Time Machine by H.G. Wells

[Frioni]

I first acquired this book about a year ago when my english teacher made it mandatory to read an outside book. It is a short novel and thought that it was an easy grade. Due to my lazy habits and a busy schedule, I never finished the book.. Until a few hours ago.
I left off right at the very few last chapters where the story takes its hold. I am always fond of science fiction novels, so this particular tale had kept me engaged. It was quite fascinating the "future" Wells had imagined in his novel. The book almost plays with the reader's imagination about his own future and the outcome of our world. A horrific utopian society told through the mouth of the time traveller himself feels as though you are part of the enigma. I am only saddened that the journey of the time traveller ends with the novel.

[Wreade1872]

Can't say i thought this 'fascinating', more boring and shallow. The missing romance element is a real let down compared with the film (1960's version obviously) but even ignoring that there just isn't much of an atmosphere to any of it, and it seems quite short, not all that much happens.
For a similar story but with lots of atmosphere try 'A Crystal Age by William Henry Hudson'. It will leave you frustrated but it will leave a mark, which is more than i can say about the Time Machine.

[Frioni]

I will agree that Time Machine is really short and lacks several narrative elements; however, the story focused more on the ideal society that Wells had feared the modern world was becoming into. It lacked the atmosphere and romance because it would be inappropriate to have them.

[Leafmachine3]

I first read this one when I was a kid. I loved it because it was written in a realistic way, which I especially noticed because of my intense interest in astronomy, like the fact that the world rotates and therefore the machine when it moved through time would be somewhere else on the planet, which made a lot od sense to me at the time. But later I realised that the Earth also revolves and the Sun is simultaneously moving through space, so with all this motion, the time machine would undoubtedly would have left the protagonist stranded in the outer space of the Milky Way. But this does not matter, because it caused me to think in a more scientific and realistic way about understanding mind-bending concepts and explaining them.

[Davidc1470]

I liked the book not as much for the elements of writing, but for the philosophical elements. The changing of morals in the future and such. The book wasn't designed to capture you with such things as love and romance, but of the changing of society and human morals. Which i thought the author did a fine job of portraying.

[sfinch90]

This is just one of Wells' great books. All of them are great. I think I need to read it again in order to review it properly since I've read many books in between. But it's Wells. That's all I really need to say.

[CONSTARA]

I loved it, it was one of the first books I read, that was totally without my mothers approval! The possibilities!

[Wreade1872]

Can't say i thought much of this. Its one of the poorer Wells stories in my opinion. It lacks the romance of the film adaptations and seems a lot shorter than one might expect and there simply isn't much that happens in the story.
I place this as the second worst of the Wells stories i've read, only being beaten for the low point by the Island of Doctor Moreau.

[imodelmichelle]

Time Machine was a okay book, i felt a little disappointed in the end. but i understand where the author was coming from and the significance in what he was trying to convey. all in all i cant say dont read it, bc you have to.

[AnaF]

This book had been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time and because of that, last summer, I decided that it was time to finally read it ... and I didn't like it. I managed to finish it and even though the premise seemed quite interesting, I didn't like the author's style and how the story progressed. I felt that it dragged a lot and that it just wasn't that appealing, at least to me.

[RobertM]

Wells wasn't really a science-fiction writer, but a teacher, a historian, a promoter and predictor of social issues. He's hit on everything from eugenics to equality. But back then, it was unusual for sci-fi to even appear on bookshelves. There were a few in the genre, the most famous until Wells came along was probably Jules Verne. With Wells, I think it's a case of the movies being better than the books, instead of the reverse. Wells made money on the sci-fi works, but it's probably also true he looked at those efforts more of 'I do this for the money, and my other work is my REAL work.' He was just all over the place with the issues he wrote about, things he predicted, books he wrote. I don't think anyone will ever understand the man completely. 90% or better of people know him only for a few sci-fi novels, (which were often thinly disguised treatises on social class, morals, etc in the future). He's about the most complex writer who ever came down the pike, I think.

Yeah. I agree The Time Machine is a bit of a bore for today's readers, though. Let's face it, he may have launched the time travel sub-genre, but there's been a ton of better work in that genre since then.

Most of his copyrights are due to expire in about eight years. (He died in 1946) and I'll bet the Wells folks just hate that. They viciously guard those rights. Within months after expiration, everything he's ever written (and it's a lot more than you think) will end up as Public Domain books at Amazon.

[anomalocaris]

The missing romance element is a real let down compared with the film (1960's version obviously) but even ignoring that there just isn't much of an atmosphere to any of it, and it seems quite short, not all that much happens.

The idea that every book must have romance is a new one. Wells' story has no romance, because it's not about romance. It's a commentary on the dangers of a class-based society, and also on the dangers of becoming so dependent upon technology that we can no longer function without it. I think it's even more relevant now than it was when he wrote it. Teens and young adults -- and even some older adults have no clue how to function when they're not attached to electronics. My sister, who teaches psychology finds that her students are unable (or unwilling) to do anything for themselves. They even ask her to type notes for her lectures and email them to them, because they think it's unreasonable that they should have to take notes in class. This is exactly the world Wells was warning us about.

[shanet]

I have not read Wells at all and based on the reviews it seems that I should bypass him. He is considered a classic read and the premises have been made into movies. So, should I put forth the time to read Wells?

[RobertM]

I have not read Wells at all and based on the reviews it seems that I should bypass him. He is considered a classic read and the premises have been made into movies. So, should I put forth the time to read Wells?

I don't know. His Gilded Age style of writing doesn't transfer very well to today's readers, at least in his sci-fi mode. I would just watch the films, or read something else he did in non-fiction. If you want to check out nineteenth-century sci-fi I would go with Jules Verne.

[bookworm1990]

Although The Time Machine isn't one of my favorite books I'm glad I read it. It's a relatively short book that only took me a couple of days to read. What stuck with me the most was the dichotomy of the above and below ground creatures. The ones above ground were childish and defenseless while the ones below ground were menacing and predatory. They below ground creatures reminded me of miners from the 19th century who spent hours underground in the darkness. Perhaps there's a little social commentary there?