Rating: Summary: Advanced, yet amazing! Review: The Time Machine was a very advanced book! It was written in 1895 but still H.G. Wells used vivid descriptions and has one heck of an imagination. It starts with him in a meeting and he tells his friends of his plans to build a machine to travel through time with. I thought the book would tell about many different trips into the future or past, but it only told of one. The Time Traveller, as the main character is called, tells of his trip millions of years into the future where he encounters an evolved form of the human beings we associate with today. When I figured out that this book would only be about one trip into the future, I thought it would just ramble on about what he did for maybe a week, but it was all surprisingly interesting. The Time Traveller tells what happened to him in this far future and he uses extreme detail. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I really thought it was well written. H.G. Wells did a very good job on this one. The only reason why I gave it four stars was because it was kind of hard to grasp all the concepts that the book is based off of. I would sit there and try to figure out how that certain idea might work in real life, when really it was too hard for me. But it was okay that I didn't totally get everything, because anyone can read it and still enjoy the book without understanding all the mechanics and science behind everything. So I thought The Time Machine was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who likes science fantasy or just a good classic.
Rating: Summary: Advanced, yet amazing! Review: The Time Machine was a very advanced book! It was written in 1895 but still H.G. Wells uses vivid descriptions and has one heck of an imagination. It starts with him in a meeting and he tells his friends of his plans to build a machine to travel through time with. I thought the book would tell about many different trips into the future or past, but it only told of one. The Time Traveller, as the main character is called, tells of his trip millions of years into the future where he encounters an evolved form of the human beings we associate with in our time. When I realized that the book would only be about one trip into the far future, I thought the book would just ramble on about a week or two, but it was surprisingly interesting. I really enjoyed The Time Machine and I thought it was a great book. The only thing that made me give it four stars was how tough some of the concepts were to grasp. You can still read and enjoy the book without totally understanding what it is based off of, but it makes you wonder and really think about all the crazy things H.G. Wells came up with. I thought it was very hard to make sense of everything, but like I said, you can still enjoy the book without understanding everything. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who likes science fantasy.
Rating: Summary: Upstairs, downstairs--800 millennia in the future Review: Devotees of the movie versions of "The Time Machine" are certain to be surprised by how short and deceptively simple Wells's classic (and first) sci-fi novel really is. He packs an adventure tale, a drawing room comedy, and a social satire in a book no longer than a novella. Everyone knows the basic plot, in which the unnamed Time Traveller races to the year 802,701 and discovers that the human species has split into two: the simple-minded and dependent Eloi, who live on the surface of the planet, and the sinister Morlocks, who keep the planet running from caves while caring for the Eloi exactly as a farmer tends to a herd of cows, supplying them with their basic needs before harvesting them. What may be less familiar to today's readers is Wells's sociological commentary, a morbid version of "Upstairs, Downstairs." The aboveground (upstairs) Eloi represent the pampered gentry, while the underground (downstairs) Morlocks are the descendants of the servile classes. Readers may think that Wells is portraying the Morlocks as evil incarnate and the Eloi as "innocent" victims, but he is actually condemning the human propensity to create such divisions at all. Both sides share the ultimate responsibility for the way things turn out, and the author's contemporaries, both master and servant, surely found the possibility of being either eaten or eater equally loathsome. "The Time Machine" has proved a major influence on subsequent works of literature. Yet , in addition to being a seminal work of science fiction, it still can be read as a warning against the evils of class warfare.
Rating: Summary: The Fourth Dimension leads to the Twilight Zone Review: In this short novel, this novella in fact, H.G. Wells enters frightening lands that are still quite up to date more than a century later. If God is dead and we do not have His guidance in life, what happens ? If Science is true and we only have It to guide us, what happens ? If Darwin has seen truth, and if we only have His Theory to guide us, what happens ? No more Providence, only evolution. The working class will develop into a subterranean race that will have the absolute power of providing everyone with what they need to survive including their clean air, and, what's more, that will provide the upper race with all it needs to enjoy life and do nothing at all. The upper classes will evolve into a new type of cattle since they do nothing, they live in a decaying surface world that has lost all knowledge and scientific guidance. They will regress to a child's consciousness that wil ; only know one adult fact, sex, and they will enjoy the pleasures of inactivity all day long, and the fear of being caught by the subterranean race on moonless nights to become their daily meat. So when God's Providence disappears from our consciousness there is only a dramatic evolution that will lead to the absolute regression of humanity into animality and the ultimate destruction of humanity and its diasappearance with maybe the hope of a new emergence starting from scratch, that is to say, from the sea and sea-creatures that may evolve again into a new human race in some billion years. But the final morality of this scientific tale of science fiction is that the first victim will be the scientist himself, (1) because he won't be believed, and (2) because he will be swallowed up by his own invention and will disappear into the thin air of time traveling. A mind raking and mind boggling book that should give you some nightmares, if you read it with a mind to its predictive value. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating: Summary: Amazing Review: It's amazing how this book has inspired so many future writers and creations. To this day nobody has better described time travel machines then H.G. Wells. I think this should be required reading for students as it's such a visionary piece of literature.
Rating: Summary: The best book ever I every enjoyed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review: I like this book The Time Machine (Bullseye Step into Classics) & that is the best book I ever enjoyed & this is adapted by Les Martin & illustrated by John Edens. The collections that should go in the Bullseye Step into Classics are: Black Beauty Oliver Twist The Time Machine Treasure Island & The Adventures of Tom Sawyer This book The Time Machine (Bullseye Step into Classics) reminds my of a paperback book The Secret of the Indian by Lynne Reid Banks & Illustrated by Ted Lewin & Disney's Belle's Magical World on VHS & DVD. I really loved that book & enjoyed it! I like it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: Puncturing the fourth dimension Review: The "stranger in a strange land" genre -- ordinary men adventuring in extraordinary places -- is at least as old as Homer, but H.G. Wells's great invention in "The Time Machine" is to have his protagonist visit a land that is separated from his home by time, not distance. This man, who in the novel is enigmatically known only as the Time Traveller, contends that time is a dimension that is just as travelable as the three dimensions of space, builds a machine not to test his theory but to demonstrate his conviction, and embarks on a journey into the future while incredulous friends and colleagues wait patiently for his return. His destination is not next week to check the weather, or next year to forecast the stock market, but 802,701 A.D. He finds that humanity has undergone a curious evolution and divided itself into two subspecies -- simpleminded, childlike little people called the Eloi and apelike subterranean dwellers called Morlocks who prey upon the Eloi. Hypothesizing that the Eloi are the result of thousands of years of upper class leisure from not having to struggle to survive or worry about diseases and hardships, while the Morlocks are the outcome of the working class's having been forced underground where all industrial operations have been relocated, he implies that social class consciousness is one thing that is sure to survive for 800,000 years. If a time jump of eight hundred millenia seems ludicrously excessive, perhaps Wells wanted to be merely speculative without risking the fallacy of attempting to be prophetic; after all, the farther into the future, the more liberties he could take in imagining what the world would be like. He uses this unique opportunity to envision terrifying mutations of animal life millions of years beyond the Eloi and the Morlocks; what is so eerie about these images is what we can (or can't) guess about the climatic or environmental circumstances that could cause such monsters to evolve. The level of intelligence of the futuristic monsters is unknown, but the novel's outlook for intellectual evolution is bleak. When the Time Traveller, scheming to retrieve his Time Machine which has been confiscated by the Morlocks, sees in an abandoned museum a library whose ancient books have decayed to a state of complete illegibility, he sadly muses, "Had I been a literary man I might, perhaps, have moralized upon the futility of all ambition." In a novel filled with cryptic scenes, this is quite possibly the most ominous -- a projection of thousands of years of human knowledge blithely going to waste as the species surrenders its intellectual advancement to the vagaries of fate.
Rating: Summary: Superbly narrated by Scott Brick Review: The Time Machine is a complete and unabridged audio CD presentation of H. G. Wells defining science fiction classic. A meek culture of future humans called the Eloi live in seeming paradise, comforted and dulled by the machines that continually provide for them - yet who runs these machines, and why are the Eloi afraid of the night? Superbly narrated by Scott Brick, H. G. Well's The Time Machine is a compelling listen and a very highly recommended addition to personal and community library audiobook collections. 4 CDS, 3 hours, 58 minutes. Also highly recommended are three other new unabridged CD audiobook titles from Trantor Media: Zane Grey's Riders Of The Purple Sage
Rating: Summary: Good Science Fiction Story Review: H.G. Wells' The Time Machine sets a presecedent in the genre of time travel stories, books, and movies. The short novel explores a future far stranger than those assumed by later distopian works like Brave New World and 1984, or even more current movies like the Back to the Future Series. The future envisioned by The Time Machine has neither glaring technological advancements nor a strict government. Instead, Wells envisioned that a far distanter future would eventually lead to mankind's decline. Although the story is often thought of as pure science fiction, it contains a prevailing theme against class structure and an anti-Darwinian theme by juxtaposing the Eloi with the Morlocks. The Time Machine may not be the most in-depth science fiction when compaired with some of its offspring, but it was definately one of the prominent forerunners of the genre. It is also a short and intreging read.
Rating: Summary: An essential science fiction classic Review: "The Time Machine," by H.G. Wells, is the story of an adventurous inventor who builds the fantastic device of the book's title. With this marvelous device he travels to the year 802,701 AD, where he discovers a vastly changed humanity. This book is a great classic--it's a science fiction landmark written with both brains and heart. Despite its short length it really has the scope and flavor of an epic--think of it as a miniature epic. Wells achieves a flawless blend of horror, mystery, adventure, and social satire as his traveler explores this strange new world. Wells' superb descriptive language really brings this bizarre future to life. For some stimulating companion texts, try Octavia Butler's "Kindred," David Gerrold's "The Man Who Folded Himself," and Edwin Abbott's "Flatland." "The Time Machine" is one of those great classics which remains both enjoyable and thought-provoking; it's perfect from its evocative opening sentence to its heartbreaking final sentence.
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