Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Writer!
Review: How could anyone possibly give an H.G. Wells book, anything less than 5 stars? This may sound silly but I often wondered if Mister Wells had a time machine! His stories were/are years ahead of the time he wrote them. Some of his stories make one wonder if he indeed had a peek into the future! Doctor Moreau! A strange man, alienated from British society because of his illegal experiments. (More like weird experiments!) This rather small book, tells the tale of our mad (?) Doctor, inhabiting a secret island where he can continue with his experiments. He has found a way to breed man/animal creatures creating some of the weirdest species ever! Eventually, a stranger finds himself on Doctor Moreau's tropical island with no way off! As the story unfolds, the man finds out about the Doctors experimentation with animals and is horrified tremendously! He thinks the Doctor is a nutter to put it bluntly and is extremely scared of the unknown. The Doctors work is undoubtedly flawed though because his 'creatures' are a tad unhappy and therefore need to be controlled by the good doctor. The 'happy conclusion' tells us, don't fool with mother-nature sir, or else! I recommend ALL books written by Mister Wells. He was an extraordinary man, way before his time!
Rating: 
Summary: THE BEAST BEGINS TO CREEP BACK!
Review: Like Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein, another mad scientist (oh, all right--obsessed biological researcher) tries to create his own humanoid menagerie remote from society. Fired with Evolutionary fervor a youthful HGW presents smug civilization with a shocking portrayal of genius gone amuck--a direct warning of the dangers of pseudo-scientific zeal. Edward Prendick is the sympathetic but passive protagonist who barely survives a series of horrors: shipwreck and ordeal by lifeboat, only to be spit up on a hostile island, uninvited and suspiciously, barely tolerated. Idealistic Prendick gradually discovers many bizarre secrets on this tropical island, for the man called Dr. Moreau (note that HGW has chosen a Frenchman to represent deranged mentality) acts both as God and father figures for his beast people. Even his failed physician, Montgomery, struggles to resist the natural urge to mingle and evolve downwards, which means reverting to lower life forms, which combine the worst of two species. Only late in this gripping novel does Prendick emerge as a proactive hero--passionate for humanity and ultiamtely self-preservation. HGW raises serious social issues in this book: the deliberate infliction of pain, morality re man's relationship with lower orders, vivsection, animal rights, alcohol abuse, and of course his psychological mania: obsession with pure knowledge at all cost. Does Science (the white man's burden?) have the right or duty to play God and attempt to improve or rearrange Creation? Will all three men eventually revert to a lower type of anthropomorphic existence, casting aside the shackles of humanity, sinking into an inevitable moral morass on a par with Moreau's surgical freaks? Some uneven pacing aside, this book is one suspenseful and chilling package of moral challenges for the last (and this) century, served up for the true sci fi cultist's dining pleasure!
Rating: 
Summary: Quick and Interesting
Review: This novella is interesting as a piece of science fiction, the genre of which H.G. Wells is sometimes called the father. It was written a few decades after Darwin presented his theory of evolution. The concept of evolution produced a lot of anxiety among intellectuals of the time, including Wells, who looks at the implications of the theory here. He puts the narrator, Prendick, on a secret island populated by Moreau's man-beast creations. The events which follow continually blur the line between man and animal, just as evolution forces man to see itself in the context of other species. Oh yeah, the novella, like any good sci-fi book, is suspenseful, and a little scary. And it's not very long, so you'll have plenty of time to read all your other books too.
Rating:
Summary: The movie never is as good as the book!
Review: I thought this was an exellant book! I always loved science fiction type books and started to really get into classics in about 7th grade. But I never got into H. G. Wells because I had seen the movie of the time machine and the versions of the invisible man, and i really didnt like them. With this story I read the book first and loved it even though it was pretty creepy. But I was sooooo disappointed when i finally saw the movie, it was nothing like the book except for the idea of half animal half human creatures, the main characters name wasnt even the same! I definately recommend the book but do not recommend the movie if you are looking up for a good follow up to the book. READ THE BOOK!
Rating:
Summary: Once again, do NOT WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST!!
Review: This book is less known than Wells' other works like The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine, but in many ways it exceeds these other, more popular works. This novel is a story essentially about the nature of humanity. What is it that makes us people? What, exactly, separates man from the beasts? Wells' insidious Dr. Moreau is the perfect character to explore these questions as he has no conscience. As you read this book you find yourself identifying more with the "beasts" than with the Dr. or his assistant; and you find yourself wondering whether or not the noble beasts are in fact more human than the human characters. This work is decades before its' time; as today genetic research and animal rights are garnering more attention and headlines. I believe Wells was somehow able to see these issues decades ago when he wrote this story; and it remains one of the most salient writings on the topic to date. I heartily endorse this book for any fan of science fiction. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, and relevant today
Review: A short, very readable and entertaining novel. Did Michael Crichton read this before penning "Jurassic Park"? The setting (remote tropical island) and story line (humans experimenting with nature, subjects of the experiments get out-of-control thus threatening humans) are very familiar. The descriptions of the experiments inevitably seem somewhat dated, but I found that Wells's style and control over the narrative managed to hold my attention. The overall message that we mess around with nature ultimately at our own peril holds good today - unfortunately it appears that few are heeding it.
Rating:
Summary: New Timeliness and Aimlessness of Existence
Review: Wells commented that this book was in a way an exercise of youthful balsphemy. Perhaps. Wells, like every other intelligent human being of Victorian England, could not escape Darwin's theory of evolution with all of its implications. But the ideas go deeper. What is the meaning of human existence? Is the world just a place of aimless suffering and a mere survival through a series of trials and errors? The book has now become more timely than ever, with the completion of the Human Genome Project which, along with possibility of improving our lives with better drugs, opens the possiblity of engineering mutant beings based on human genes. In a somewhat related development, human organs are already grown on/in the bodies of other animals. Cloning, genetic engineering, and harvesting of organs is a warning that our entire world may become an island of Dr. Moreau. Scary stuff.
Rating:
Summary: The Animals Look Hungry
Review: Science-fiction has a tendency to get out of hand. In some instances science-fiction is more an attempt at being weird, ora showing off of fancy machines. But in the case of Dr. Moreau, Wells is keeping things simple. The Doctor has developed a method of cross-breeding. He comes up with things like half-dog/half-man or part-sheep/part-monkey. A portion of his hybrids have intelligences nearing our own. It will be asked whether they creatures are friendly or not. Some are not. Rebellion and mutany are on some of their minds, without the doctor knowing about it. Eventually, a young man bumps into the island and is stuck there. He is shown to his horror a wild minded scientist who builds monsters. He does not trust the scientist, and neither the creatures. For all he knows, the Doctor may be plotting to make a hyrbid of him! Lastly, the Doctor himself is on the island because his work is illegal. In small circles it is known, but his reputation is bad. Who can say where he got his ideas from? They may be esoteric. Either way: mainstream science cannot allow it. The Doctor then moves to the island in secret to carry on his work. The story is not meant as an epic or something awfully scary. It is only a small tale of science jumping into something it cannot control. Like the story of Frankenstein. In any case, I liked it and so will you!
Rating: 
Summary: An overall boredom machine
Review: The first Wells story I ever read was, The Country of the Blind, when I was in 7th grade. I found the story amazing and very intriuging. Though the stroy was an excellent read, I forgot about Wells for a while. Then, one day I was shopping for books, and stumbled on, The Time Machine, which I immediatly bought, due to his first story I had read. I also found The Time Machine exetremely interesting, a true literary classic. Unfortunatly, for Wells, the third time isn't a charm. When I bought The Island of Dr. Moreau, I was hoping it would be filled with the same analogies and fantastic creatures that were in his other works. Instead, I found boring animal-men and a dumb account of a mans sudden terror about nothing. The most disappointing thing about this bok is it has no bulid. It's main character is suddely in a world running for his life, but we don't know why or how. The only thing at all interesting is the setting and the cast away idea, but both were overshadowed by the extremely dumb plot.
Rating:
Summary: a must read for any Wells or Verne fan!
Review: This book is one of my favorite Wells books.It is about this guy who gets 'trapped' on this island. and this island is inhabited by an infamous scientist/doctor who was 'exiled' from England. Anyway, the doctor is Moreau. And this Moreau guy gets animals and tries to make them more human. What really bothered me about this is that he really had no reason for doing this. It might be a different case if he was actually benifitting the world by doing this. But no, he was just doing this for his own personal curiosity. This also immedietly made me think of our own conflicting opinions and moral dillemas we have with genetic engineering.
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