The Lost Valley

If you prefer your lost race Atlantis yarn with a side order of Theosophy, and a dollop of 1920s street-talking Yanks, you've come to the right place as we down the submersible to check out Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's last novel, 'The Maracot Deep.' Is this an attempt to provide some bang-up-to-date pulp lit from Sir Arthur, or is it the last gasp of HG Wells-style 1890s Victorian sci-f?We're not sure, but we're darn sure that Ignatius Donnelly is mixed up in this somehow!

During a particularly busy time in the Tiny Assistant's internship, Cian digs out an old episode from the vaults to fill the silence.Revisit the first iteration of the Lost Valley, and check out the 1950s lost world comic Thun'da, drawn by none other than the legendary Frank Frazetta!

Join an Explorers' Club expedition into the murky depths of the lost world that is turn-of-the-century London, as we finally begin tackling the greatest of all lost worlds, and the trope namer itself! With asides into the history of Congo colonialism, Irish nationalism, the Piltdown hoax, and more.

Join our host, once again on the track of unknown animals ... Taking a break from the search for mystery big cats, Cian stops to read newspapers reports from 1911 featuring a possible 'neodinosaur' sighting from South America in 1911. Could this story have influenced Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World? Was Percy Fawcett nothing but a bombastic blowhard? Can creationists be good cryptozoologists?We can't answer any of these questions properly. But we're camping, there's still a heatwave on, and we've got some nice beer and monster stories. So come join the Explorer's Club, and enter ... The Lost Valley.

Along with Journey To The Centre Of The Earth and The Lost World, King Solomon's Mines is another 'line in the sand' watershed moment for lost race fiction. Often credited with reinventing the adventure fiction genre and creating the 'lost race' subgenera, Haggard fused centuries-old storytelling archetypes with contemporary Imperial anxieties and exotic locations.But is it any good?Note: do check out my visit to Pirates Don't Eat The Tourists to talk about Jules Verne here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2488343/episodes/19495520