John de Lancie Books

"Brothers Karamozov" is so good right from the first paragraph that I literally could not put it down -- I read it while cooking, during an ultrasound exam (!), even for 5 minutes in church! It's a grand, sweeping epic of a novel, which reads like the latest page-turner on the best seller list -- the characters are so vivid & real & 3D, the most amazing & appalling things keep happening to them and keep being caused by them, & yet at the same time it's a fascinating look at 19th cent. Russian life & mores, at religion, at the psychology of families....just a FANTASTIC novel, I've never read a finer one!!

This amazing epic is a story on four levels. It is a murder mystery and a character study (on a grand scale). It is also a treatise on religion as well as monumental expose of pre Bolshevik Russia. One of the truly great novels I have ever read. Enormous in scope, microscopic in detail. A challenging read that will leave you drained but wanting more.

The Brothers Karamozov is an epic yet personal novel that will knock the wind out of you. My favorite character is the vapid Grushenka who bedevils all of the slightly twisted Karamozov brothers and Father. A great book for its religious, historic, and lyrical values.

Almost any Star Trek fan will list Q as one of their favorite recurring characters. Well, any fan of Q will find this book (written by one of the best sci-fi humorists out there in conjunction with the man who played Q) to be a major treat. Fast-paced, witty, and just plain fun, I, Q takes you on a romp through hell and back through the eyes of our favorite trickster. This is a definite must-read for any Star Trek fan.

Go get the music CD "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" by Rick Wakeman right after you read this great little book by Jules Verne. You won't be sorry.

This book starts off strong with the Verne's classic style and wit. The initial pages are entertaining, fast-paced and set the premise for a potentially wonderful novel. However, the story quickly slows down as preparations for the trip take entirely too long. In the version I read, the actual journey doesn't begin until page 90. Then, once the journey begins, it is rather uneventful. Verne also puts in too much geological information for the average reader to appreciate. It becomes quite tedious reading about the content of various mineral deposits, composition of the substrata of the earth, etc. While some such material is interesting, Verne goes over the top. This novel fails to display the extent of Verne's talents. For a better taste of his writings, I would recommend "Around the World in 80 Days" or, if you can digest a much longer work, "The Mysterious Island."

Journey To the Center of the Earth was always one of my favorite movies and after all these years, I finally read the book. The book is not like the movie at all. Honestly, I liked the movie better however that is not to say I was in any way disappointed with the book. It moved along quickly and drew me in such that I couldn't put it down and so read it in one sitting. A geologist, his eager young nephew and an Icelandic guide make their way to the earth's core following the footsteps of a previous mysterious explorer into the dark subterranean world of weird plants, animals, rocks and unforeseen dangers. There was no woman with them as in the movie but a female companion might have spiced it up a bit. The Icelander didn't have a pet duck along as in the movie but he was an indispensible partner in the venture. All in all, it was adventurous and fun and worth my time. I enjoyed it very much. Sure glad I finally read the book!
Betsy

Note: Some immature Mormon has been slamming my reviews because I wrote some negative reviews of books attempting to defend the Book of Mormon.

So your "helpful" votes are greatly appreciated. A short review is not necessarily a bad review if it leads you to a great novel. I've just noted the general theme. Thanks

A group of adventures with an old map travel to Iceland and find a cave. They enter the cave and follow a path to the center of the earth, where they find an inner world of strange creatures. Just suspend your belief, and sit back an enjoy this wonderful tale. I experience it first as a movie way back in 1960. Later, I read the novel. Don't miss it.

The concept of a hollow earth was not new in Jules Verne's day (mid-1800s). Its most prominent advocate was Capt. John Cleave Symmes, who advanced the theory in about 1818. Symmes was so convincing that in the 1820s he got twenty-five members of the United States Congress to vote to fund an expedition to the North Pole, where they would enter the center of the earth through a 4,000-mile-wide cavity in the earth.

It was then believed that the Lost Tribes of Israel lived on the North Pole behind a wall of ice. This theory found its way into the revelations of Joseph Smith, who in the Book of Mormon and later, said that the Lost Tribes would break down the ice and return from the "north countries."

Also, check out "At the Earth's Core," by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Land of Terror (Bison Frontiers of Imagination)

It had been many years since I had read a Jules Verne novel, and to be honest, I couldn't recall his skill as a writer at all. When I dug this book off of my bookshelf I admit, I was simply bored and looking for something mindless to read while the children fought over gluing cotton balls to construction paper.

I admit that it took my mind a while to re-acclimate to the writing style of the time, not that it was difficult to read, it was just far too easy to skim. So, bringing my mind to a screeching halt, I sat down and began to truly read this wonderful novel. Let me begin with saying that the science in the novel is extremely outdated but at the time of it's writing, was plausible. If you can get your mind past the huge hurtle of your current scientific knowledge, you can appreciate this book for what it is: a brilliant science fiction/adventure novel. The conventions of the time include misunderstandings of the makeup of the earth, and the propensity to marry one's own cousins.

The book is written in the form of a diary at times, and a retelling at times, of events that had passed previously. The voice of the book is the character Harry, nephew and assistant to Professor Von Hardwigg. The novel begins with the professor's discovery of a secret parchment which when decoded gives the location that a previous explorer used to enter the bowels of the earth. The immediately set out to follow in the footsteps of this great explorer of centuries before. Joining them is Hans, the apparent superman of Iceland. He never complains, rarely talks, and saves the lives of those around him on a regular basis. I cannot help but to believe that this is Verne's ideal man, his "Adonis" if you will. The Professor, though he loves Harry, is a closet ADHD case hidden behind a brilliant and stubborn mind. There is great adoration for his nephew, on those occasions when he stops moving or talking long enough to notice him. Harry, who is telling the story, is easily written off as a coward; however he is so much more than that if you take into account the beliefs of the time. He is following his uncle on a dangerous journey into the unknown to a place he does not even believe exists. (Harry's beliefs are far closer to the reality that we understand, however in this novel they are all completely incorrect)

Upon entering the depths of the earth many hardships and terrors await the three, ranging from dehydration, starvation, dinosaurs, many falls, getting separated, raging storms on underground seas and volcanic eruptions. I won't go into great detail suffice to say that the movie, though highly entertaining, does no justice to this story. Spray painted iguanas with horns are far from what is described in this book. If you have spare time on you hands, this is an excellent read and I would highly recommend it to anyone. There is a reason that this is considered "Literature."

4 of 5 stars.

As I am writing this there has been 87 reviews and a remarkable 68 of those reviews are 5 stars. Now it is officially 69 5 stars reviews!!!

This book was excellent. Peter David knows the Star Trek universe better than any other writer of Star Trek. He has 3 different story lines going at once. However he keeps them all seperate, as long as you pay attention you will have no problem keeping them all straight. Universe "B" is the universe that we all know. I would say somewhere right before the conclusion to TNG TV series. Universe "A" seems to be about the same time frame but is very very different. No reason to go over all the differences. If you've read it and just want to see what other people think then you know the differences. If you haven't read the book the fun in reading it is to find out about this universe and seeing the differences. I will tell you that Jack Crusher is Captain of the Enterprise with Jean Luc Picard being his #1. Plus Picard and Beverly, not to mention Riker and Troi's relationships are very different. The 3rd universe is set from the episode of "Yesterdays Enterprise" were the Federation is at war with the klingons.

There is an old enemy that is back. Peter David writes in Trelene from the TOS "Squire of Gothos" as a member of the Q, and it is Q's job to be his guardian. Of course that doesn't go according to plan. Trelene wants to combine all 3 universes and after he gets the upper hand on Q and sends him away it is up to Captain Picard and the rest of the crew or crews of the Enterprises to stop him.

This is easily the best Star Trek book that I have read. A must for any Next Generation fan.

Next for me I am staying with the whole idea of an alternate universe. I am going back to the "Shatnerverse". Avenger is next for me.

Greetings and felectations! It's wonderful to see Trelane back again. The paralles between the Q and Trelane are uncanny. David has done a wonedrful job of bringing together two Trek generations.

But you knew that already, right? It follows three different alternative timelines. One is the "normal" one, one is an alternative where Jack Crusher is alive, and Picard is his first officer on the Enterprise, and one is the alternate from "Yesterday's Enterprise," in a losing war with the Klingon Empire. Along comes Trelane, of an original-series episode, to mess things up. Turns out that Trelane is a young Q, and Q himself is his guardian, trying (with very limited success) to guide Trelane to adult Q-hood. Trelane becomes petulant (as he was with Kirk), and all hell breaks loose as he crashes the timelines together and sends Q into near-oblivion. Sorting it all out is a fun ride, but this is definitely a book I feel no need to keep after reading it.

General Trelane (retired) returns in this book. The former Squire of Gothos is a Q, as it turns out. And Guess who is Trelane's mentor? That's right, that lovable imp known as Q. This is a blending of The Orginal Series and of The Next Generation, as it has James Kirk in it, albeit briefly.
A must for any Star Trek fan.

This review refers to the audio book version, 3+ hours, two cassettes. John De Lancie does a really great job in reading this book. My one wish is that he had changed his voice so that the various characters would have been easy to pick out. Peter David's story is one of his best, and I really liked how he portrayed the first generation's Trelane, very true to character. Picard, and Q were also very well rendered. The story line bounces around a bit, but is not too distracting (or confusing). Sound effects and music are well done. The audio is quite legible when listening in a car. All-in-all a great audio book. I highly recommend it!

Writing a humorous book is hard enough, but then make it a humorous Trek book? Good luck - but that's exactly what David accomplished in this rich, smart, TOO-QUICK jaunt of the ultimate battle of the sexes - Q vs. Lwaxana. The back-story is slight but you won't might mind in the slightest as David has a true gift for characterization, with nobody getting Worf in particular better. Plus, as a bonus of sorts, this is somewhat indirect sequel to Imzadi with many continuing threads hinted at/glaring for anyone reader of the previous books (though as usual David writes so well that non-readers of Imzadi won't be left out in any way). I can't say enough positive things about this charming little work of fantastic fiction which would have been a truly remarkable episode if ever filmed.

If you are a STNG fan, get this book. Read this book. You will enjoy it - Q guarantees it!

A delightful story for Star Trek: TNG fans. The main characters are Deanna Troi's imperious mother Lwaxanna, and the god-like entity "Q." The two huge egos clash at a wedding that Picard is reluctantly hosting on the Enterprise. The bride and groom come from a Romeo and Juliet-like background, as two feuding races come together only for the young couple. But Q has an agenda of his own, simultaneously romancing Lwaxanna - to her daughter Deanna's absolute horror - and stirring up doubts and fears between the bride and the groom. How can Picard take control of what is threatening to become complete chaos on his ship?

Really a fun read. The author has great understanding of the crew of the Enterprise's characters. Q-In-Law has many laugh-out-loud parts.

I have never laughed so hard while reading a Star Trek book in my entire life. Luxiana, please excuse my spelling, Troi who'se Betazed frankness and lack of restraint is evenly matched with the manifestation of Q as we know them.

Within brief moments, we can see why Q are somewhat afraid of Terrans. One day, Q will have to put up with an advanced version of Luxiana! Forget about a civil war in the Continuum, all hell will break loose! As advanced as Q are, they are wise enough to know there's someone always wiser than they are, or will turn out to be.

As Michael Strazinky did with Babylon 5, it would be interesting to see "humanity" one million years from now. What will humanity have evolved into? Just a brief taste of our potential would keep my appetite for Star Trek going for a lifetime.

Peter David demonstrates that not all "Trekkies" and / or "Trekkers" have no sense of humor. In fact, they can be somewhat diabolical.

This book has a very deserved reputation for being one of the funniest pieces of Star Trek fiction ever written. Viewers and readers all know what Lwanana Troi is like, and they all know what Q is like, so just imagine the consequences if the two should meet. Star Trek writers have to be very careful when using Q, and Peter David is a master of it. I actually laughed out loud several times while reading this book, and the ending gives a whole new meaning to the saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned." Highly recommended.

This is a light-hearted Star Trek novel, telling the story of the romance between Lwaxana Troi and Q. It would likely be confusing to those unfamiliar with the TNG episodes about Q and the episodes about Lwaxana. For those who have seen them, however, this is a funny romp. The ending seems to happen too quickly, but is satisfying.

Content: Spock and Q engage in a debate regarding a potentially life-extinguishing asteroid headed toward Earth.

I bought this at a library book sale and assumed that it was a serious debate since the two actors look rather serious on the cover (hint to book artists: cover design should give indication of book content). Listening to this tape was like listening to one of those old radio broadcasts from the mid-20th century era. Spock's final words, "Say goodnight, Q", even echo the old George Burns/Gracie Allen dialogs which ended with "Say goodnight, Gracie". Although the program is supposed to be humorous and even witty - it disappoints due to the unsophisticated silliness which permeates the dialog. Nimoy and deLancie are fine, it is the material that is not very good.

I did enjoy this CD but the debate between the two men sounded so scripted that it took some of the pleasure out of the experience. Unless you're a hard-core Trekker,this isn't for you.

This is a very funny, very witty exchange by two of the most misunderstood beings in our galaxy. This one is as good as the sequel is awful. Stop after you've heard this one. It is a masterpiece!

This tape is very funny, a joy to listen to, although if you aren't very familiar with the history of Star Trek, you will not understand many of the jokes. The premise is that an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth and Q has the power to prevent it. Spock has traveled back in time in an attempt to convince Q that humans are worth saving. A challenge is issued and the two engage in a verbal battle of wits, logic, personality and intelligence. Riddles are stated, puns and subtle insults are thrown and humanities flaws and successes are cited.
Spock remains his logical self, although he allows a bit of a sprite to appear in his personality. Q is still the trickster, yet he allows some of the respect he has for Spock to show through. Recorded in front of a live audience, the performances of Nimoy and de Lancie are excellent. The writing is also superb, many of the jokes and personal barbs are subtle and you must pay close attention or you will miss them. Spock wins the debate and Q moves the asteroid away from the Earth so it will not collide with it for another two decades or so. "Just so that humanity will have something to challenge them in the future." I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this tape two times in quick succession.

I found the audio tape absolutely hilarious. It was a non-stop laugh. I would highly recommend.

Its an epic battle of wits, on the dr. Faustus scale.
Truly a great and unique treat for any Star Trek fan.
Makes a great Christmas gift! :-)
Get it. You ain'T gonna regret it.

I loved this CD! Basically the only thing that made it 4 *'s, is that Spock laughed too much, but other than that, the story was very good.

OK...I've never been to a Trek convention. I've never put on "the uniform" or "the ears". I've never sparred amongst my nerd friends (of which I have many) about how many Red Shirts bite the big one in episode 22 of Season 1 of TOS. However...I have been a fan (NOT fanatic) of all things Star Trek since the day I was born. OK...tehcnically it was one week after I was born (9/8/1966) that the first episode aired, but close enough, yes? I just found this and the first "Spock vs. Q" to be a bit too contrived. It was obviously playing to the over-enthusiasm of the crowd at the live taping. All the references in the first Spock vs. Q were cute at first, but then seemed like the story would do anything to find a reference to something in the small or silver screen stuff.

Don't get me wrong. I dearly love both Leonard Nimoy and John DeLancie. Two awesome actors playing great roles in nearly every instance. This performance however could have benefited from some of the superior writing of TNG or anything afterwards. The whole "swapping minds" thing...just didn't do it for me. If they were trying to pull off a personality switch on the order of Face/Off (Travolta/Cage in a brilliant performance), then they fell way short.

I suggest saving your cash and skipping these audio presentations. Better invest your funds in some other great work by these two (TOS, TNG, films on DVD...or even some of the great films Nimoy has directed...they are all awesome!) Or maybe even save up to attend a convention! You'll get more out of meeting one or both of them...and might actually score an autograph!

In their previous duel of wits, Spock was able to best Q and now they are about to engage in a second round. However, as they are about to begin, there is an enormous surge of power and they suddenly find themselves in an unknown location. The situation is further complicated when Spock begins to take on the personality traits of Q and Q those of Spock. Since Q is robbed of his powers, and Spock does not know how to use them, there is nothing either of them can do to save themselves.
The personality transfer is very well played by Leonard Nimoy and John deLancie. The sound of Spock giggling and uttering Q-like witticisms was very entertaining. The dampening of the Q personality by applying overtones of the Spock persona was also very funny. Jokes fly back and forth between them as they continue their verbal sparring, although now their personalities are blended with the opposite dominant in the other's body. Of course, in the end, the situation is resolved and they save themselves.
Fun to listen to, this tape is an aspect of Star Trek that is just good, clean entertainment. I enjoyed it so much I listened to it twice.

This was as good as or better than the first one. It was surprising and very enjoyable to hear the personality trade between the two. Spock doing all the singing and laughing like Q. John de Lancie wasn't too highly convincing playing a logical minded Spock, but who cares. He's one person who cannot downplay his personality too much. Highly enjoyable and hopefully there will be a third one.

In this book two brothers, Owen and Harley, are entangled in a world where something is trying to erase humanity. This being, called "The One", is a very ancient being who has gone mad and has decided to destroy every living thing in the world. In the beginning of the story "The One" resides in the center of the earth in a protective shell. While he is rising up to kill everything, his old and powerful mind is sending psychic rays that mess up the human brain badly. There are some exceptions. Those who are in the exceptions get amazing psychic powers.
The Keegans are an exception also. Owen, his wife, and his daughter Constance , who before "The One" started rising wa autistic" set out away from the UNcivilized world to some where there are not a lot of people. Harley meets a little boy with powers stronger than his. When Owen is near Guatamala he docks the ship near the land becuse Kate (his wife) is sick, from "The One", and Constance runs off to find a friend.
After awhile of searching for Constance, Owen meets a man named Van-Meers who has just saved Constance from a group of people who were going to kill her because they were confused about what was happening to the world. Well when they find her, Kate is about to die. Van-Meers who has very strong powers can bring her back from the death side. After he is done he tells Owen that now he has to join his clan or die. Thinking of his family Owen decides to join. When they were traveling Owen reached out to Harley with telepathy and told him that they were in trouble and needed help. When Harley finally shows up Van-Meers is stronger than before and blasts both the Keegan brothers. After they wake up they find that the people are gone with Constance and Kate. When they finally find Van-Meers and their family, they find them near a volcano. They then find out that "The One" is very near the surface and is about to come out. After they get there Owen and Harley confront Van-Meers and with the help of Kate they succed in killing him. As soon as van-Meers is dead "The One" shows himself and tries to kill the Keegans. But with all their strength combined they eventually kill it. I loved this book and recommend it to any advanced reader.

Who knew that there was something like this in the brain of John deLance? In everything with JdL that I've watched, he's always been the bad guy or the aggrevator of some sort. The closest thing to an exception to this has been Q, who has gone from annoying to good guy, taking the span of three series to do so. I wasn't sure what to expect when I sat down to read this book, but it certainly wasn't this. This is an experimental apocolyptic adventure in sci-fi, and I don't think anyone could have done it better. I was very pleased with this book and think that I could read it many more times over the years. Very bold for a new author.

Soldier of Light Review

Interesting dark and dismal concept of what our future might be like, John de Lancie, actor and now writer of "Star Trek I, Q" and better known for his portray of the mischievous "Q" on Star Trek Next Generation teams with Tom Cool, Sci-fi author of "SECRET REALMS" and of "INFECTRESS" do an excellent job in keeping you riveted to the book. The book follows the exploits of the Keegan brothers Harley and particularly Owen who has to try to rescue his family from the all powerful and lord of evil, the One. Can the Keegan's survive and can they defeat the One. Will good trimputh over evil or will the One obliterate mankind?

If you like spine-tingling adventure in our futuristic society, if you want to see a family stretched to it limits and beyond. If you like to see heroes risking all to defeat the evil One and if you like a love story that transcends most romance novels. You need to read "Soldier of Light".

The evil One is out to destroy human kind, as we know it. It will take beings of equal power to beat the One before mankind becomes as extinct as the dinosaurs that the One destroyed.

The book is based a lot on John personal beliefs and his philosophy. You can see a lot of him and his own personal family in the characters of this book. Tom Cool brings a lot of interesting geographical terrains and highly descriptive scenes to the book. If you want to see mind minulapation at it worst being used on the innocent. You need to buy a copy of "Soldier of Light".

I hope they will do an audio book on "Soldier of Light" with John de Lancie as narrator. It would be terrific! Get your copy today, as "Soldier of Light" is an excellent read.

Mary Jensen mj12038@cedarnet.org

As their world seems to be unraveling around them, the brothers Owen and Harley Keegan take action. Owen takes his wife and autistic daughter, and flees to the safety of a boat on the ocean. Harley, ever the fighter, decides stay and build a home in this new world. However, neither understands how truly new the world now is. The Earth has moved into a sphere of being, the place where true intelligence exists, and the human mind is coming to grips (or not) with the new reality. Some people gain new powers, but many die. It is a war of all against all...but it's even worse then that, for at the core of the world exists the One. For many cycles, the Earth has belonged to the One, and it has no desire to share it with the upstart newcomers - man.

I must admit to some trepidation when I picked this book up. I read I. Q., also cowritten by John De Lancie, and did not enjoy it. However, what that book tried to be, this book is. Even as the world unravels, the story stays strong and clear. This book keeps you at the edge of your seat, and up all night! I highly recommend this book.

The world is no longer the same. However, when the change came it was not nuclear, chemical, or biological. Instead the change was psychic. Most of humanity simply went insane, turning into cesspools of angry rioters. A few became adepts with extra sensory powers to fight to stay human. However, the One plans to destroy all earthlings as it once ended the reign of the dinosaurs for the recently awakened One relishes destruction on a global scale.

Two Bay area siblings Owen and Harley Keegan attain powers to combat the One. As civilization collapses, Harley becomes a knight in shining armor rescuing helpless females from insidious thugs. Owen, accompanied by his wife Kate and their daughter Constance, flee Oakland looking for sanctuary. However, the One begins to entice the two females into the world of evil. Owen knows his fight with the One has turned personal as he will brave hell for his heavenly cause.

SOLDIER OF LIGHT is a strange, action-packed apocalyptic tale that will please die hard fans of the sub-genre. The story line vividly describes a post-apocalyptic world and the action never slows down for a nanosecond. However, the characters never seem genuine nor attain reader empathy (especially the pathetic women) and the One appears more like an under-nourished Galactus. John De Lancie & Tom Cool know how to pack the action, but some readers will remain cool towards this tale.

Harriet Klausner

A few years ago I purchased the cassette tape version of this play and enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately, I lost my copy and have wanted to listen to this play many times since then. I'm glad I purchased this item again and look forward to hearing it again.

After purchasing this audio novel I was initially upset because it was only an hour long. I much prefer my audio novels to be at least 2 hours long. With a foul mode in place I began to listen to the tape. In a few short minutes I was quickly swept up into the story, recogizing my favorite Star Trek actors as they played their parts. The audio novel although short has an excellant production quality. The story is concise and easy to follow. I would like to thank John DeLancie for directing this project and for the participaction of the other actors. I would not hesitate to recommend this audio novel and look forward to others from John DeLancy, Lenard Nimoy and the rest of the Star Trek gang. (The RAMA science fiction series would be great.) Please make them at least 2 hours though.

We've all seen at least one of the movie versions of H.G. Well's The Time Machine, but none of them frankly compares with the original Sci-Fi classic. The book tells the story of the Time Traveler's journey nearly a million years into the future and the very unexpected and disturbing society he finds there. The Time Traveler formulates various theories based on what he observes of the society which each, in turn, prove to be oh so wrong! [Warning: mild spoiler] In the end, his realization of the future is especially terrifying considering it is the result of our current social structure (or H.G. Well's, anyway).

I especially recommend this book for those of us with short attention spans - it's only 140 pages (and that's the large print version). But don't get the wrong idea, this book still has more depth and creativity than most 500 page books i've read and is a great read, even compared with today's science fiction standards.

This book has to be considered a classic considering it spawned a whole genre of time traveling books, movies, and tv shows which imitated it. It is also the best Wells book I have read, hand's down (though I never read "the invisible man"). Get a hold of a copy and read it today!!

I bought this for my 10 year old son who saw the movie. He didn't like the book and said it was too slow starting for him. He also said the movie was better.

The Time Machine is a great novel. This book took Sci-fi to a whole new level. The Time Machine is about a man only known as the "Time Traveler", who invents a time machine in the 1800's and travels through time, obviously, and comes across an Earth where human civilization has fallen to evolution. And when the Time Traveler goes back to his time machine it isn't there, it just disappeared he then finds that Earth is inhabited by little people that speak a completely different language than English, an that the buildings were taken back by mother nature. The Time Traveler eventually learns there weird language and befriends a female "native", but there is a dark side to all of this, there are the Morlocks; a nocturnal peoples that somewhat harvest these other little people and eat them. These Morlocks live in caverns underground, and are thought to be the "Working Class", that moved underground to work in factories. As time went on they just lived there and broke away from the "Upper Class" aka the little people, and thus the Morlocks where created, but when food ran out the Morlocks turned to cannibalism and started to catch and eat the little people. The Time Traveler eventually figures out the Morlocks have taken his time machine which he gets back after fighting off a horde of Morlocks and he goes back in time to tell his tale to few friends. He then goes back into the future and is never seen again. This is a great read for anyone, and I highly recommend it.

This is one of my fave classics. An easy read that makes you wonder what if? I usually dont like sci fi books but this is truely an exception.

They seek him now, they seek him then,
They seek the blighter everywhen.
If in some future age he's dead,
About him now what's to be said?

Time travel stories since Wells wrote have become far cleverer and more sophisticated than The Time Machine, but I have never yet read one to equal it. Wells does not contort his or his reader's mind round the now-familiar paradoxes. How is any era visited or returned to by a time-traveller affected by the visit or the return? If objects from the future are brought back to the present, i.e. before they existed, does that do anything to the objects or to their pre-existence environment? Wells keeps all that sort of thing simple. In his schematic storyteller's view time is just like a dimension of space. If you are some variety of Professor Potty and can invent a machine to travel in time, then you can just go to your destination and come back from it as if you were taking a day return trip on the train from Banstead to London.

It presumably should go without saying nowadays that whether or not The Time Machine is properly catalogued as `science fiction' it is not about science. The time traveller has a splendid-sounding Victorian conveyance distinguished by such hi-tech appurtenances as brass rods, ivory levers and quartz doofers of some less specified kind. Security is minimal, as the machine is an open single-seater with the control levers removeable to prevent unauthorised use -- a very sound precaution, as all anyone would need to do is move the levers and head off up or down the aeons, no previous training or experience necessary.

For anyone not yet familiar with the plot, I am not going to spoil it for him or her via a review. However any reviewer can hardly avoid commenting on the societal vision that Wells offers, starting with his first stopping-off point 800693 years from the date of my writing this. The scenario of the division of humanity into two simple and drastically differentiated categories obviously owes much to contemporary analysis of society and history on a class basis. However it is about as far from being Marxian, from that point on, as I can well imagine. Marx was an optimist, at least from a certain point of view. He argued that if the urban proletariat, which had nothing to lose but its chains, could only divest itself of the latter a certain kind of utopia could be established in which all would provide according to their ability and receive according to their need. The mind of Wells was darker than this, and his grim visions, like Stapledon's some time later, found creative expression in this tale of unforgettable vividness, simplicity and pessimism, but at the same time also beauty.

For me, The Time Machine represents another kind of short journey backwards. It takes me back to the golden era of Victorian prose. Wells had, says Brian Alldiss, practically every gift that a novelist can have; and to that I shall add only that he is a great writer as well as a great novelist. There is real poetry in Wells's prose at its best, and by that I do not suggest any affectation or gratuitous ornament in the style. What I mean is that the story, contained mainly within quotation marks as the time-traveller recounts his three experiences of the far future, reminds me forcibly of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Wells found no redemption, and his final book was called Mind at the End of its Tether. If it is any use my saying so to him from the future, I hope some benevolent deity saved him from the fiends that plagued him thus. For the rest of us, the dangers that we are creating for ourselves are not those foreseen hypothetically by Wells. I only hope they are not a great deal worse.