H. G. Wells Books

A novel of science gone awry. Wells is quite scathing of scientists, in general, throughout this story. A process has been invented that can increase the size of organics. This goes everywhere from plant life and crops through animals, and eventually all the way through humans. Lots of over large products cause problems, and over large humans are put to work because of the abilities their superior size gives them. Such exploitation and differences lead to conflict.

Many of H.G. Wells books deal with what we call science fiction. Such as The War of The Worlds, The Time Machine or the Invisible Man he likes to write about wonders brought about by new technology or alien ways. He loved a good What-if-this-happened? Yet there was also a social scientist within him. With such novels as The Island Of Dr. Moreau and The Food Of The Gods he also explored the human condition and how fixed or flexible it could become.
In the Food Of The Gods two men, Mr. Bensington and Professor Redwood put their knowledge together to make a chemical that allows an animal or plant continuous growth without need for it to stop to build up energy or material.
Soon mankind is dealing with giant wasps, chickens, grass and all kinds of harmless or very dangerous creatures. And soon babies are given the BoomFood to make them into giants. What should mankind do with the giants? Employee them? Bar them from the rest of civilization? Kill them?
The novel is full of humor, mostly pointed at the class system, scientists, the common man and society in general. There is even a slight hint that each new generation THINKS of itself as giants, as big minds with big ideas.
The funny part was the slow change of the characters' impressions on me, as I started to think of the normal sized humans as pigmies near the end and the giants as the normal sized humans. This was done mostly by allowing them to become the major characters, shifting the point of view, so we started to see more of the giants, their way of life, their problems and less of the normal humans. Also, the normal humans seemed to whine a lot.
Clearly this novel has effected many other books and many, many sci-fi B-movies. THEM just to name one. Get it used or new.

There's that catchy line in Jurassic Park where Ian Malcolm says that Hammond's scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could genetically reproduce dinosaurs that they never considered whether they should do it--H.G. Wells gets the distinction of illustrating the dilemma. Here is a humorous look at the stereotypical scientists and the hot-headed public confronted with change. Wells pokes fun at academics, politics, and the theoretical vs. practical aspects of science.

This book is way better than one may suspect. Sure, it's very British, but some of the absurd scenes--such as giant rats attacking a carriage--are wonderfully described. There was an awful movie a while back that bastardized this fine novel and should be avoided, but do yourself a favor and pick up this novel. Sci-Fi comes in all shapes and forms, and this is a hilarious, thought-provoking sample.

This book is quite possibly the most boring book I have ever read. It just won't end. I doggedly pursued the end of this book, but I thought that I would become comatose by the time I finished it. So two scientists have harnessed a chemical that creates incredibly large versions of their genetic potential. Wow. So interesting. Please don't become the ultimate masochists. Just file on past this book when you see it on a shelf.

When the scientists Bensington and Redwood create a new compound which turns growth in all living things from a series of bursts and intermission into a constant, they have no idea how it will affect the world. Indeed, when this new "Food of the Gods" gets loose, it begins to grow giant plants and animals...and giant people. But, is the world big enough to hold an aging race of pygmies and a young race of giants?

This now largely forgotten work was written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in 1904, during his brief sojourn with the Fabian Society. Mr. Wells did not write his science fiction to tell entertaining stories; instead, he used his stories as vehicles for social commentary. In this particular book, Wells introduces a new race of mankind, large and capable - born outsiders who can not possibly fit into the social constructs that surround them, much less understand them.

Now, unlike War of the Worlds and The Invisible Man, why did this book fade into obscurity? Overall, I would say that Wells critique of Edwardian society is not deep enough to allow this story to transcend that setting. Also, while the story is quite good, it is not great, unlike those other stories.

So, am I saying that you should skip this book? Definitely not! H.G. Wells was a tremendous storyteller, and this story is quite entertaining. If you are a fan of Edwardian literature, or just like a good story, then you will definitely like this book. I highly recommend it.

HG Wells has few peers as science fiction writer. He was both prolific writer and one of great quality. Although his works are now about a century old, they still resonate with the modern reader.

"The Country of the Blind" is one of Wells's less well known works. It is yet to have Hollywood set loose on it. Yet, despite being less well known, it is a marvelous short story.

Here we are introduced to a village where all its inhabitants are literally blind. Sight means nothing to them. Day and night are only of difference due to temperature. Houses have no windows. When there is nothing to see, what purpose does a window serve?

Into this sightless world stumbles an outsider who can see with perfect vision. Surely in the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king? Not so! The locals deem him to be mad. Sight? How can this have any meaning in the country of the blind?

While the story is a very good yarn, it has a deeper meaning that is of very great relevance in today's world. The blind of the tale have there own explanations for how their world was created and what are its limits. The sighted man is a fool. He is also a threat. How similar is this to the world in which we live where the religiously zealous amongst have their own tales of creation and there own explanations that have no intrinsic scientific coherence. Wells was making a cautionary tale. In the country of the blind, we often find the blind leading the blind.

The modern fame of H. G. Wells is largely due to the film adaptations of his longer stories. ?War of the Worlds?, ?The Invisible Man? and ?The Time Machine? have all been made into successful movies. The famous radio broadcast of ?The War of the Worlds? will always remain a legend in the history of mass media. However, Wells also wrote many short stories and six of the best appear in this collection.
Martin Gardner wrote a short introduction to each of the stories, explaining some of the story line as well as some of the science and historical backdrop of the story. In no case does he give away too much of the plot and since the stories were written over a century ago, the historical context would prove helpful to many readers.
The stories are excellent; ?The Country of the Blind? is one of the best short stories ever written. The premise is that there is an isolated valley where all inhabitants are blind from birth due to a genetic defect. However, they have adapted very well to their environment, working at night, needing no light in their dwellings and possessing extremely acute hearing. A sighted man from the outside literally falls off a snow-covered mountain into their valley, and immediately believes that he will dominate, citing the old adage, ?In the country of the blind the one-eyed man is King.? Since none of the inhabitants has any knowledge of sight, his explanations of what it is like to see is gibberish to them. To them, he is a fool who cannot even do the simplest of tasks.
The second story is ?The Star?, where a rogue planet collides with Neptune. They merge, the energy of the collision causes them to glow like a star and their changed orbit takes them close to Earth, creating fire and destruction. Third in the list is ?The New Accelerator? about a potion that causes a person to have their worldview accelerated so that they operate at a rate much faster than everyone else. Star Trek fans will recognize this as the basis for ?Wink of An Eye?, an episode in the original series. The fourth story is ?The Remarkable Case of Davidson?s Eyes? where a lightening strike shifts the line of sight of a man from his current location to a point on the antipodal position on the other side of the Earth. ?Under the Knife? is an out-of-body experience, where a man under chloroform anesthesia believes he has died on the operating table. His mind is apparently outside his body and he ?watches? himself die as his physician tries to save him. The final story is ?The Queer Story of Brownlow?s Newspaper?, where a man receives a paper from exactly forty years in the future. The account of his reading the paper is another case of predicting the future, and Wells turns out to be better than most. He predicts the collapse of the Soviet Union, although he was twenty years too early.
These stories have held up very well, largely due to their human themes. They are billed as science fiction, but ?The Country of the Blind? and ?Under the Knife? are about humans reacting to unusual circumstances and it is hard to think of them as science fiction. ?The Queer Story of Brownlow?s Newspaper? is speculation about future events, most of which are social and political. ?The Star? is basically an apocalyptic tale and ?The Remarkable Case of Davidson?s Eyes? deals with clairvoyance. ?Wink of an Eye? is the only story that I would consider true science fiction.
H. G. Wells was a good writer, but the fame of his movies tends to make him under appreciated by modern readers. These stories show him at his best, telling stories that have lost none of their appeal a century after they were written.

H.G. Wells is one of the finest writters of science fiction of all time, and these stories are no exception. Unfortunately, the editor of this volume makes this a book to be avoided. There are six stories in this book, and before each story is an introduction by the editor. In these introductions, which range from one paragraph to several pages, the editor not only ruins the story by revealing the ending, but he also explains the mistakes with the science that Wells uses in his stories. We are also given a list of the mistakes that Wells made in his predictions of the future. There would be nothing wrong with these introductions if they were in a book of essays and criticisms on H.G. Wells. But they aren't, and the average reader of this book will be one who has not read these stories before. It would be a much better idea to buy another collection of his stories. Then you could actually enjoy the stories by themselves, without feeling like someone is reading over your shoulder, pointing out what's wrong with the book. Although the stories: The New Accelerator, the Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes, Under the Knife, the Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper, and the title story are all excellent examples of H.G. Wells supreme story telling ability, they can, and should, be read in another book.

A nontheist stumbles into a country so infested with godworship, that his claim to have a nonexistent sense called "reason," enabling him to see that their beliefs are falsifiable fairy tales, causes the inhabitants to assume that he is insane. When he falls for a female godworshipper, his need to belong prompts him to yield to their demand that he be surgically cured by having the organ responsible for his delusion, an organ that they do not have that he calls his "brain," amputated. At the last minute, he realizes that no woman or society is worth a lifetime of brainless conformity, and flees.

In the story "The Country of the Blind" H.G. Wells manages to capture the dark side of humanity and place it in the metaphor of blindness. He does this well and his point is well made. By focusing on how the man thinks himself superior because he can see, Wells illistrates a point most of us can see as obvious. When he thinks it is his right to change thier way of life to his "better" way, I was reminded of all the cultures that have been changed or even wiped out by those who thought they were superior. Also, when Wells turns it around and shows the blind as thinking themselves superior it shows that even when we think we are not like the perfect man, we all are. The first pages dragged a bit, but the content and pace of the rest of the book made it well worth it!

"Gabriel Mesta"(Kevin J Anderson aka) simply tells a fun story that is a romp in every sense of the word. Loads of fun, very visual and a great take off on two of the Wells' stories. Great summer book!!!

What if H.G. Wells wrote all his stories based on real people he had met, real events he had lived through and real places he had seen. What if he had met the Grand Lunar while on the Moon, gotten his hands on the journal of Dr Moreau, or worked along such men of science as Dr. Griffin, Dr. Cavor, and even T.H. Huxley?
And when he, to his great horror, finds out about the Martians and their plans for Earth, what can he do to stop them?
While I truly enjoyed the book and the way Kevin J. Anderson poured all of Mr. Wells's works together to make a grand novel I feel I would have liked more details about the civilizations on both the Moon and Mars. Yet the author was willing to invent and create many parts of the book on his own - I enjoyed the idea that the Heat-Ray was being used for something else besides war - so he did not allow himself to be trapped by what could only be found in the books. I also enjoyed the mixture of real people, such as Mr. Lowell, with fictional characters, such as Professor Redwood and Mr. Bensington.

I don't know what the author was trying to accomplish, but the book was so poorly written with such shallow characterizations that it was like reading the back of a cereal box. I think this was the most blatant attempt to ride the back of a hot movie property that I have seen in decades. It doesn't work. Don't waste your time or money.

In 1894 at London's Normal School of Science elderly biology Professor T.H. Huxley and his young protégé H.G. Wells observe a meteor shower with plenty of enthusiasm. While watching the heavenly display they discuss life on other worlds specifically arid colder Mars leading Huxley to conclude with a "war of the worlds" comment.

Huxley decides that Wells has the needed intelligence and imagination to accept that live Martians are on the red planet. He introduces his student and Wells wife Amy Catherine ("Jane") Robbins to the wonders of the Britain's Imperial Institute, where he meets Dr. Hawley Griffin working on invisibility, Dr. Moreau and astronomer Percival Lowell who have sent a message to Mars. However, Wells, Jane and Huxley are accidentally propelled into space where they meet the Martians and learn how the hive-mind Selenites were enslaved. On Mars, the three earthlings cause a Selenite revolt and unleash disease on the water system of the drying out fourth planet from the sun. Desperate for water, the Martians turn to that plentiful third rock for the War of the Worlds seem eminent.

This is a terrific homage to H.G. Wells as well as the late Victorian scientific and technical community whose advances laid much of the foundation of the twentieth century. The story line cleverly blends real historical figures like Huxley, Wells, and Lowell with literary characters like Griffin and Moreau. The tale is fast-paced and action packed yet the key players feel three dimensional especially the Martian leader. Fans will enjoy this strong historical science fiction novel while concluding somehow Gabriel Mesta will contact Orson Welles to simulcast the story over the Internet.

Harriet Klausner

Gabriel Mesta is a pseudonym of Kevin J. Anderson, used so as to distinguish this book from his heavier DUNE and SEVEN SUNS novels. But although this is lighter fare, it's also incredibly inventive, and such a clever core idea that it's a wonder that it took a century for anyone to think of it: imagine if all of H.G. Wells's great novels -- including THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE WAR OF THE WORLD, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, and THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU -- were all set in one universe, so that before invading Earth, the Martians first went after the Selenites, and so that the sinister Dr. Moreau is the surgeon on hand trying to save a Martian from a crashlanded cylinder, while Wells and his mentor, Darwin's bulldog himself -- T.H. Huxley -- race to Mars in Cavor's sphere. Ingenious, compulsively readable, and just tons of great fun. Five stars.

First off, let me say, I think H.G. Wells is one of the best authors of all time. But when it comes to designing examples of human society he needs help. For example - to keep people employed they are sent to where the labor is needed. They are given just the minimum, shelter and food and clothing, for what is looked at as the minimum of work. In other words, a labor force of wage-slaves, forced to move around the planet at the needs of the factories and businesses. If you HAPPEN to be educated enough or hyperactive enough to do more than the normal amount of work you can gain more or, in the case of women, be allowed to have kids. And if you are really smart, healthy and active you can become Samurai - nobles of the world.
The end results sounds more like a system set up in the Middle Ages, with most of the labor moving to where the jobs are, a small middle class of above normal workers and a class of supermen, and some women, at the top. I am sorry Wells, but this is not a Utopia. Even after talking about individualism and the equality of women in the end this more like a nightmare, and a boring one at that.
You should read it, because many modern books on utopias and dystopias will use it as part of the background on the subject. But I don't think anybody should really talk about it as a serious system of World Government.

_A Modern Utopia_ (1905) by H.G. Wells deals with two men who are transported instantaneously to a distant planet that is physically identical to Earth. However, this planet contains a worldwide, kinetic, and socialistic Utopian society that differs radically from that of our own world. Wells dispenses with some of the disbelief involved with a certain amount of charm:

The whole world will surely have a common language, that is quite elementarily Utopian, and since we are free of the trammels of convincing storytelling, we may suppose that the language to be sufficiently our own to understand. (17)

Perhaps the first thing to note about _A Modern Utopia_ is that it contains some very perceptive criticism of Utopian literature:

There must always be a certain effect of hardness and thinness about Utopian speculations. Their common fault is to be comprehensively jejune. That which is the blood and warmth and reality of life is largely absent; there are no individualities, but only generalised people. In almost every Utopia-- except, perhaps, Morris's "News from Nowhere"-- one sees handsome but characterless buildings, symmetrical and perfect cultivations, and a multitude of people... without any personal distinction whatever. (9)

Does _A Modern Utopia_ escape these problems? Perhaps not entirely. But it comes close to doing so. First, there are the characters. The visitors to Utopia are the narrator, a portly, middle-aged version of Wells and a rather petty botanist, who is constantly mooning about a shallow romance of his youth. Shortly after they enter Utopia, they meet a blond-haired, sandal-shod, back-to-Nature spokesman (modeled on William Morris), who has nothing good to say about Utopia. Shortly before their departure, the narrator meets his double, a member of the _samurai_, or ruling class of Utopia. Other members of Utopia include a bewildered innkeeper, a polite but efficient bureaucrat, assorted criminals and social failures, an amiable supervisor of a toy factory, various students and business people, and W.E. Henley (who proves to be as irascible in this world as in ours). Wells's point is that his Utopia is populated with _individuals_-- and not all of these individuals are noble, wise, and virtuous. There must be restrictions in this Utopia, but there also must be flexibility enough to allow for some freedom and individual differences.

Wells also gives a certain amount of attention to architecture and engineering. He describes in some detail an Alpine inn, a train, a hostel in continental Europe, and some streets and buildings in the city of London. Wells envisions all of these structures as essentially modern in style. We can understand why Wells, writing at the turn of the twentieth century, might have a strong reaction against the ugliness and dirtiness of Victorian architecture. But readers living at the turn of the twenty-first century have lived for some time with modern architecture. They may be forgiven for feeling less enthusiastic about this style.

Two chapters are still timely today. The first is chapter six, which deals with women in a modern Utopia. (Wells felt that there should be some restrictions on marriage, but that women should be paid for rearing children.) The second is the penultimate chapter, which deals with race in a modern utopia (or, to be more precise, racism in our own society). In this chapter, the botanist reveals some repulsive racist traits that were all too common in Wells's day. The modern reader should read these chapters and judge how far (or how little) we have progressed.

There are some other areas of controversy or interest connected with the modern Utopia. Capital punishment has been abolished, but euthenasia for babies with certain birth defects exists. Criminals and misfits may be eventually banished to selected islands. There is a hint that Wells was not altogether satisfied with this condition. The _samurai_ tells the narrator that he is currently engaged in a project to reform or improve the approach to dealing with the exiles, but he does not suggest a specific solution. A third area of interest is the economy of Utopia. The Utopians have abandoned the gold standard in favor of units of energy. We have gradually moved off the gold standard, though we have not adopted units of energy... or have we? In these days of oil-hungry societies, are we not moving in that direction?

Many readers and critics argue that Wells's utopian novels do not measure up to his scientific romances, such as _The Time Machine_ (1895), or his mainstream novels, such as _Tono-Bungay_ (1910). There is justice in this criticism. But such criticism should not cause you to ignore _A Modern Utopia_. It is well written and thoughtful. It is still fresh after over a century.

In narrative style, this is about the oddest Utopia story I've seen. It alternates almost seamlessly between the usual kind of Utopian fiction and a here-amd-now narrative in a voice that seems to be Wells's own. In the here-and-now, the speaker ponders the human state and reasons closely on an idealized world that still has room in it for fallible, real people. Then the thought gels, and the fantasy world comes to life to play out the points discussed. A companion joins our speaker throughout the story, fact-like and fantastic parts both, and embodies plenty of the human condition that would need to be accomodated: in need of immediate gratification, given more to involuntary emotional reaction than to thinking, and self-centered in a way that's blind, innocent, and pervasive.

As promised in the title, it's modern in ways that many more recent Utopias aren't. Wells considers the unavoidable inequality of child-bearing duties, and turns full-time motherhood into a paying profession. He acknowledges acquisitiveness and cupidity - rather than wide-open warehouses, his Utopia uses money to add wisdom (or at least thought) to the choices made in what to take home. He discusses race and racial superiority in terms that his 1905 audience would have found familiar. In the end, he argues for economic and legal equality not on the grounds of actual equality, a point that he leaves undecided, but on the grounds that no group in history has ever shown that it deserved to hold the upper hand.

There's more, much more, including a wealth of references to other Utopian literature - that by itself might almost have justified the cost of this book. Wells's interleaving of multiple levels of fiction also makes for an unusual reading experience. But it's the ideal world itself that stands out, mostly by not standing out. Real people didn't set out to create a bad world, so most of what we've worked out has a lot going for it. Above all, what we've got has room in it for many kinds of people, not all of whom will or can devote themselves to some moral ideal. "A Modern Utopia" is complex and layered in its presentation, but equally complex in what might look like banality of solutions to pressing social problems. Social improvement mattered too much to Wells for him to let it seem glib or impossible.

-- wiredweird

Wells imagines a world that resembles our own, but is much more humane and rational. In this utopian world everyone has a job to go to, everything is well organized, and peopel are well-mannered--a kind of full-employment Victoria era with central planning and plenty of monorails.

I find Wells' sci-fi works more compelling than his straight social commentary and vision, such as found in this book. He imagines human beings and the conditions of the modern world as being much simpler than they really are. And in this he is not alone. He is tempted by the sin of all utopians from Plato to Thomas More, to Karl Marx to believe in a simplistic schema of a solution for all social ills. Wells rejected Marx, but he was a Fabian socialist. He saw mcuh hard work and injustice in his life and sought a remedy, but his "modern utopia" is not the solution. He puts altogether too much faith in the rationality of the government and expects too little of all kinds of unpredictable events and unintended consequences.

I find that in the utopia he described life would be boring and imagination severely limited. I doubt that after a few months of life in his own utopia Wells would still want to stay. The world is not perfect, but it would be worse if it were more like "modern utopia."

This book makes an effort to discribe the Utopian govrernment of a world thatis an image of our own in apperene, buut with people of differing opinions. The ideas are inrusting, but requtre some patience to read through.

After reading Wells' story about Prophet Mohamed I wondered if s/he ever read anything about Mohamed's life. When you want to talk about a subject you study it if you don't want to stay ignorant, and read from all sources if you don't want to stay close-minded. Wells obviously did not do those things. After that "historical" I began to wonder whether he did the same with other "stories", too. Waste of time. Plus, although the book may seem "funny" lets remember that if a history book is funny it is based on personal opinions and feelings, rather than facts.

In addition to all of the other glowing and positive reviews below, I'd like to humbly add the following......

When it came to my O'levels (GCSE's), I was given the choice of History or Geography; looking back I think it was unfortunate that I chose Geography.

I stumbled across an earlier version of this book about 30 years ago and have never looked back. For me it made the subject so interesting and accessible. The read is absolutely captivating and you really won't want to put it down once you've started.

Obviously because of the author, the book only goes up to around the time of WWII. If you enjoy this book as much I have then you may wish to expand your knowledge with dynamite read by "J.M. Roberts" called "The New Penguin History of the World".

Both of these books are classics, or certainly will be and really ought to be in pride of place in all school book library history sections if not on each student's desk during history lessons!! Essential reading and fantastic reference for any history buff.

This is the book that had such a powerful impact on Malcolm X. Its easy to see why. The history of the world is vividly outlined in an erudite and readable style. (Ever since I read `The Time Machine' when I was sixteen, I have considered Wells to be the clearest writer of prose in the English language.) Wells takes us from the very beginning of life right up to the League of Nations in 1922, stopping off at most points in-between: Neolithic cavemen, Periclean Athens, Roman and Byzantium civilisations, the life of Jesus, Confucius and Lao Tse, the rise of Islam, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, discovery of America, the Industrial Revolution, World War I, and so on. The book is breathtaking in its scope, but Wells manages to give a succinct, vivid and comprehensive view of world history. I have found myself re-reading many of the chapters and I do not doubt that I will soon be re-reading the book in its entirety. There is little to criticise in this book - maybe it is a little Euro-centric; in the last chapters he does tend to labour his point a bit; and the early chapters are a little dated as we now know so much more about the evolution of our species. These are mere quibbles. Read it and become informed. Read it and be entertained.

If you have ever wondered about how history hangs together, then this is the book for you. From the dawn of civilization to the modern era, Wells takes you along the journey of civilization (and pre-civilization -- the first few chapters of the book cover geology and evolution). This tome, and if ever a volume merited the word this is it, carries you along the way with Alexander, Persian Kings, Khans, Crusaders, Chinese Emperors, Popes, French Citizens, Tsars, and Kaisers. The sweep of characters, times and places includes a wonderful vista of history, all together and seen in relation to its entirety.

Yes, it's dated. Yes, it's slanted. H. G. Wells is very Victorian in his ethics. His politics were Fabian Socialist so you will find a distinct undercurrent for a socialist world government driving the story along. He is as un-Eurocentric as you could expect for the time: Europe and the Middle East take up the majority of the book, China and India play the next biggest role, followed distantly by Africa, Australia and the Americas.

The flaws are few given the task, the style is immensely readable, and the man who wrote The War of the Worlds, Time Machine, The Invisible Man and the Island of Doctor Moreau knows how to tell a story. Wells had the nerve to take on the World and the world gets a ripping good yarn with Mankind as the hero. You're part of the story; why not read it?

Also if you liked this book, you might enjoy:

Guns, Germs, and Steel : The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

Democratic Ideas and Reality by Halford J. Mackinder

Writing a history of the world that is fun to read, easy to understand, and not a gazillion pages long is no easy task. Wells has done it in a masterful way.

This is a book for all ages as it is written in an extremely simple and clear manner.

Not to put down both film adaptations of "The Time Machine" because I enjoyed them a great deal, but the novel totally blew me away. Granted, I am a fan of the "stranger in a strange land" premise, but the material Wells writes about, as well as certain philosophical elements, are way ahead of its time here. I don't think it's real necessary to discuss the plot, because I felt it was secondary to other questions and ideas the novel brings up (if you want to know what they are, buy the book and read it).

The novel also doesn't neatly tie everything up by the end like the 1960 movie, and it offered Simon Wells (the author's great grandson, I think) a chance to make a movie adaptation to further journey into the Morlocks' subterranean lair. Even though the passage in the novel where the Time Traveller ventures underground is brief and ambiguous, it's still terrifying and accurate because the bulk of the story is told from his point of view. The ending was so spell-binding, and, in some ways tragic, I had to re-read it couple of times. It's incredible how Wells could fit this exciting and creative story involving time travel, the year 802,701 and beyond, & the Eloi and Morlocks into a compact novel a little over 120 pages. Even if you're not a sci-fi fan, I feel this novel will still entertain and definitely provoke.

What do you think about when you think of the future? Advanced technology and crowded cities, right? In H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, the future is not as mechanical as one might think. In fact, machinery is hardly seen at all! The year 802,701 AD appears to be a utopia, free from strife and the stresses of current life. But, it is later shown that things are not always as they seem!
The story begins in the home of a wealthy scientist, known in the book as The Time Traveler. The book takes place in the 1800s in England. The Time Traveler is hosting a dinner party with other scientists. Casually, The Time Traveler begins to introduce his concept of Time Travel with the men. He tells them that he has discovered the fourth dimension: time. In the fourth dimension you do not actually move physically, but through time. The scientists find it hard to believe. A week later, when he is hosting another dinner party, he showed up late, with torn clothes and a haggard look on his face. All of the men are shocked and give him the time he needs to recuperate. After a shower and a little food, the main plot begins, as the Time Traveler begins to tell his tale.
The main plot of this story, about a time of apparent peace, is dated in the year 802,701. His first encounter with humans is with a people called the Eloi. They are slim, weak, unintelligent, and good natured. The Time Traveler quickly finds out that even though they are men of the future, they have a mentality of a seven year old! He ends up becoming friends with one of them, a girl named Weena, who happily follows him around after he saved her life. Through her actions he begins to learn their lifestyle, and when she speaks he begins to learn their language. Later, when he was able to translate one of the Eloi's songs, a terrible truth begins to dawn on him. After an encounter with a strange, ape-like creature that climbed down a well, he realized that in this world there are two species of man, the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Morlocks dwell under the ground and only appear during the night. The song of the Eloi describes the Morlocks and what they do. The Morlocks in the story are what turn this future from a utopia to a dystopia. To find out why, read for yourself.
The Time Machine is a book full of imagination. The book turns away from the usual descriptions of the future, and throws a completely different spin onto it. Books like these end up stretching your mind just trying to imagine the place they are describing. The illustrated version of the book greatly helps you picture what is actually happening. I would recommend this book to people who don't have a hard time grasping concepts of the unknown such as time travel. The book would have been a better read if I could have gotten past the fact that time travel is not real, and just accepted the story. After all, maybe someday a real time machine will be invented.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells is a wondeful novel to read and I would give four stars to because the author's imagination and descriptions of the future makes the book so interesting and one that you don't want to put down.
The author did give a great description of what the time traveler saw in the future. He described the people very well, it was like I was actually in the time traveler's shoes. These creatures consisted of the Eloi,people who never spoke, and slept and ate most of the time. The Morlocks who were from the shadows, they rarely saw daylight, and are ape-like figures who lurk in the darkness. The future was much more advanced from our time now, according to the time in the book. The book shows how everything is coming to and end and how our time is much different from theres. Even the enviornment has changed greatly!
This new world is strange to the time traveler at first, but then he comes to realize how everything is coming about. He witnesses the buildings, and how they aren't so much in tact. Also, hey discovers new fruits and flowers. The Eloi and the Morlocks are very different groups of the future. Morlocks, from what the time traveler has discovered, are the ones who do the work to survuve. The Eloi are the people who sit around and have everything going great for them.As time progresses, the time traveler observes that humans become a thing of the past. He finds out that this future is a dry wasteland that serves no purpose, and ends the circle of life.
I'd also recommend Our Town,by Thornton WIlder, which is a wonderful and terrific story in three acts. Another book I would recommend is Bud, not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis, which is about a boy living in a foster home. The Time Machine is a fantastic fantasy, adventure that you don't want to miss! I am one person who loves to get away.

An unnamed time traveler sees the future of man (802,701 A.D.) and then the inevitable future of the world. He tells his tale in detail.

I grew up on the Rod Taylor /George Pal movie. When I started the book I expected it to be slightly different with a tad more complexity as with most book/movie relationships. I was surprised to find the reason for the breakup of species (Morlock and Eloi) was class Vs atomic (in later movie versions it was political). I could live with that but to find that some little pink thing replaced Yvette Mimieux was too munch.

After al the surprises we can look at the story as unique in its time, first published in 1895, yet the message is timeless. The writing and timing could not have been better. And the ending was certainly appropriate for the world that he describes. Possibly if the story were written today the species division would be based on eugenics.

I believe that this book only deserves three stars for many reasons. But don't get me wrong, the book is a classic in its own unique way, but the way the author tells his story is un-interesting to me.
The author begins with a man who says that time travel is the fourth dimension, and that he could find a way to travel through time. His colleages do not believe him and leave. Later when they return, they see the weary man dismount from his time machine. he then begins to recall his journey.
He traveled to a distant future (802,701 AD) where the world seemed to be a great paradise where nothing was wrong. He discovers a small human race that seem to befriend him. They tell him of the horrible night raids where an ape-like species will come and hunt the small humans. Not to concerned with this, he decides to go explore the underground world where these creatures live so he may retrieve his time machine. he finds out just how hostile the race is and barely escapes alive. Then running from these monsters, he finally gets in his time machine and escapes. He travels to many other time periods where he discovers large and strange creatures roaming the planet, until he finally gets back home.
I think that the character development of this story was too weak. The main protagonist seemed to be an average joe that had a time machine placed in his hands, no more. The rest of the world he developed seems to be the bright side of his story telling. It is obvious that he had a dun time creating his won unique world. Other than that, the story and its plot were only average, but definitely worth looking at at least once in your life time.

I thought the book was pretty cool. I love Sci Fi movies and books. The book was really organized, but kind of confusing. But as I read the book more and more, I started to really understand it! I give iit a 4 out of 5. Highly recommended for Sci Fi lovers!

Honestly, The Time Machine seemed boring to me at first. Maybe its because to understand it I practically should of had a dictionary sitting next to me. Towards the end of the book it became more clear of his message. The creatures such as the elloi were greatly described. I could imagine them next to me. H.G Wells really had a message he wanted to show. If you are dont like a boring begginning i dont think you should get this book, but if your are great with vocabulary or like to find the root and moral of a story this is a book I beleive is for you.

I saw both the movies and read the book. They were way different, so you can't assume the book will be like the movie. The book was about a man, reffered to as the Time Traveller, who traveled through time. He ended up in the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand Seven Hundred and One. He discovered that mankind has divided into two types of creatures, the Ellois and the Morlocks. The Ellois are the Upper-world people who are vegetarians, and live a care free life, or so the Time Traveller thinks. A few days after his arrival, the Time Traveller then discovers the Morlocks, who are carnivores and live off the Ellois. The Time Traveller spends much of his time in the future searching for his time machine, which the Morlocks took in attempt to try to capture him. When the Time Traveller does escape, however, he travels even farther into the future and stops at the end of time.


By Kristin Period 3

This book by H.G. Wells is a classic sci-fi novel that changes your perception of the future. Wells belives that instead of the world developing more and more intellectually, that it will come to a point where there's no need for intelligence. In this novel Wells pieces the vocabulary so well together to create compelling pictures as if you were actually there. The Time Machine leaves you guessing at the end of each chapter to make you want to read on everytime. I would recommend this book to anyone who takes interest in science fiction.

An unnamed time traveler sees the future of man (802,701 A.D.) and then the inevitable future of the world. He tells his tale in detail.

I grew up on the Rod Taylor /George Pal movie. When I started the book I expected it to be slightly different with a tad more complexity as with most book/movie relationships. I was surprised to find the reason for the breakup of species (Morlock and Eloi) was class Vs atomic (in later movie versions it was political). I could live with that but to find that some little pink thing replaced Yvette Mimieux was too munch.

After al the surprises we can look at the story as unique in its time, first published in 1895, yet the message is timeless. The writing and timing could not have been better. And the ending was certainly appropriate for the world that he describes. Possibly if the story were written today the species division would be based on eugenics.

A nineteenth century nonconformist and activisit pulls a Rip Van
Winkle, and wakes up a couple of centuries later. He discovers that he
is now what he was actually agitating against, and is rather shocked.
Wells was predicting the rise of the megacorporation, among other
things, like the use of aeroplanes for travel. Most definitely a
criticism of the large corporation way of life.

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) is remembered as one of the very pioneers of the genre of science-fiction. He is also remembered for his Leftist politics, including a stint with the Fabian Society and his embracing of "Free Love." This book was written in 1899, and is one of the last science-fiction books he wrote before his turn towards social realism in his writing.

In this dystopian novel, Graham falls into a coma-like sleep, a sleep that he wakes from some 203 years in the future. But times have changed. Due to the wise investments of a board of trustees, Graham's money has compounded into the greatest fortune the world has ever seen, and the trustees have used it to virtually enslave the entire planet. The common people know that those who use "The Master's" money are misusing it, and they pine for a time when the sleeper will wake and set things right. But now that Graham is awake, he finds himself a pawn in a world he little understands.

Overall, I found this to be an interesting book. H.G. Wells made a lot of predictions in the book that have sense come to pass, including airplanes, the rise of trans-national corporations that are not under the control of their nation of origin, the rise of a decadent class of useless, pretty, party-people (Hollywood), and so much more. The one fly in the ointment, however, was Wells' use of race. The leaders use an army of "Negroes" to control the population, "They are fine loyal brutes, with no wash of ideas in their heads..."

But, that said, I did find this to be a fascinating, forward looking book. Mr. Wells is rightly remembered for his near prescience in matters of science, and this book shows how much he knew about the future of economics as well. I highly recommend this book.

The concept and story are intrusting. Wells is certinly a good auther, however I do not find the story absorbing. That said, it offers an intrustind (somewhat pessimistic) view of the future.
recomended.

finished this just the other night and what a finish. i'm not going to spoil it because if you havn't read it you should - if you like your sci-fi with a liberal portion of politics and social commentary (which i guess i do).

from the very beginning, the beauty of the writing is that it shares the sense of dislocation and naivete of the protagonist most eloquently. a man waking in a future world where what he sees around him is totally unfamiliar, yet what lies underneath is an expression of barbarism that a post-enlightment intellectual would surely find abhorrent.

the technology wells envisions is perhaps the most telling sign of his intensly perceptive style. the only inline editorial note is towards the end, where an insert advises that wells is writing of aeroplanes 11 years before the first took to the sky and of aerial fighting 18 years before the first dogfight (although once you've made it to flying, it's not that very large a mental gap at all to flying and fighting together...). alongwith telephones, televisions and the classic moving pathway or travelator (found also in asimov, the fantastic planet and others), the other main visual vocabulary is in the architecture. It's all about the scale and in this you could maybe argue (if you were stoned and theoretically ambitious...) that future comrades-in-architecture took some inspiration. which is to say that it reminds me of beijing and berlin, the only two cities i've visted that either were or are communist.

but it's the social commentary i enjoy the most. a rather dark piece of commentary it is too, marking it alongside brave new world, 1984 et. al. the most unsettling part about reading this was to ponder in 2005 the questions wells was asking in 1899. are the extrapolations he was making, perhaps influenced by contempory thinking such as conspicous consumption and antecedents such as rosseau, bearing themselves out today? The stark seperations Veblen was identifying in the seperation of classes by the work they perform (essentially split into industrial and non-industrial) are a central theme in The Sleeper (first published in 1899, the same year as Veblen's The Leisure Class).

Ths work written in 1914 is not one of Wells' great works, but is of interest because it is reputedly the first use of the words "atomic bomb", and recognises the dangers of warfare with a weapon of enormous destructive power delivered from the air. It is remarkably prescient in the light of the date of writing.

H. G. Wells is not usually given enough credit for this particular book (in my opinion, his best). The focus is usually upon one of his other works such as The Time Machine. The World set Free is truly staggering in its scope, scale, and vision of the future. It is interesting to note how much Wells got correct about the future, and to see how much he did not. The fact that this book was written before World War I indicates his genius at seeing what might be possible and how this might come about. I cannot recommend this book more highly than by saying AN EXCELLENT, FASCINATING, GRIPPING PAGE-TURNER. A quick point about the original year of publication - if my memory is correct, it was originally published in 1910, rather than 1914.

Even good writers produce a turkey or two. This is definitely Well's gobbler. I thought he was going in the right direction when he did some character development in a couple of places; it started to get interesting, but then he lapsed back into post-atomic war preaching mode. His model for world government by a single body is pretty lame, but he came close to describing what an atomic bombing and the aftermath would be like. His description of unlimited energy from fission was completely off the mark, however. Altogether, it got pretty darn tedious after awhile.

In this book, Wells describes nuclear warfare and begins the descriptions of a possible future. He named uranium, "Carolinum" and talked about a chain reaction that would leave radiation behind so that nothing would survive afterwards, even if they did escape from the weapon itself. Dr. Szilard, the man who came up with the idea of splitting the atom with a nuetron, did so after reading, "The World Set Free". I say, NO KIDDING! Wells lays the idea right out in front of the world's face, laughing! It then goes on to describe future events that have occured, though in different times, and some which have yet to occur. He spoke of Carolinum (uranium), the atomic theory and its increadible source of power. He spoke of robotics and computers replacing people in the work place. This is where it all started folks. AND THIS IS JUST IN THE FIRST 100 PAGES! Trust me... it gets better :) If you wish yo know more on the theory and the bombs' construction, I refer you to Richard Rhodes. If you want to know the mind and the story that began this whole deal, read this book!!!!

Clean, new, and everything it promised to be. When I was 14, in 8th grade English class, I'd read a short story that had had a message that had stayed with me through life. Though I'd forgotten the author and title of it, I'd referred to it many times in my thoughts, and in telling other people the message, too. I've been searching for it for about 30 years or so, and finally found it on Amazon's search engine. (I'd tried before, but nothing ever surfaced.) Anyway, here it is: The Country of the Blind by H.G. Wells. It's a wonderful story with great metaphors and, unfortunately, it contains a message about what happens to special people with unusual insights while they are alive, and the narrowmindedness and blindness of us all, and the strength of peer pressure. I'm so grateful to have it now.

A fairly substantial chunk of Wells' short stories, and it appears that basically they have included all of the best, here, so a good option if you don't want to wade through the complete variety.

Country of the Blind : THE JILTING OF JANE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE CONE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE STOLEN BACILLUS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE FLOWERING OF THE STRANGE ORCHID - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE AVU OBSERVATORY - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : AEPYORNIS ISLAND - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE REMARKABLE CASE OF DAVIDSON'S EYES. - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE LORD OF THE DYNAMOS. - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE MOTH - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE TREASURE IN THE FOREST - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE STORY OF THE LATE MR. ELVESHAM - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : UNDER THE KNIFE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE SEA RAIDERS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE OBLITERATED MAN - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE PLATTNER STORY - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE RED ROOM - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE PURPLE PILEUS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : A SLIP UNDER THE MICROSCOPE - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE CRYSTAL EGG - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE STAR - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : A VISION OF JUDGMENT - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : JIMMY GOGGLES THE GOD - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : MISS WINCHELSEA'S HEART - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : A DREAM OF ARMAGEDDON - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE VALLEY OF SPIDERS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE NEW ACCELERATOR - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE TRUTH ABOUT PYECRAFT - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE MAGIC SHOP - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE EMPIRE OF THE ANTS - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE DOOR IN THE WALL - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND - H. G. Wells
Country of the Blind : THE BEAUTIFUL SUIT - H. G. Wells

No good.

2 out of 5


Too hot here.

3 out of 5


Anarchy plague hard to swallow.

3.5 out of 5


Hothouse leech.

3.5 out of 5


Big flying thing I think.

3.5 out of 5


Big egg hatching.

4 out of 5


Remote viewing.

3.5 out of 5


Engine sacrifice.

3.5 out of 5


Not fair to die before the end of the debate.

4 out of 5


Poison gold.

3.5 out of 5


Swap is not replacement.

3.5 out of 5


Operation scare.

3.5 out of 5


Cephalopod people eaters.

4 out of 5


Bad play.

2.5 out of 5


Other world reversal.

3 out of 5


Fear place.

4 out of 5


Magic mushies.

3 out of 5


Exam cheating.

3 out of 5


Tuning in Mars.

4 out of 5


Just a near miss, that planet going past Earth. Nothing to worry those Martians.

4 out of 5


It is really not a good idea to stop the Earth's rotation.

3.5 out of 5


Supernatural stuff seen.

2 out of 5


Deity impersonation.

3 out of 5


Snooks not for me.

2.5 out of 5


Future war visions.

3 out of 5


Puffballs, too many legs.

3.5 out of 5


Flash tonic.

3.5 out of 5


A man needs to get his physics straight when asking for supernatural dieting assistance.

4 out of 5


Genuine article here.

3.5 out of 5


Just waiting for the takeover.

4 out of 5


Other places to go.

3 out of 5


Hard to be King, no matter how many eyes.

4 out of 5


Fashion victim.

2.5 out of 5



3.5 out of 5

COUNTRY OF THE BLIND is a collection of 33 short stories hand picked by H.G. Wells as his best. The stories were written first published between 1894 and 1906 in both magazines and other Wells' anthologies. Most of the stories are science fiction, though a few are not. Among my favorites were "The Stolen Bacillus," "The Lord of the Dynamos," "Under the Knife," "The Sea Raiders," "The Crystal Egg," "The Man Who Could Work Miracles," "The New Accelerator," "The Truth About Pyecraft," "The Magic Shop," "Empire of the Ants," and "Country of the Blind." "The Crystal Egg" and "The Magic Shop" both appear to have influenced Stephen King's NEEDFUL THINGS. Other stories were uninspired sleepers.