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What are readers saying about The Time Machine?
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Keshawn posted a review at 2010-07-08 08:37:22.
(Language: English)
 
One of my favorite books. Enjoy reading this.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-11-26 06:43:04.
(Language: English)
Wells is a tougher re-read than he is the first time through when the story drags you along. Second time around, I stopped to think through stuff... and felt the underlying cynicism and melancholy of the author that much more deeply. It was almost like reading a different book!
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-05 12:17:14.
(Language: English)
H.G. Wells was ahead of his time. The book has an underlying theme and speculation from economics to race. Re-read it every couple years and you will always catch something new.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-02 08:57:28.
(Language: English)
While the protagonist, "The Time Traveler," might be free from the contraints of the fourth dimension, mankind can hope for nothing other than to succumb to time and his own hubris. His efforts to overcome the hardships of his existence and environment meet with success, and ironically result in humanity imploding upon itself, decaying along with the material universe from which he is not transcendant. It's excellently written, but depressing (not to mention creepy in places), even if you don't hold to the worldview that dictates the story's universe. Not recommended if you're looking for a simple pleasure read or a "happily ever after" ending.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-08-10 06:55:28.
(Language: English)
The Time machine I loved, for its precision, fast pace, and for the fervent questions it posed about the future of the human race. A damning social commentary all round, with some giant crabs thrown in at the end for fun. War of The Worlds I struggled with more because of the slow pace of the opening. Wells uses the device of switching to the perspective on another character apparently to delay the action and therefore build tension, but I was left annoying that so little progression had been made. I couldn't suspend my disbelief either that no one was either curious about or afraid of the Martians for about 75 pages, or believe that the news wouldn't spread once they started killing people. Perhaps I ask too much of this first great work of SF that it emerge fully formed, a perfect example of a genre that didn't exist at the time it was written.
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Adam posted a review at 2009-12-16 01:01:05.
(Language: English)
I loved this book. It's exciting and mysterious. I like who Wells wrote it like the Time Traveler is telling the story to his friends. I am curious to find out what happened after the end of the book. I think a continuation of the story would be great. I highly recommend this book. It is one of my all time favorites.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-02-09 06:46:45.
(Language: English)
Another classic, and again an attemp of showing how would society be in the year 802700, when communism will give birth to two radically different races of humans, eloi and morlocks, living in a kind of symbiotic existence. Really impressing too the apocaliptic vision of the shore with the dying sun, near the end of the Earth. An incredible adventure, a vivid imagination, one of those re-readable books.
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Darlene posted a review at 2010-04-17 02:37:54.
(Language: English)
I read this as a teenager and this was just what I was looking for. I was a sci fy nut and loved this book.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-05-02 12:40:35.
(Language: English)
on my shelf
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-17 09:55:19.
(Language: English)
H.G. Wells was way ahead of his time.
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David posted a review at 2010-04-04 01:58:19.
(Language: English)
Interesting vision of the future and a great story!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-16 09:38:20.
(Language: English)
It's not so much about getting caught up in the story as it is about the themes of the book, which are well explored and articulated. Wells has really enlightening insights about humans, our struggle against ourselves and nature, and the direction we're moving as a species. He takes the state of things and the forces at work in modern society to their logical extremes, showing us what lay at the end of all our machinations. Pretty short and ahead of its time, in my opinion. Worth reading.
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Thom posted a review at 2008-09-04 04:21:04.
(Language: English)
This book is actually quite poor by today's standards. However, when you recogise that this actually was the first time travel story it becomes slightly more endearing and almost comical. It is more like reading an essay during a history lesson while listening to an old school 1930s BBC radio presenter.It still manages to be quite exciting/intriguing in places although one thing I really disliked was how the "time traveller" thought that by being in the future of London actually reflected the future of the whole entire planet. You can see a lot of "Doctor Who" in the character (without the whole space element)and it is a classic in terms of how it inspired many other stories.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-04-28 03:20:11.
(Language: English)
This is a short book. I found that I was sort of drawn into the story, eventually. I certainly think that if I'd written it I'd have gone in different directions, quite literally, probably the past! But that wasn't his intention. Wells intended to go where others hadn't been in thought or deed. I suppose that is what stirred me to read it, knowing that it was one of the first of an entire genre wondering where the future might take us. I probably won't read any more Wells books unless I find 'The Invisible Man' which I had begun and then lost but was enjoying more than The Time Machine at the beginning of the two books. I have recently seen the statue of the alien that someone created in honor of a character in Well's book War of the Worlds. That also stirred my interest in finishing the book.
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Yoli posted a review at 2009-11-06 09:22:24.
(Language: English)
This book was sharp, concise and precise about everything it is made out to be. Wells himself was not particularly positive in his own criticism of his first novel, calling it a drivel of young men's fantasy, in the 1930's. However being harsh at his own work at that time never diminished the value of this rather challenging world of the "Traveller", the protagonist. Wells writing is like an insidious ambush; it attacks and does not wander but keeps you engaged. There is no specific name of the time traveller, so the reader becomes him. An easy read, clear, coherent, fluid and the end is sensational, awesome yet leaves you with more than a bit of dread. The Time Machine makes a deep dig into your own thoughts and with multi readings you find more and develop a sense of how weak, shallow and insignificant our humanity, our physical being is for now. Wells make a point that change is inevitable yet the consequences of our actions, our choices are eventually our grandeur, our perpetuity so that nurturing our minds, our thoughts, our hearts with only the best is to keep away the beast. Therein lays our value: to become better than we started. The conundrum is will humanity be but a cyclical event or do we create a straight line to continued betterment? I really enjoyed reading this compact insight on man's psyche and seduction of his [erring] behaviour. Or maybe I am just too keen on this book. Read it. This book was sharp, concise and presice about everything it is made out to be. Wells himself was not particularly positive in his own criticsm of his first novel, calling it a drivel of young men's fantasy, in the 1930's. However being harsh at his own work at that time never diminished the value of this rather challenging world of the "Traveller", the protagonist. Wells writing is like an insidious ambush; it attacks and does not wander but keeps you engaged. There is no specific name of the time traveller, sothe reader becomes him. An easy read, clear, coherent, fluid and the end is senasational, awesome yet leaves you with more thana bit of dread. I really enjoyed reading this compact insight on man's psyche and seduction of his [erring] behavior.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-07-19 08:13:00.
(Language: English)
Wonderful Book, A Classic, We All Must Read in our Lifetime, the younger the better.
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-05-09 12:01:27.
(Language: English)
not as good as I thought it would be
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-25 06:53:36.
(Language: English)
I've been meaning to ready this book for years. I actually started watching the 1960 movie version recently, but decided to stop before we were introduced to the Eloi people. I knew that it would look terrible and I didn't want my outlook on the book to be tainted. I enjoyed the book and can see how influential it was. The trouble is, probably because its ideas have been taken and used so often since it was written, it does seem dated. Nevertheless, I still think it is an important book. I know that H.G. Wells was very vocal regarding his views on the class system and that is evident here. Read the book and try to stay clear of the films.
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A Reader posted a review at 2012-01-21 09:08:21.
(Language: English)
Not as good as the made for TV movie ;)
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John posted a review at 2010-08-01 12:39:32.
(Language: English)
An important, but merely good/not great Wells story that has been appropriated so often that the plot cannot surprise. Padding it out in the original is a great deal of professorial evolutionary hypothesizing with obvious classist subtext easily translating from Victorian England to modern America.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-16 08:32:29.
(Language: English)
Well HG Wells is to Sci-Fi as Shakespeare is to English Literature. A classic book in it time tells the story of a nutty inventor who creates a time machine and traveled into our distant future and returned to tell about his adventures over a dinner with friends. The tale seems fanciful except for the flower he brought back, a gift from a future girl he befriended. A story told in a simple style, unlike modern novels that are padded out with pages and pages of nothing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, being a fan of the film (not the one with Guy Pearce) from way back, it was hard for me to decide if I like the book or film more... which is unusual for me since I always like the book rather then the film adaptation.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-04-29 12:27:15.
(Language: English)
A good book - not the best of sci-fi genre. Fail to understand the panic it's supposed to have caused when a reporter read it in a studio. Leisure reading.
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Jennifer posted a review at 2011-11-28 09:10:49.
(Language: English)
Far less dry than his equally classic War of the Worlds, The Time Machine clips right along once past the opening and the initital awkwardness of its narrative frame. Wells is clearly a product of the 19th century, with his mixed-bag attitudes toward industry and his Great White Savior mindset, and a fair bit of the novel is making one thinly-veiled philosophical point or another. In the end, what lingers - more than the social commentary or even the ballsy ending - is the Morlocks, whose creeping, creepy shadows stretch across the dark places of even the most modern reader's mind. That they cause as much of a shudder today as they did over a hundred years ago is a testament to Wells' mastery over his craft, his readers, and - in this one way - time.
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Shirlene posted a review at 2011-10-25 10:22:42.
(Language: English)
I read it so long ago, I hardly remember it but I liked it very much at the time. If you haven't read it yet, and your a sci-fi fan, you're missing a real treat.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-12-14 01:51:42.
(Language: English)
Differs a lot from the original colour film and very much from the more recent hollywood offereing...A very spooky narative where he escapes the moorlocks and falls unconscious onto the controls of the machine shooting off into the future to see the demise of planet earth as the sun grows into a red giant as it exhausts its own feul.
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