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Summary: Is Wells on to something here?
Review: "The Time Machine," by H.G. Wells, is a very small book on how the world shall be after nuclear war. It is not meant literally, of course. At any event, the protagonist is a scientist who declares that time travel is workable. But the other scientists, who share dinner with him, do not take him seriously. Eventually, he guides one of them to the basement, showing him an actual apparatus for time travel.The "Travellor", as he is called, goes to the future. In the future, the world has become largely agricultural. Technology has died away more or less. There are two camps of intelligent civilization: the 'city dwellers' and the people below. One of the two, I have forgotten, is called "the children of the light." These people are mutants. Both camps descended from man. They happen not to like each other. The Travellor is wrapped up in all this. He comes to fall in love with one of the creatures! I will tell no more. I very much liked this novella. It seemed, to me anyway, realistic. I would go so far as to say that modern science fiction, as in "Doctor Who," is inspired by "The Time Machine." Wells had a knack for writing intelligently and plainly. One does not have to spend minutes trying to figure out what Wells is saying. For a writer so old, he sounds convincingly modern. The Reader will wonder, "what WOULD it be like to go to the future?" His second question will likely be, "What WILL the future be like?" Here, Wells seems to imply, perhaps in the tongue and cheek fashion, that man is self-destructive. The Time Machine can, in a small sense, be put in the same line as Orwell's 1984. After all, both books deal with the idea of man not taking care of his civilization.
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Summary: Great classic science fiction
Review: This is an enjoyable read. Full of political commentary and posing questions about the future, The Time Machine is truly a worthwhile work of early science fiction. The main characters are well developed. The ending is a little sudden, but the epilogue is inspired. I recommend this book and edition very much.
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Summary: Past and present masterpiece
Review: This is the little number that started it all. For the English-speaking world (some translations of Verne possibly aside), science fiction begins with the four brief, brilliant novels published by H G Wells in the 1890s. The War of the Worlds is a still-unsurpassed alien invasion story; The Invisible Man one of the first world-dominating mad scientist tales; and The Island of Dr Moreau a splendidly misanthropic story of artificial evolution and genetic modification. But The Time Machine came first, launching Wells' career in literature; and, after just over a century, there still isn't anything nearly like it. A Victorian inventor travels to the year 802701, where the class divisions of Wells' day have evolved two distinct human races: the helpless, childlike and luxurious Eloi and the monstrous, mechanically adept and subterranean Morlocks. Predictably, the film version turned them into the usual Good Guys and Bad Guys, though it's still worth seeing, particularly for its conception of the Time Machine itself - a splendid piece of Victorian gadgetry. The book, despite its sociological-satirical premise, is rather more complex in its treatment of the opposed races, and the Time Traveller's voyage ends, not with them, but still further in the future, with images of a dead sun and a dark earth populated only by scuttling, indefinite shadows. As in the other three novels, too, the premise of the story is carefully worked out and clearly explained - a discipline largely beyond science fiction today, in which time travel, invading aliens or whatever are simply taken for granted as convenient genre props and automatic thought-nullifiers. After more than a century, The Time Machine is still waiting for the rest of us to catch up.
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Summary: A review of THE TIME MACHINE
Review: The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells is an unconventional book, which is both intriguing and entertaining. When I read the book I expected a short novel about various insignificant complications of time travel, but was given a tale full of theories and speculations about the evolution of human beings. In The Time Machine the time traveler is recounting his adventure into the unknown that we call the future. Thousands of years in the future he discovers that the human race has evolved into two different kinds, the Morlocks and the Eloi. The Morlocks are nocturnal creatures who live underground and surface during the night, only to prey on the defenseless Eloi. The Eloi, once living comfortably as the ruling race, have degenerated into a simple group of beings that live life effortlessly and without substance. The time traveler describes his interactions with the Morlocks and the Eloi in a thought-provoking manner, creating a highly enjoyable novel. The Time Machine suggests many controversial ideas such as the extreme degeneration of the human race. Not only is it interesting to learn Wells' theories, but his writing caused me to create some of my own thoughts about the possibility of evolution. The open ending to the book also leaves a story for the mind to explore. Facts are not forced upon the reader, but rather he is left to make his own assumptions of the ending of the book. The story is left somewhat unfinished, yet it comes to adequate closure, so that the reader does not feel a lack of conclusion in the novel. I was thoroughly impressed by the concise yet engaging writing by Wells, and believe that this classic would be a necessity in the personal library of any fan of good literature.
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Summary: Can one man Save the future of Mankind?
Review: HG Wells' Sci Fi classic, about a Victorian scientist's trip forward in Time, differs greatly from the movie version, so if you don't recognize the details of the story in this review, it's because I am referring the original. The tale is narrated at the beginng and very end by a good friend of the Time Traveler--whose name we never learn. Nor in fact are his skeptical dinner guests named, for the emphasis sis Not on the present. Ninety percent of the short novel, however, is a direct narration by the Time Traveler himself, of his incredible journey into the future. The year is hard to credit: 208,701! Wells loses no opportunity to expound on his theories of Mankind's self-destructive and degenerative "progress." He launches into fervid warnings about the separation of diametrically opposed yet critically enmeshed aspects of human nature--both vital while openly at war--which result in the total Human Being. Yet he never considers what Right his hero has to go back the Future, in a vain, foolish and risky attempt to alter the bovine existence of the beautiful people called ELOI or to reduce the subterranean population of the hideous MORLOCKS who repel us with their bestial behavior? (No Prime Directives here about not meddling with the Past or the Future!) We can only guess at Weena's grim fate, but why did Wells include an eerie chapter with the TT contemplating the primoridal tide at the end of Time itself? Still spell-binding despite the intervening years, The Time Machine enthralls us with its daring concepts of futuristic invention and social speculation. Despite uneven literary pacing, these pages offer great Sci Fi reading for all ages!
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Summary: H. G. Wells: A man ahead of his time
Review: Leave it to H.G. Wells to come up with a book on time traveling into the future and leaving us, the readers, totally captivated. What a visionary. The movie, which I have seen many times, did a great job of keeping to the original storyline. If you have not seen it, please do so. Amazing film. What I love about the book is how much further Wells went with the story. Towards the end of the book, our weary time traveller proceeds further into the future to actually witness our earth and sun dying. The barren lands growing cold. Life at its final stages. How utterly eerie yet thrilling all at the same time. Wells describes the sequences so vividly. Who would not do the same if a time machine was made available to them? For you first time readers, enjoy. It is a terrific ride.
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Summary: My favorite H.G. Wells book
Review: This is a wonderfully written book. Although the words are sometimes large and confusing this is a wonderful story. I was disappointed when it ended. Not only do you get the interesting story of the Eloi and Morlocks, but, to my delight, there is still more. in the final chapters of the book he goes even farther into the future. I thought this part was really cool with the sun dying and all. Now, for the 12 year-old reviewers. I am somewhat disappointed in you. This book is NOT boring. I am 14 and I can identify with the first reviewer in that, as I mentioned before, there were a lot of hard words. I had to go to the dictionary more than once. But you second reviewer. Calling the time machine boring. you must have gotten some weird version or something. Maybe you're just not used to that type of writing or something. But please, read it again, do something. Because this book is not boring.
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Summary: A Sequel
Review: "The Time Machine" is a science fiction classic and a book that has inspired not only a great movie but also many other stories and novels. One of them is an excellent sequel to this book: Stephen Baxter's "The Time Ships" tells about the further adventures of the time traveller and really is a worthy successor to the original work. My advice: Read Wells first, and if you like it, you should definitely check out Baxter's work as well.
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Summary: My Opinion
Review: I think its an interesting book....thats is, it would be if I could understand half of the words. Its really well written and the story is good but who does the author expect to know what he's talking about?
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Summary: BORING
Review: I had to read this book for school, and found it to be extremely boring. The whole time, one man is telling the story- he is too discriptive and is hard to understand. I do not recommend this book to anyone 13 and under.
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