Reviews

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

britlaccetti's review

4.0

At first I was skeptical of reading this. However, I had to read it for my British Literature class. I loved it! I did only give it 4 stars because I felt like it was lacking substance for the part of the very future, or end of the world. I wish Wells would have gone into a little more detail and explain why he thought the end of the world would end the way he described it- evolutionary theory should have been expanded on in my opinion.

Basically The Time Machine is a novel dated in the early 1900's (?). The time traveller builds this time machine and is retelling his story of his traveling to a group of men, or friends. The time traveller goes WAY into the future, so far that humans have kind of lost their intelligence and skip around picking flowers when they aren't busy fighting cannibals. Then the time traveller continues to go into the future to the "end of the world" where the sun has burnt out and the Earth is ruled by a kind of nothingness besides huge butterflies and enormous crabs.

Great book in my opinion, great ideas about social classes and communism and the theory of evolution.

snekmint's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

tomrendall's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

ursusos's review

4.0

I get the feeling that this book ought to be read a few times over to really capture the depth of it’s key ideas. For now, let’s just hope that any more contemporary time travellers are a little (a lot) more discerning in their approach.

georgeisreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

bperl's review

4.0

Thought-provoking, intriguing, and more than slightly haunting, “The Time Machine” asks some poignant questions - what will man have become in hundreds of thousands of years? Do we approve of that? Would we even understand what our species has become? Wells responds to these inquiries with a brevity and a clarity lacking in so many sci-fi short stories, and this futuristic journey with the intrepid Time Traveler is well worth taking.

pengenia's review against another edition

3.0

This is my second H.G. Wells book and I enjoyed it about as much as the first (The Invisible Man.) I think I like Wells' ideas more than his ability to craft a narrative using those ideas. His capitalist dystopia where the proletariat and bourgeoisie have literally become different species was amusing to read about, though.

musingsbynitika's review against another edition

Listened to Audrey audiobook and used this to follow at the start and check quotes 

sillystarjj's review

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

meanypanini's review

1.0

Huh? What was this book? I would have given zero stars, but I guess it deserves something for being one of the first science-fiction books ever.