A satisfyingly full-on science fiction/aventure story, but I don't understand why the dinosaurs weren't enough for Conan Doyle and he had to put in a tribe of ape-men at war with some cave-dwelling Indians (who've managed to domesticate iguanodons!)

What little we get of the dinos is good, though. I love his conception of a T-Rex even if my imagination isn't up to making sense of it:

"...the beast moved like a kangaroo, springing along in an erect position upon its powerful hind legs, while its front ones were held bent in front of it..."

"...this beast had a broad, squat, toad-like face..."

"As the huge brute loped along it dropped forward upon its fore-paws and brought its nose to the ground every twenty yards or so. It was smelling out my trail."

"In shape they were like horrible toads, and moved in a succession of springs, but in size they were of an incredible bulk, larger than the largest elephant."

There's also "a young ichthyosaurus — a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed upon the top of his head", and a fantastic final scene with a pterodactyl being released in the middle of London.

Just a bummer about those ape-men.

Not going to bother with the other stories in this volume. ( )

This book became a disappointment for me. I decided to buy it because it has all 5 stories in the series. But unfortunately, this series was not about dinosaurs, its main theme is Professor Challenger's adventures. And considering I didn't like him at all, I didn't like the book either. I gave it 2 stars only because some stories really had something original in them. ( )

I give this 5 for The Lost World, which has long been one of my favorites. The other Challenger stories might range from 2 to 4. Still,, I got this book precisely because it did have all the other stories, which are harder to get than The Lost World. Some might consider The Land of the Mists as fantasy or horror, since it is about ghosts, but Doyle regarded it as science as his appendixes of supporting cases demonstrates. I find his concept that some of the ghosts are simply "shells" of former spirits, not sentient beings, more credible than conventional ghosts, though he seems to forget that theory when his characters start interacting with the dead who all seem to be conscious personalities. Still, he does say the shell theory only applies in some cases. ( )

The name of this collection of stories should be something like "The Scientific Adventures of Professor Challenger as told by the reporter Ed Malone." All the stories are related in that they feature Professor George Challenger, an irascible, arrogant, rude, but brilliant scientist as the main protagonist (except in one story, where his daughter plays a more important role, and he comes in at the end). Each story deals with a scientific mystery. We are introduced to Professor Challenger in the first novelette, "The Lost World," in which he enlists a young reporter (Edward Malone, the narrator of all but one story), an adventurer-gentleman John Roxton, and a very skeptical professor Summerlee to join him in South America to find evidence of prehistoric creatures still living and thriving. If you've read his Sherlock Holmes stories, then you are already familiar with Doyle's style: his concise and elaborate descriptions, as well as Victorian sensibilities. The main character, Professor Challenger, while physically and emotionally the opposite of Holmes, has much in common with Doyle's more well-known character. They are both exceedingly sure of themselves, see themselves as above the common herd, and are, almost always, correct in their assumptions. It is an enjoyable Victorian adventure.

The next long short story, "The Poison Belt," deals with a terrestrial catastrophe. People around the world are behaving strangely, and whatever is causing it seems to spread from the south northward and from sea level to mountain tops. Professor Challenger believes the earth is passing through a celestial "poison belt", and that the human species will not survive. He has discovered that pure oxygen will help them survive a little longer, so the same group as the prior story, plus his wife, hole up with canisters of oxygen in his manor high above the town and watch from the window as the world dies around them. As people fall into comas before dying, horrible accidents occur, such as a train wreck, fires, etc. As the canisters empty and they have less and less time left to live, they each begin to think about death and the meaning of their lives. When they awaken the next morning, they find that they have passed through the poison belt and are the only ones left alive in the world, after which they drive into London and survey the havoc that the poison belt had caused.

The third long story "The Land of Mist" explores the spiritual world. Ed Malone, accompanied by the daughter of Professor Challenger (a character not in existence in either of the first two stories), attends seances in order to write a unbiased account of what happens there. To his surprise, Malone finds himself convinced of the reality of the spiritual world and the spirits that inhabit it, as does Challenger's daughter. Challenger, of course, will have none of it, especially as his daughter and Malone intend to marry. He agrees to see for himself, and is surprised by what he encounters. This story is the one that most lovers of Sherlock Holmes cannot abide. I had heard that Doyle was actually a believer in spiritualism, and in this story he footnotes certain scenes and relates them to actual events. At the end of the story one can only scratch one's head in wonder.
"The Disintegration Machine" is very short, and is more of a character study. In this story, Challenger, for the good of mankind, does something heinous. In the last story, "When the World Screamed" Challenger proves that the planet Earth is a living creature.
I enjoyed reading this collection, though the stories were not all of equal quality. It is unclear how much time elapsed between the stories. It would be nice if there were more information about when and where the stories were published. In the first two, Challenger has a wife, but no children, in the third, his wife is dead, but his daughter is old enough to marry--the last two stories don't mention either the wife or daughter, nor the fact that Malone had married the daughter in the third story.

Contains:
The Lost World
The Poison Belt
The Land of Mist
The Disintegration Machine
When the World Screamed ( )

The Lost World is a great read and, on its own, would rate 5-stars. The other stories in this edition let it down slightly, with only The Poison Belt coming close. The Land Of Mist is interesting from the point of view of how Spiritualism was conducted at the time, but it's dragged down by its preaching and slow pace. The other two short stories are fine, but are not particularly memorable. The book is worth buying for The Lost World alone, however, so the other stories can be seen as interesting, if flawed, bonuses. ( )