Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea even for 1869 ... In none of these technical situation did Verne take advantage of knowledge readily available to him at the time". Thomas said, however, that despite poor science, plot, and characterization, "Put them all together with the magic of Verne's story-telling ability, and something flames up. A story emerges that sweeps incredulity before it". Jules Verne's wrote a sequel to this book: "L'Île mystérieuse" ("The Mysterious Island", 1874), which concludes the stories begun by "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "In Search of the Castaways". While "The Mysterious Island" seems to give more information about Nemo (or
The Twenty-Seventh City welcomed the book: "Jonathan Franzen has written a novel of our times; so imaginatively and expansively of our times, that it seems ahead of them." In "The New York Times", "American Heritage" contributing editor Peter Andrews wrote, "Make no mistake about it, "The Twenty-Seventh City" is an impressive debut by a gifted young writer... It's a riveting piece of fiction that lingers in the mind." Reviewing the author's second novel "Strong Motion", critic Laura Shapiro at "Newsweek" discussed "The Twenty-Seventh City"'s "brilliance" and Franzen's "prodigious gifts"; she described the novel as "a huge and masterly drama of St. Louis under