In The Abyss
Written by H. G. Wells
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“In The Abyss” is a short story written by one of the Founding People of the Sci-Fi genre, Mr. H. G. Wells himself. It was published in 1897. Other Founding People of the Sci-Fi genre include Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, William Hope Hodgson, Kepler, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovercraft and many others.

In The Abyss by H. G. Wells Goodreads webpage

“In The Abyss” is the story of deep sea exploration circa 1872. The hero of the story is someone called Elstead who invented a sphere shaped submarine called Bathysphere. The Bathysphere is described as a sphere of metal and glass with two windows of thick glass. The inside is padded. This is the story of a journey to the deeper depths, about 5 miles deep, of the sea and what lies down below. Think of a scifi story where the unknown country is the bottom of the ocean. The adventurer seemed to have thought of everything concerning dangers to foresee. The enormous pressures and air of course are dangers factored in to the journey. One important danger they do not mention or account for on the mission are the Bends, Nitrogen Narcosis. This is however understandable.

The technology of the Bathysphere is pretty clever. The technology here is that of steampunk with gears, clocks and levers, cables, valves and dials. It’s a charming look and the reader does have to suspend their disbelief a little but I loved the imagination of it. H.G. Wells did it again. Now, just to clarify, the steampunk sub genre of scifi uses a technology driven by steam powered machines, gaskets of all kinds, dials, gears, bulky brass colored, metal machines and sometimes involving a magical kind of element like a power crystal or something. Some of the masters of this sub genre include H.G. Wells of course, Jules Verne of course, and Mary Shelley of course. And of course there are many others. The sub genre of Steampunk continues to inspire storytellers today and probably well into the future.

The story begins with the return of Elstead in his short voyage to the depths of the sea. He is thought dead at first because the Bathysphere did not surface when it was supposed to. The Bathysphere was dropped into the sea from the ship called the Ptarmigan who retrieves it when it surfaces. It takes Elstead a week to recover from his journey before he can tell them what happened to him and what he saw.

Elstead’s journey to the bottom of the sea is a miraculous one. He describes what we would expect from a deep sea journey and then some. This journey begins with the usual fish and experiences of a diver. On the sea floor he sees an invertebrate with human features. He sees what looks like a city of fish people with buildings and all. His journey is a fantastic one.

This is a story of exploration directly from the brilliant mind of H.G. Wells himself. There are enough elements of this story that are conceivable to readers to make this a great story even today. I can only imagine that the reader of the late 1800s, early 1900s must have been balled over at this tale.

This short story is well worth the read. So, read it and enjoy.

John Ink2Quill

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