Circumpolar

Something like Arthur Conan Doyle meets Raiders of the Lost Ark: a riotous flat-Earth/alternate-history adventure. We're in the 1920s, and Mrs. Victoria Woodhull Martin is offering a $50,000 prize to the first aircraft that successfully circumnavigates the poles. In the US, Howard Hughes, Charles Lindbergh, and Amelia Earhart team up in The Spirit of San Diego intending to head south. In Germany, the von Richthofen brothers, Manfred and Lothar, join princess Irina Lvova of Russia (the Revolution never happened) and head north. . . into trouble: their plane enters Symme's Hole, a tunnel leading to the other side of the world (this Earth is doughnut-shaped, you see) - where they discover Svartalheim, a sort of Germanic Atlantis with Valkyries riding jet-powered flying horses and dour wizards contending with vile kelpies. Meanwhile, the intrepid Americans penetrate the ice barrier enclosing the south pole, arrive on the other side of the world, and encounter the scientifically advanced inhabitants of the lost continent of Mu - who ask their help in preparing for an anticipated invasion from Svartalheim! And though the rest of the adventure (everyone heads home, battling monsters, the elements, and each other) doesn't quite match this splendid opening, Lupoff's ride is exuberant, inventive fun. (Kirkus Reviews)