The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G Wells

This month I'm trying to focus all my reading time on 1001 books in the attempt to reach my target of 40 for the year. I started with The Island of Dr. Moreau as it is a bookring which I need to get moving to the next reader.

THE STORY:
Prendick accounts his time on an island of nightmares. He finds himself turfed out of the boat he is travelling after the captain is scared off by the other passengers on board. These passengers help Moreau to an island which they inhabit.
Trying to be secretive about the happenings on the island they attempt to keep the truth from Prendick, but he begins to notice small anomalies, like the hairy pointed ears of one of the servants and the howling of animals.
Exploring, Prendick discovers animals who can talk, walk like men and obey the orders of the man who brought him to there.

MY THOUGHTS:
I'm not a sci-fi fan, but having read and enjoyed Wells at university I was expecting to enjoy this - and in places I did. However there were many times when I was tempted to give up, if it had been a longer book I doubt I would have read to the end. I was often confused as to what was happening, and didn't really get along with the dry narrative voice of the tale, which never managed to strike in me the horror of these animals.

My Thoughts: The Swarm by Frank Schatzing

I've just finished this mamouth book, its taken all week! The Swarm is a 900 (fairly small text) sci-fi, end of the world novel - not my normal type of read.
The novel starts with a series of small boating accidents, then shoals of jellyfish invading the coast, then Whales battling ships and then the discovery of a mysterious hydrate eating worm. Taking us across the world we see the sea turn around and attack human kind, the events start of small - a few missing fishermen then esculate to tsunami's and plate shifts.
As it becomes clear that the events aren't just coincidences and that a war is taking place in the sea scientists from across the world come together to try and figure out what is happening.
I put off starting this novel for a few weeks because of its hefty size but when I got started I was pulled along by all the individual stories which start the novel running parrallel to each other. I reckon they could cut out a good 200 pages, some of the science explanations went on to long and although I understood the basic premise much of it went over my head. Also the religious element was overdone, American CIA agents the president were way too assured that God would save them as they where the better race. I'm also sure some American citizens would feel that they were criticised unfairly. The ending had a preachy feel to it and the barely disguised criticism of the Bush presidency wasn't needed - we've heard it all before. Having said all that it was a good read - although I'm not sure it deserved its position on the 1001 BTRBYD list.
Anyone else read this? What did you think?

Challenges:
999 (1001)
Lost in Translation
The Chunkster Challenge
End of the World
1001 BTBYD
1% Well Read Challenge

My Thoughts: The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas (plus a mini challenge)

I brought this book ages ago, and to be honest I'm not sure if I ever read the blurb, the fantastic cover design (reminding me of the brilliant Glass Books of the Dream Eaters) and the black edged pages were screaming out for me to buy this. It finally found its way to the top as I thought it would fit into the RIP III challenge, and its darkness makes it a good choice although its subject matter may stop people from thinking it fits.
The End of Mr Y is about a cursed book of the same name, everyone who reads it dies. Well that's actually, surprisingly, fine as only one copy is known to exist and its locked inside a bank vault. Ariel is an overly intelligent (she knows about everything apart from religion and love) PHd student, studying Lumas, the author of The End of Mr Y, her lecturer disappears, her university sinks into the hill and she randomly comes across a copy of this book. Obviously this is a book in which you need to suspend your disbelief.
The book contains a recipe, which promises knowledge, and despite knowing all about the curse, Ariel seeks out the ingredients and takes the mixture. The recipe leads people into the troposphere a place where you exist within your own mind and can jump between other peoples minds. Now, some bad men also know about this recipe and want to stop anyone else discovering it, so they are after Ariel and any one else who's involved, and they are not so easy to escape as they can also travel through minds.
It all sounds very bubble-gum like from that description but in amongst this adventure there is a whole heap of philosophy, language theory and science. I could keep up with the Sartre and Baudrillard just about, but a lot of the science went over my head. Definitely a book that needs concentration.
Challenges:
Fall into Reading
R.I.P III

Reviews:
Barts
Bookling

Another Challenge!
I'm also going to participate in Dewey's Martel-Harper challenge. This challenge involves reading 3 books from the list of books that author Yann Martel has recommended for the Canadian Primeminister Stephen Harper. Dewey's sign up page is here . October - December 31st
Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes
Metamorphoses - Kafka
Anthem - Ayn Rand