Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Poison Belt
    The Poison Belt
    The Poison Belt
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Poison Belt

    Written by Arthur Conan Doyle

    Narrated by Paul Hecht

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The Poison Belt, from one of the best-selling authors of all time, is another Professor Challenger adventure written by the legendary Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this classic, Challenger summons Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton, and E.D. Malone to his sitting room with one unusual request: bring your own oxygen.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 10, 2008
    ISBN9781449802691
    Author

    Arthur Conan Doyle

    Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) descendía de una noble familia irlandesa y cursó estudios de Medicina. Sin embargo, nunca ejerció, pues apenas dos años después de licenciarse en 1885 dio a luz el primero de sus relatos de suspense, Estudio en escarlata (1887). Su éxito fue tan grande e inmediato, que nuestro autor ya no dejaría de escribir. El personaje creado por él, su detective Sherlock Holmes, se hizo famosísimo y protagonizó nada menos que sesenta títulos. Entre los más conocidos se encuentran El perro de los Baskerville, El valle del terror o los relatos incluidos en su libro Las aventuras de Sherlock Holmes, publicado en Gribaudo. También cultivó la ciencia ficción, la novela histórica y otros géneros. En 1900 dio a luz su libro más extenso, La guerra de los bóers, y se pronunció en favor de la contienda británica en África. Según su opinión fue esto sobre todo lo que favoreció su nombramiento como caballero de la Orden del Imperio dos años después. Había alcanzado un lugar de prestigio, con apenas cuarenta años. Poco después (1906) murió su esposa Louise Hawkins y se casó con la médium Jean Elizabeth Leckie. Este vínculo con las ciencias ocultas se acrecentó tras la desaparición de su hijo Kingsley en la Primera Guerra Mundial. Del vínculo directo con el espiritismo nació su Historia del espiritismo (1926) así como numerosas polémicas, por ejemplo, contra su amigo Harry Houdini. Fue asimismo aficionado al fútbol, al críquet y al golf, entre otras pasiones. Murió de un ataque al corazón en la ciudad de Crowborough, en donde había residido durante veintitrés años.

    More audiobooks from Arthur Conan Doyle

    Related to The Poison Belt

    Titles in the series (2)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Andrew Caldecott

      Jul 17, 2019

      Andrew Caldecott
      3 min read

    • Article

      Odd Squad

      Jun 16, 2021

      Odd Squad
      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      At first these poems were their own sweetfurlough or as Basquiat did it the reflexiveopening of a new personal phase for mealone that many have traveled beforebut never together a phrase too busy to sitand be spoken that awakens to the recurringwave

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Plague Legends

      Dec 1, 2021

      The Plague Legends
      12 min read

    • Article

      Purpose

      Aug 10, 2020

      “It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Daniel Levin Becker

      Dec 17, 2019

      This year, I read in twos. Maybe this is always happening and I just started noticing. I also have a brain that’s unrepentantly hungry for patterns, so who knows. The post A Year in Reading: Daniel Levin Becker appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Ingenious: Albert Camus

      Jun 29, 2017

      I had always dreamed of meeting Albert Camus and so was thrilled when he appeared at Lucey’s Lounge, a dark and yellowy lit bar in Brooklyn. The Algerian writer had graciously agreed, or so it seemed, to be interviewed about absurdity, the concept in

      14 min read

    • Article

      Ben Okri

      Apr 25, 2022

      Ben Okri
      5 min read

    • Article

      Five Non-Fiction Books for Writers in an Emergency

      Jul 14, 2017

      I read non-fiction books that I thought might indirectly tell me something about fiction, even though they were really about something else. The post Five Non-Fiction Books for Writers in an Emergency appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      THE FIRST FIVE PAGES: KJ Maitland

      Apr 1, 2021

      Writing historical crime thrillers often feels like one of those crazy circus acts where you have to stand on the backs of two galloping horses, with one foot on each, trying to keep your balance. One of the horses is the historical facts, the other

      6 min read

    • Article

      Nightmares, Dreams, and God: The Millions Interviews Jeff Sharlet

      Mar 2, 2020

      There’s an idea that empathy is something you extend to another. I don’t think that’s quite right—I think it’s something that happens, usually in brief moments—maybe only the duration of a snapshot, a conversation—between people. Maybe it’s a process

      7 min read

    • Article

      Matthew Zapruder

      Jun 8, 2021

      finally the hour has comeit is time for the long journeyI say to my wife and child a last farewell and click the blue buttonmy face appears across from my faceit is the day we will virtually discuss the unpredictable resolutions I am sureobscurely wi

      1 min read

    • Article

      What My Stroke Taught Me

      Apr 6, 2017

      In my memories of the Scottish hospital, the sky is always blue, though I know that can’t be completely accurate. Summer was waning, and as my friends and I had already experienced, Edinburgh was prone to unpredictable storms. Yet, I can’t think of a

      16 min read

    • Article

      Jeff VanderMeer On Writing For Happiness and What to Read Next

      Mar 2, 2017

      Last night, Jeff VanderMeer treated fans and readers to a great AMA over at Reddit, during which he answered questions about his Southern Reach trilogy (the first of which, Annihilation, is soon to be a film), the writing process, climate change, gen

      6 min read

    • Article

      Parallels, Part One

      Jan 5, 2023

      The big question about UFOs is: where do they come from? There have always been several sides to any discussion of where any UFOs and their occupants might originate – with outer space just one option. But there is another. Because there is support f

      4 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 1, 2022

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Nick Laird

      Dec 15, 2017

      I was trying to write like an adult.I had children.I was at the end of something. As I waited at my table by the window for the coffee,I saw that the sirocco had depositeda scrim of dust on the sill overnight,and it was the dark red of powdered blood

      3 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      5 min read

    • Article

      Four Poems

      Jan 1, 2020

      Pallets of bottled water on the back porchwere one evidence of apocalypseor the demise of the way of thingsor lazily written computer code backin the 80s, when I was a boyand the nightly news was just about all the doomwe had stomachs for, whenwere t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Found in Situ

      May 25, 2021

      Found in Situ
      17 min read

    • Article

      The End SAM GENDERS of TUNNG

      Aug 17, 2018

      The End SAM GENDERS of TUNNG
      4 min read

    • Article

      Voyage around My Cell

      Oct 10, 2019

      Voyage around My Cell
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Poison Belt

    3.5/5

    124 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I had never thought of Arthur Conan Doyle as a science fiction writer but the Poison Belt (which has nothing to do with an item of clothing) is the real deal. The earth will pass through a poisonous belt of ether which will kill all life on the planet predicts the redoubtable Dr Challenger. Of course no one believes him except a select group of friends who gather at his house and with a few canisters of oxygen and in a temporary sealed room they plan to prolong their existence by a few hours. From an upstairs window they look out across the countryside and witness the deaths of workers and golfers and via telephone calls receive updates on a world wide annihilation. Their oxygen supply to their great surprise lasts long enough for them to survive the poisonous belt and they venture outside to search for other survivors. Everybody appears to be dead and major fires have erupted in some of the big cities and the six survivors contemplate a dead world and their place in it……………..This novella was published in 1914 and it coincides with two of my themed reads: early science fiction and books published in 1914 and is an excellent example of both. It has a good story line with lively characters especially the irascible Dr Challenger that moves quickly along and it explores a major science fiction trope of the end of the world. It attempts a little more with the characters engaging in lively conversations about their fate both from the viewpoint of believing they only have hours to live and then when they realise they are perhaps the only survivors. There is perhaps a bit too much of the British stiff upper lip from the Dr Challenger character, to make it a serious contemplation on the end of the world, but Conan Doyle was writing an adventure story that would appeal to the imaginative reader. I enjoyed it and so 3.5 stars.
    • 4/5
      I quite enjoyed this book although it was not what I was expecting at all from this author! It's short enough to read in one sitting and did hold my interest all the way through.
    • 3/5
      There's something about ether.I don't know what it is, but early 20th century British writers were obsessed with it. Just as Huxley used it as a stupefying agent in "Brave New World" Doyle uses it as an agent to bring upon death to the world. Professor Challenger observes changes in the light spectrum through his telescope, and proclaims that the world is about to experience a change larger than the asteroid that destroyed the dinosaurs (excepting of course their lost world). Of course the world laughs at him again, and of course again he is right. The Earth was sent through a poisons belt of ether that is a "universal agent."-The best parts where the descriptions of how the people went coo-koo when exposed, like Professor Summerly barking like a dog and proving he could do all the barn yard animals. Some surprising parts are reminder of how closely we still live to a racist world when the smartest man in the universe refers to non-whites as "the lower races" and "the less evolved humans" and no one bats an eye. I would have given a higher rating overall, but the ending was predictable and unimaginative.
    • 4/5
      Professor Challenger has issued a warning. The ether of space has a poisonous belt and the earth is going to pass through it. He invites his friends from the “Lost World’ expedition to his country home and asks them to bring canisters of oxygen. As Malone, Lord Roxton, and Summerlee are traveling by train to Challenger’s mansion they start acting strangely; becoming overly emotional, saying and doing strange things. They are already being affected by the poisonous cloud. When the friends arrive at the estate Challenger explains that they will be riding out the poison in a sealed room using the oxygen canisters.I enjoyed this Challenger story more than “The Lost World.” It was like an armchair mystery. The good comrades sit and discuss the events as they unfold believing they are watching the end of the world. It reminded me of British post-apocalyptic novels. It’s a short book and a quick read. I suggest reading “The Lost World” before reading this novel because the first book introduces the main characters.
    • 3/5
      Indeholder "Den giftige zone", "Opløsningsmaskinen", "Da Verden skreg".Professor Challenger har en teori om at Jorden en gang imellem passerer igennem en giftig zone. Astronomerne har netop meddelt at de fraunhoferske linier er udviskede og uklare og som den eneste advarer Challenger om at det kan betyde civillisationens undergang og alles død. Lord Roxton, Challenger og Mrs Challenger, Professor Summerlee og Ted Malone gemmer sig i et forseglet værelse hos Professor Challenger og bruger ilt til at modvirke giften i æteren. Efterfølgende tror de først at alle er døde og går rundt i Londons gader, hvor ligene ligger overalt, men kort efter vågner alle til live igen og "kun" dem, der er ramt af ulykker og ildebrande, har faktisk mistet livet. Bevidstløshed og opvågnen sker så pludseligt at de fleste blot fortsætter med det, de nu var i gang med og først senere opdager at de har mistet timer af deres liv.En opfinder, Mr. Theodore Nemor, har opfundet en opløsningsmaskine. En demonstrationsmodel kan opløse en person og endda samle ham igen og endda lave modifikationer, fx kommer Challenger tilbage i en version uden hår og skæg "med et hageparti som en skinke". Nemor har solgt maskinen til en fremmed magt og morer sig med at fremmane muligheden af fx at slå alle ihjel i Themsdalen. Challenger snører Nemor til at tage plads i maskinen og trykker på knappen og væk er Nemor for stedse. Challenger kommenterer det med "Enhver lovlydig borges pligt er at forhindre mord" og går videre til vigtigere ærinder.Professor Challenger borer en 14 kilometer dyb skakt og når ned til Jordens hjerne. Det kan Jorden ikke lide og allehånde jordskælv og vulkanudbrud følger. "Alle mennesker har altid gerne villet have verden til at tale om sig. Men ene af alle opnåede Challenger at få hele verden til at skrige."Ganske muntre bagateller med genbrug af figurerne, Professor George Edward Challenger, Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton og journalisten Edward Malone.
    • 4/5
      All science fiction is stuck with the science of its time and this short novel is no exception. Continuing with his characters from The Lost World, Conan Doyle creates a global catastrophe in which Professor Challenger can once again prove his brilliance. The ending is "happy" and resolves none of the issues raised, but this was a short happy read.
    • 4/5
      Sir Arthur Conan Doyle using characters from Lost World to experience a mysterious belt of ether that the earth will pass through.By isolating themselves in a small room with a supply of oxygen they are able to survive a horrible fate.This book is a quick read but somethimes the heavy British language stalls the story.
    • 3/5
      In The Poison Belt, the characters from The Lost World get an encore performance, which they mostly spend discussing heavy shit in Professor Challenger's living room.The basic idea is that Challenger realizes, with barely any time to spare, that the world is about to pass through a patch of poisonous ether. He summons his Lost World companions to his country estate, where they seal themselves inside a high-oxygen room, which slows the action of the poisonous ether on their systems. Thus, they get a chance to observe universal death and the end of the world.The scientific hook in The Poison Belt has been obsolete for nearly a century. Fortunately, once you strip all the science away, you're left with a book that is still plenty entertaining. Professor Challenger, quick to anger and unbelievably arrogant, is a comic figure in the middle of horrible events. His tirades supply plenty of laughs, which leave the reader open to the body blow of the disaster Conan Doyle is painting. Universal, inevitable death. This scope makes "Deep Impact" look like a movie about a guy stubbing his toe.Challenger's foresight, and the dismissal of his warnings by the public, make for some interesting parallels with current tensions between the scientific and broader communities. Says Challenger, "The flippancy of the half-educated is more obstructive to science than the obtuseness of the ignorant."Conan Doyle seems wholly on board with the British colonial project of his day, and The Poison Belt is at points shocking in its casual racism. You'll have to cut the author some slack on this point to enjoy the book. On the other hand, it's encouraging to read these sorts of things and see that society has, indeed, made some progress in the last hundred years.It's a short, quick read. Not very substantive, but fun nevertheless. Recommended for reading in train stations.
    • 5/5
      Professor Challenger in a Science fiction yarn from the pen of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Ok it is one of this author's lesser works,but saying that, Doyle's worst is many other author's best.Plus he can do no wrong for me.Thus 5 stars.Enjoyable on a light level.