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Nelliehunter — The Lost World
Published: 2012-07-19 17:57:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 1243; Favourites: 23; Downloads: 0
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B&W pencil drawing.This year is the centenerary of the publication of one of the classic and most influential SF stories, Arthur Conan-Doyle's The Lost World. Based on the real-life plateau of Roraima on the Guyana-Venezuela border, and coincidental with the discovery of the Komodo Dragon, The Lost World is the original "dinosaurs back from the dead" adventure. Here is my tribute, showing Lord Roxton & Ed Malone rescuing Professor Challenger from a hungry Allosaurus, while the natives look on...
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Comments: 27
Did you ever read the sequel, "The Poison Belt", and if you have have you ever considered a drawing of that novella?
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Once I had the whole omnibus edition of Professor Challenger stories. Yes, it would be interesting to base drawings on the Poison Belt, and even more so When the World Screamed (which would be great for Steampunk images) and particularly The Maracot Deep (as would H.G. Wells subaquatic story, Into the Abyss, along with his The Sea Raiders). There are also the Challenger-Holmes crossover stories written a few years to explain aspects of relativity and thermodynamics (I can't remember the author) which had an HP Lovecraft-like story arc featuring an ancient Mayan atomic bomb.
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There was also an interesting Challenger short story I liked, "The Disintegration Machine", that had a particularly good/ghoulish ending that made Challenger (like Holmes) a kind of law unto himself. I never read "The Maracot Deep", nor the final Challenger novel (Doyle's attempt at linking his second great hero with his spiritualism quest) "The Land of Mist". Apparently Challenger becomes a convert to spiritualism, unlike Holmes who (in "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire") dismisses the occult. Curious that split in Doyle.
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Shoot!! Shoot!! AN Allosaurus heart would be huge, nearly the size of a man. A lot of damage would be needed to make it cease function. Lord Roxton's safari rifles would ironically be better for the job than a modern M-16 or AK-47. DOyle was a hunter; in the book no one tried for a head shot.
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If you clip one ventricle, a therapod dinosaur should drop from internal bleeding quite fast. A .380 or .410 would be a good gun (preferably a six-round bolt-action in the former calibre, or a double-barrelled in the latter), though 5.56mm will tumble effectively in certain weight bullets, and with tight rifling in the barrel, to inflict major internal damage. For the best discussion of firearms for dino-hunting, I refer you to Time Safari, by David Drake.
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That's a good story, with some fine takes on weapon performance. Being closer to the time period of your story, I went with the views of "A Gun for Dinosaur" by L. Sprague De Camp.
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There are a number of dinosaur safari stories; I suppose Ray bradbury's Sound of Thunder is the most famous (although it's not really about the hunt). Brian Aldiss's Poor Little Warrior is darkly ironic & rather new wave. Often overlooked is James Blish's The Night Shapes, which has a Great White Hunter on the trail of mkele-mbebe in an alternative Edwardian age. Of course Blish wrote the story that inspired the classic big game hunter-in-pursuit of werefwolf movie, The Beast Must Die.
Gave some thought to ammunition for dino's. Assuming you're going for the mature specimen, and focussing on theropods and ceratops (sauropods would make damn more trophies, despite their size), I suggest the following: Remington .245, Mannlicher-Schoenhauer .265
Winchester .300 magnum, the old standby .30.06, Winchester .308, British Service .303, Mosin-Nagant 7.62, Spanish Mauser 7.65, Mauser 7.92, Krag 8mm, Holland & Holland .380 magnum express, and H&H .410 magnum express. All give exceptional accuracy and punch. For pistols to deal with smaller prey, I'd go for .357 magnum,.41 magnum, .45 Super Auto, .45 ACP, .451 Detonic, and .455 Webley Mk3 (the "manstopper").
Hmm, I wonder if there is a Lord John Roxton's Guide to Dinosaur Hunting in here...?
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I've never read "The Night Shapes", but now it is on my list to find & read. 
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Hollow Earth! Wow! I am just the biggest Hollow Earth fan ever! John Cleves Symmes was just the greatest visionary, with his upside down mammoths & inner sun. I wanted to write a WW3 story about a US-USSR confrontation over access to the inner Earth, but they knocked the frickin' Berlin Wall down first!
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If Putin keeps giving us the raspberry you might be able to right a contemporary version with great credibility.!
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Hmmm, if the Russians are gambling on the Arctic Ice melting (& they seem to be putting their whole budget for the next thirty years behind that contention), then maybe they're actually hoping the way to Symmzonia will be opened, & Vlad the Bad, unlike Alexander the Great, WILL have a new world to conquer. Wouldn't it be just great, Mil-24's & Apaches battling in a sky full of six-metre span teratorns, & Navy Seals & Spetsnaz dodging woolly rhino's & smilodons.
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See, you have some possibilities growing there!
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Thank you. You're turning into a fan, you know. Never had a fan before...
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no? how long have you been displaying your work?
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ON here? Since just after Christmas last year.
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then I am sure people have been looking and leaving comments
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Yes they have. Mostly favourable (if occassionally a little...odd). Only two gripes so far.
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Someone said I'd given the wrong model number for a steam locomotive (actually, I hadn't given any, but...), and someone else complained that there wasn't enough detail in the background of a picture; it was in the desert...
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Thank you very much. I looked at the cover of the current Penguin edition, and I thought "Even I could do better than that", and I think I have.
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I think you did, as well. It is a really well drawn depiction of it. You should try to get your version on the cover.
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Hmm. Penguin sometimes run competitions for cover art. Next time, I might try. The one I really want to do, though, is 1984; I have a really great idea for that.
Thank you for your kind comments. Please pass them on to Penguin.
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