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I think I would rate this more of 2.5/2.75 out of 5. I really wanted to like this book more than I did, but I didn't. I was willing to give this books some room for being an older book, but that doesn't forgive its faults. I can see why this is a lesser received book by Jules Verne.

This is the story of 5 escapees (Harding, Neb, Spillet, Pencroft and Herbert) from a Confederate prisoner of war camp. They escape via balloon and due to a ill-timed hurricane, they are thrust across the the ocean to a remote island. Good premise. Ultimately, it is the story of their survival--nothing more. We watch them from their initial crash to their ultimate escape.

Where this book fails is that nothing is a struggle for them. Every problem that presents itself is overcome with ease. Nothing is a challenge about survival due to Cyrus Harding, their captain and an engineer whom I have a feeling was the model for the character of the professor in Gilligan's Island. Harding knows EVERYTHING. There is not a science, art, craft that he is not familiar with. In the book, he is the following (and I will forget some):

shipwright
geologist
chemist
mason
glassblower
farmer
navigator
telephony
engineer

Just a name a science and he knows it. We never really learn what he is by training aside from an engineer. Never in the book is he stumped, confused, or even frustrated. He knows everything. A couple good examples. At one point early in the book he is wants to figure out where they are, so he figures the longitude and latitude of the island. Not too far fetched, but what sends it over, for some reason he knows the exact longitude and latitude of Washington, D.C. Another good example, is at one point they want to create something to cook on. You would think they would just stack rocks, fill with mud/weed mixture. No, the make bricks. And the list goes on and on with the highest achievement being a telegraph.

The book does improve in the last 1/4 when they are invaded a bit. They have their first bit of actual conflict, and it improves the book significantly. The latter portion is remarkably better because there is conflict, and is what saves it I think. If I had been reading this instead listening to it via audio, I don't if I would have finished it. A book needs some conflict and strife for it to remain interesting, and by the time you are 1/2 through the book, you fully realize nothing will be a challenge.

And lastly, the title--The Mysterious Island. The island, frankly, is not that mysterious. They get aid at times from a mysterious figure, but it is so infrequent you forget about it until the last 1/4 (when the books gets better).

Not a terrible read, but I won't be revisiting it. Maybe the film.