It's a Theory A BOOK THEORY

The Nautilus is TRULY Alive! (Daughter OTD)

            On October 5, 2021, Rick Riordan's newest novel, Daughter of the Deep, first came up for air. And when I finally got to read it in 2022, here's my reaction, written live: 

"HOLY SCHIST THIS IS PURE GOLD."

          Honestly, I was just straight up blown away by it. It's got everything I could ever wish for in a single adventure: Adventures on a water craft that's actually about the ocean? Awesome! A Harry Potter-style four houses setting that's basically a detailed Ravenclaw but dumped into the sea (albeit one that was destroyed on pg. 21)? Go House Orca! This random fact about African lungfish that I just so happened to know which made me feel smart? Yay! The absence of a certain perpetual annoyance called magic that throws off every single calculation known to men?  FINALLY! (Not saying that I don't want more Peeeeercy, the golf cart idea is simply splendid.) A super-advanced piece of AI technology far beyond modern achievements and understanding for me to dissect? Gods, yes! And all of it being written by Uncle Rick? Absolutely beautiful. 

Hello Internet! Welcome to BOOK THEORY.

          If you've read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the book that this novel was based on before reading this book, I think it would even better. Unfortunately, fifth grade little W.W. took one look at the book, took another look at the middle of the book, took one last look at the end of the book, and decided that her opinion on the book was, to quote Miss- sorry, Prefect Dakkar: "the plot was slow, the language was super dated, the characters were a bunch of harrumphing Victorian-era gentlemen that I didn't care about". But honestly, after reading both 20,000 Leagues and The Mysterious Island, the sequel that revealed Captain Nemo's true identity and introduced the dog and the orangutan- which we all know was the main purpose- I realized that I did not, in fact, hate it. But hey, I'm no book critic, and sooner or later someone's gonna start saying something else, so why don't we actually get into the stuff that I can actually speak of: the STORY and the SCIENCE of the Nautilus, the legendary submarine of the seas. But first, we gotta tell the very long, complicated, and absolutely fascinating life story of the man behind it all (the slaughter): Captain Nemo.

          Captain Nemo was once an Indian prince named Dakkar with many relatives, all with difficult-to-pronounce names. He partook in the failed Indian revolution of 1857, which caused the dead of practically all his loved ones, except for a single nephew that managed to continue the bloodline. He escaped onto a desert island, where he built the Nautilus, a super-submarine that could allow someone to live underwater comfortably and luxuriously, along with the last of his servants. It was here that he left his name Dakkar and took on the name Nemo. (And no, don't even mention the cartoon fish.) Driven mad by his anger towards the mighty colonies, he swore vengeance on them. Prince Dakkar, now forever to be known as Captain Nemo, began his mission to wreak havoc on every sea craft that belonged to the countries that destroyed his parents, his wife, his children, his country, his everything. 

          Unfortunately, when you destroy a bunch of the powerful countries' warships, these powerful countries tend to rally and take action, most likely against you. And this is where the main characters of 20,000 Leagues come in: Marine scientist Dr. Pierre Arronax, his manservant Conseil, and Ned Land the harpoon guy. These guys were recruited by the squad sent by the government to kill what they believed at the time was a giant narwhal. They soon found the Nautilus and Captain Nemo (wreaking carnage tends to give your location away, even with camouflage and cav-drive), who had been in the process of destroying another ship. When Ned Land the harpoon guy threw his harpoon (duh) at the sub, they discovered that it is- surprise - a super high tech submarine that has been doing all this destroying, stabbing, and sinking all along. The three was thrown onto the Nautilus, where they were allowed to enter and was treated with hospitality because Nemo liked Arronax's books. The guys warmed up to Captain Nemo, but soon, these guys discovered that- BIG surprise - Nemo is hell-bent on destroying every single ship that belongs to the navy of the big countries. So on one eventful day when the Nautilus got halfway sucked into a giant whirlpool, the three jumped onto a little boat and washed up onto an island where they were able to return to regular human civilization. The Nautilus managed to escape the maelstrom and went to Lincoln Island, where after another series of run-ins with the protags of The Mysterious Island, Nemo and his crew all eventually died, The End.