Character A, but there's a random, super short scene in the middle of the chapter from Character B's POV that has nothing at all to do with what's going on in the rest of the chapter. The narrative is all over the place and frankly, I gave up trying to keep track of what was happening.

In short, this book seems like it's so desperate to be an exciting action movie/tv series that it forgets it's supposed to be a book.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

While "Nemo Rising" may be an entertaining adventure story in its own right, it ultimately falls short of the high standard set by Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". The book follows the further adventures of Captain Nemo, but it lacks the depth and complexity of the original work. C. Courtney Joyner's prose is serviceable but lacks the imaginative flair and descriptive power that made Verne's writing so compelling. The characters are thinly drawn, with little in the way of character development or nuance, and the plot relies heavily on familiar adventure story tropes and cliches. While "Nemo Rising" may appeal to readers looking for a fast-paced and action-packed adventure, it is unlikely to satisfy those looking for the kind of depth and originality that made "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" such a classic. In the end, "Nemo Rising" is a decent adventure story, but it falls short of the greatness of its predecessor.

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nemo Rising popped up at me on NetGalley, since I've seen various versions of Nemo and the Nautilus through the years, and I thought a new version of a sequel focused on the US would be interesting. This one turned out to be a double-dose of Verne, although I didn't realize it when I was reading that it was a cross-over with another Verne anti-hero. When the villain revealed his real name, I had the feeling that I should know who he was, but it wasn't until the author's notes at the end that I figured out who he was. Mind you, he comes from some of Verne's lesser known works. Seriously, everyone knows 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Around the World in 80 Days, and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Those three in particular have been adapted for film and television many times over the years.

But Robur the Conqueror? That was one I'd never heard of.

Basic plot of the book is that strange sea creatures are attacking ships in the Atlantic, and the world is blaming the US, recently out of their civil war. President Ulysses S Grant finally decides to go with a dangerous plan to prove that his country is not behind the attacks: Nemo is in a US prison, and his aide's daughter has been repairing the Nautilus. They release Nemo from prison, and with the daughter, Sarah, as part of the crew, they send Nemo to find out who is behind the attacks, and prove the US innocent.

While Nemo and a possibly not very loyal crew head out to fulfill their side of the bargain, with Sarah tasked with killing Nemo if he strays, Grant and Duncan (Sarah's father) work the diplomatic side, despite sabotage and assassination attempts.

From the description, you might expect a book full of action and thrills, and I had high hopes, but unfortunately the end product didn't entirely deliver. There was action, and there was thrills in places, but the events were so muddled that I had trouble figuring out the overall plot. The ideas were great, but the end result was a bit of a muddled mess.

I might recommend this to a Jules Verne enthusiast, but definitely not to the general reader with only a vague knowledge of the man's writings.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally written as a screenplay, the book suffers from paper thin characters, plot holes you can fly a dirigible thru and other similar problems of the action movie genre. As a movie it would be a blast, I'd pay to see it, but as a book it's a great example of the differences between movies and books. One of the rare times the movie would be vastly superior to the book.

[The Geeky Viking · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nemo Rising is a sequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea from screenwriter turned novelist C. Courtney Joyner. It's fast-paced and very cinematic, and the author is clearly having fun with the pulpy aspects of the story. It's fun, but doesn't stay with you long after you've finished. It's a solid B-movie in novel form.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great portion of this book was everyone telling the one female character that she didn't know enough yet.

However, there were two really good quotes:
"...traitors are like drunks, practiced liars who don't mend their ways so easily."
"Being right doesn't always bring satisfaction."

[Tracy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't care about all the stuff happening to the president back on land. I just wanted to spend time out on the submarine with the intriguing Nemo character. I had to give up on the book. :(

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars actually. Obviously not a faithful depiction of history. Entertaining enough. Unfortunately a fairly predictable ending.

[Bryan Meissner · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not too bad fun adventure kind of predictable.

[Janene Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I immersed myself in the fantasy world created in this book. I was a little put off by the grisly descriptions at first, but quickly became enthralled with the telling of the story. Great book!

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a fascinating premise and parts of it are good, but this book is all action and flash and very little substance.

[Kev · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was OK!

[alan little · Rating 5 out of 5]

really enjoyed this tale of the infamous Captain Nemo and his submarine boat Nautilus. One of them books you just cant put down. Great stuff.