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Two WWII RAF fighter pilots are shot down over enemy lines, then fall into a strange world at the center of the Earth!
This 1952 boys' adventure book is charmingly enthusiastic. It opens with a note on how the author found the manuscript in a war-torn area and believes that it's absolutely true, then dives into first-person accounts of the two pilots, Johnny Wild and Danny Black, who are shot down! Over water! In enemy territory! And fall into a pit! Where they almost die of hunger and thirst! Before they realize that they can parachute down into an even deeper hole! And arrive in a strange land in the center of the earth that's at war! And help the inhabitants build an airplane!
This is a lot of fun but I couldn't help wishing that the amazing plot had been written by W. E. Johns; Carter's style is a little dry, and despite telling us that Johnny is the leader and the smart one and Danny is the follower and the strong one, they feel interchangeable. But the plot is great and it's full of fascinating little period details: emergency chocolate concentrate is dry and bitter, and parachutes were equipped with inflatable dinghies and paddles! (Or did he make that up?) The underground world is also full of cool little details, like that there are no animals so everyone is vegetarian, and they have advanced electrical/battery technology but no gunpowder.
I'm surprised I never heard of Bruce Carter (real name Richard Hough) before because he's one of those "does more stuff than any normal twelve people" guys that I tend to enjoy - he was a RAF fighter pilot in WWII, wrote 90 books, was a maritime historian, married children's book author/illustrator Charlotte Hough who served prison time for assisting in the suicide of an 85-year-old friend (Her daughter recalled that, afterwards, "She was always saying, 'When I was in prison' and bringing dinner parties to a shuddering halt."), and had five children of whom three became authors.
Content note: Period-typical, relatively mild, completely random racism, like We passed the time whilst walking discussing the merits of white, yellow, brown, and black skins.
This 1952 boys' adventure book is charmingly enthusiastic. It opens with a note on how the author found the manuscript in a war-torn area and believes that it's absolutely true, then dives into first-person accounts of the two pilots, Johnny Wild and Danny Black, who are shot down! Over water! In enemy territory! And fall into a pit! Where they almost die of hunger and thirst! Before they realize that they can parachute down into an even deeper hole! And arrive in a strange land in the center of the earth that's at war! And help the inhabitants build an airplane!
This is a lot of fun but I couldn't help wishing that the amazing plot had been written by W. E. Johns; Carter's style is a little dry, and despite telling us that Johnny is the leader and the smart one and Danny is the follower and the strong one, they feel interchangeable. But the plot is great and it's full of fascinating little period details: emergency chocolate concentrate is dry and bitter, and parachutes were equipped with inflatable dinghies and paddles! (Or did he make that up?) The underground world is also full of cool little details, like that there are no animals so everyone is vegetarian, and they have advanced electrical/battery technology but no gunpowder.
I'm surprised I never heard of Bruce Carter (real name Richard Hough) before because he's one of those "does more stuff than any normal twelve people" guys that I tend to enjoy - he was a RAF fighter pilot in WWII, wrote 90 books, was a maritime historian, married children's book author/illustrator Charlotte Hough who served prison time for assisting in the suicide of an 85-year-old friend (Her daughter recalled that, afterwards, "She was always saying, 'When I was in prison' and bringing dinner parties to a shuddering halt."), and had five children of whom three became authors.
Content note: Period-typical, relatively mild, completely random racism, like We passed the time whilst walking discussing the merits of white, yellow, brown, and black skins.
