The Mysterious Island

Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island is an epic adventure story that takes place during the American Civil War era. As a sequel to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the novel beings with a group of characters who must band together to survive after they escape imprisonment during the war by stealing a giant air balloon. As fate would have it, they get lost in a storm and crash land on an unknown island somewhere around New Zealand. The group uses the engineering skills of one of the members, Cyrus, in order to survive on the volcanic island. However, they are assisted by an unknown stranger throughout their stay whom supplies the group with a tool box, medicine (when one of the members falls ill), and a message in a bottle that asks the adventurers to rescue a man on a nearby island.

With action-packed fighting, pirates, drama, and twists and turns, Verne's novel does a great job of showing the true adventuresome spirit, which Verne is well known for. The group eventually discovers the island's connection to the great Captain Nemo, and the story concludes with Captain Nemo's death and the group's return to the United States with one final gift from the great captain.