H. G. Wells Books

Great to listen to the real deal. No one needs to improve upon Well's clasic. All the movie remakes can't match the original telling of an alien invasion from Mars. Get the book and listen to the reading as well. Great stuff!

We are in 1898 England. Yep we see something happening on the surface of Mars. Later what looks like a meteor comes to earth. Once we realize the significant of the situation (or think we do) Different people approach the situation in different ways. The true story is how the different people meet the situation.
Many people want to equate this story with real potential invasions others as the bad guys vs. the good guys. However from the very first we see that they are the greater (more evolved) intelligence and we are the equivalent of vermin or the ants that are being held under the magnifying glass. From our point of view they seem like cruel creatures, from theirs is indifference. Their way of consuming nourishment is appalling yet look at what and how we eat.
Do not miss the 1953 movie. Even thought it adds more religious overtones it is still pretty much the same story with similar characters. Of course this one names the narrator and adds a love interest.

There are a plethora of publications out there for "War of the Worlds," "Island of Doctor Moreau," "The Time Machine," and "The Invisible Man." In fact, there are so many some people seem to think Wells was a hack who wrote only a handful of books best only for children. Here, in a rare publication, can you find Wells' other famous - as well as little known - short stories that he wrote during his career. I was very lucky to acquire my copy - I was in my high school's library when I saw a stack of old books they were giving away for free. Guess what was available?

Among this collection are some short stories fairly popular among HG Wells fans, including "The Land Ironclads," a tale that predicts tanks used in battle before a single one was ever used. There is also "Empire of the Ants" about sailors who come across an intellegent, organized - and militarized - species of ant in South America, perhaps a satire of European imperialism. The other stories are still a delight to read. Among my personal favorites, besides the two already mentioned, were "The Magic Shop," which is a simple story - perhaps borderline children's fare - about a father and son who go into a store run by a true magician. There is also "The Strange Orchid," (probably the "Little Shop of Horrors" before its time) "The Valley of Spiders," (a strange, brief adventure tale about men who venture into a valley filled with giant spiders) and "In the Avu Observatory." (a tale about a scientist who, working late one night, encounters a rather large species of bat)

If you're a HG Wells fan, and you can get your hands on a copy of this, by all means GET IT! It'll be well worth the money...and from browsing Amazon's used section it looks to be not a lot of money at that.

I know that I am likely the only person who will ever get one of these from amazon, but there should be more. Killraven is cool. I mean really, a giant guy fighting Wellsian martians, whats not great about that.

My wife and I read this 1909 H G Wells book in'79 E R A - womens liberation in London, Suffragettes at the turn of the century. A beautifully written book.

I'm not much of a novel reader, especially of realistic fiction. But I wanted to read this one, just to see how HG Wells handled such a novel. I was also intrigued with the themes I'd read were involved.

I immediately felt at home in the milieu of the novel. And though male myself, I completely identified with the young female protagonist, a college student in biology who leaves home to strike out on her own. In the process, she finds out about the ups and downs of "real life". The story is told almost exclusively from her point of view. Of course, the setting is now 100 years ago, but there was almost nothing in the novel that truly dated it. All the characters had motivations and acted in ways that seem completely contemporary today. I became completely enthralled with Ann Veronica's life and adventures, even staying up late to finish the book. She became a real person to me.

In terms of this edition of the book, not only are there end notes explaining allusions and other points, but also there is a very useful glossary included which defines unusual words. Of course, there is also a helpful introduction by a contemporaty critic, as well as a preface Wells wrote to an edition of the book published in the 1920s.

I can easily see this novel being adapted for Masterpiece Theatre. With enough publicity, I think it could become a top seller again today. It is definitely a story for the ages.

This book offers an interesting, although distanced, look at the technological progress of the 20th century - from the perspective of 1901.

H.G. Wells reflects some of the less attractive characteristics of a world we have grown beyond, but has a keen insight into social dynamics and the progress it directs.

Much of the book is not worth reading, but there are snippets of truth that point to major changes that our world economy and cultures are still going through. If you are willing to wade through the rough, there are some diamonds to be found.

Part of the Audio CD Classics Collection these CDs are great for family listening on the road or at home! Whether you are presenting them to your children or grandchildren or adding them to your personal library, you will enjoy these tales of adventure, intrigue, and excitement as if hearing them for the first time!

Wells' anti-war novel worth dusting off in these times. From chapter VI, The Logic of War: "War is war", said he, "and what kills and breaks the spirit best is what you have to use." "But the bombing of towns! Poison gas on civilians. Poison gas almost haphazard." "What right have they to be civilians?" said Gerson. *** "We can't send a lot of ultra-modern stuff out there. Aeroplanes with machine guns -- in sufficient abundance, of course -- ought to settle anything that we're likely to have against un . . . New chapter in history. And the Afghan game of sitting among rocks and sniping at you goes the same way. The bird comes down on him. Every sort of what I might call barbaric and savage warfare is over now . . ." The Brits go after everyone including America in this cautionary tale - - a timeless vision of the madness of war.

I don't know who this guy is, but he is very imaginative. The story is about time travel. How absurd.

I'm probably the only person under 30 whose read as much of the non-science fiction novels of H.G. Wells as anyone since the 1920s. [After all, he was considered a titan by such authors as Somerset-Maugham, Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald--and not for his early sci-fi stuff. But for his commanding literary novels. This is largely forgotten today in the amnesia brought about by hack literature professors or lacking Fiction courses.] Nevertheless, anyone who stumbles upon his literary works realizes what a disservice is done him by the unthinking who have unfairly marginalized him and relegated him to sci-fi purgatory. Among his best literary novels [and ones that actually were best-sellers at the time] are "Ann Veronica," "The Passionate Friends," "Love and Mr. Lewisham" and "Tono Bungay". As for myself, I am becoming quite a connoisseur of Wells' work. As such, I was curious to see what he was doing in his later years. "Christina Alberta's Father" was written in the exhaustion following his famous non-fiction work "Brief Outline of History". It was a major international bestseller. So "Christina Alberta" was a quiet return to novels. At first I was leery. [After all, it's about a girl whose father starts to wonder if he's not the reincarnation of Sumerian king, Sargon the Great.] It seemed too comic, too flippant, too . . . in a word: humorous. But I kept reading. By the end of the novel--such was its depth and range of emotion--that I found myself weeping. [I won't spoil the end for you--even though I *will* confide that it's sad.] Suffice it to say: It was so human, so touching, so well-crafted that I came away from it feeling enriched that I'd been brought so close to these characters. Novels aren't written like this anymore: So complex and filled with a range of complicated emotions.