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The Time Machine'The Time machine' is Wells' first published science fiction story. It's a short book - Well's commented 36 years later that this was due to the hurry to get it published and he would like to have written a longer work. However I prefer to read somewhat 'naive' early works of sci-fi writers before they have learnt to write 'proper' literature. Reading this book gives and insight into what Well's wanted to write - we see that from the beginning he was more interested in possible futures for society than high tech gizmos. It's also worth reading if you've only seen the film version and want to know more about Wells' work. Of course this book isn't really a story about time travel, which would involve visiting the past and either creating a paradox or making sure things happen the way they should. No, the Eloi and the Morlocks could just as well be living on a different planet. For instance [SPOILER - but you all know the story anyway] at one point in the story Weena disappears and is presumed either burned to death or eaten. Or did the time-traveller return in his time machine to a point just after she disappeared and save her from her fate? No, he didn't seem to think of that. Also the story has a bleak future for humanity, but if it's so far in the future that we seemingly can do nothing to prevent it then so what? If on the other hand knowledge of the future meant something could be done to prevent it, well the time-traveller didn't seem to think of that either.
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Mass Market Paperback
125 pages
ISBN: 0812505042
Salesrank: 342047
Weight:0.2 lbs | | Published: 1992 Tor (Tom Doherty) | | Amazon price $3.99 | | Marketplace:New from $1.22:Used from $0.01 |
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| Amazon.co.uk info
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Paperback
128 pages
ISBN: 0141439971
Salesrank: 2164
Weight:0.18 lbs | | Published: 2005 Penguin Classics | | Amazon price £4.33 | | Marketplace:New from £2.10:Used from £2.03 |
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| Amazon.ca info
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Mass Market Paperback
125 pages
ISBN: 0812505042
Salesrank: 20294
Weight:0.2 lbs | | Published: 1992 Tor Books | | Amazon price CDN$ 4.99 | | Marketplace:New from CDN$ 0.01:Used from CDN$ 0.01 |
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| Buy from Amazon.ca |
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| Product Description
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Tor Classics are affordably-priced editions designed to attract the young reader. Original dynamic cover art enthusiastically represents the excitement of each story. Appropriate "reader friendly" type sizes have been chosen for each title—offering clear, accurate, and readable text. All editions are complete and unabridged, and feature Introductions and Afterwords.
This edition of The Time Machine includes an Introduction, Biographical Note, and Afterword by James Gunn.
The time? 802,701 A.D.
The place? An Earth stranger than you can imagine.
The people? A pretty, childlike race, the Eloi-and their distant cousins, the Morlocks: disgusting, hairy creatures who live in caves and feed on the flesh of-what?
Enter the Time Traveller, who has hurtled almost a million years into the future. After the Morlocks steal his machine he may be trapped there...and at their mercy.
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| Time travel and politics **** |
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| In my opinion, this book gets an "A" for originality. Most stories of time travel that I have read or watched on the big screen include super intelligent humans and fantastic technology. Not so in "The Time Machine." The two distinct races of humans in this book are simple and animalistic, or perhaps child-like. There is no incredibly advanced technology or even a grocery store to get the food, for goodness' sake. It's as if humanity reverted to the times of the Neanderthals. However, in the area of character development, Wells scores a "C" at best. None of the characters are terribly deep and I didn't find myself getting terribly attached to any of them -- few though they were. In storytelling, I think Wells did a nice job, as I was engaged in the narrative and enjoyed the description of places, things, and people. However, I was also vaguely aware of some kind of social commentary with the frequent references to the "upper class" and "working class," but I'm afraid this was lost on me, as I am not familiar with the culture of 1800s England. Overall, I give this book four stars. |
| Wells Was Far Ahead Of His Time! **** |
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| This is a cool book from Wells. In it he takes a giant leap into the future, more precisely year A.D. 802701! This is an action packed novel, it's really quite amazing that it was first published all the way back in 1895! Because the action level is equivalent to a Dan Brown novel. Of course Wells is far better than Dan Brown, because Wells is not only action he is also vitamin! The novel ends with the words "in the heart of man". That end is kind of a signature for Wells' work, because he was really curious, and of course the curiousity was particular related to what a human can do? What a human is? What a human can become? What there is in the heart of man? |
| Thank You =) ***** |
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Thank you, My nephew loves his book.
It was fast shipping, and good price. |
| Great time travel ***** |
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| The Time Machine is one of those books I'd been meaning to read for years and finally got around to it this summer. I'm a sci-fi fan and enjoyed Wells's book, which was one of the first well known time travel stories ever written. It's a concise story without any unnecessary fluff, which makes it exciting all the way through. |
| Beautiful Cover! ***** |
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| This is not a book review.. rather a compliment on the beautiful cover art! Great job John and congrats! |
| AN EYE OPENER NOVEL **** |
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I have not read any H G Wells since school,and had not read The Time Machine at all. It is an extremely short novel, but very poignant.It talks about the future of the world that are nowadays quite believable,but in 1895 must have been quite revealing. I particularly liked the descriptions of the earth when he moves forward from the world of the Eloi and Mortlocks. With all the talk about climate warming it seems that the world as we know it will have been changed, and we will have returned to an Ice Age.Any perception of the future world must be based on our knowledge of the present,and how we intepret it.
Time Travel is one of the only things that does not seem possible with modern technology, what a shame.
A good and thoughtful novel,which somehow is dateless, and can be read at any time. |
| Amazing ***** |
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This is one of the best books I've ever read. HG Wells' way of writing is really exciting and puts you instantaneously in an amazing SF world. Even if this book was written more than one hundred years ago, its content is still disrupting when you see the author's skill in predicting the future and the different consequences of human evolution. If you like dystopian novels I'm sure that "The Time Machine" is one of the best choices you can make. I highly recommend this novel to everyone. I don't want to summarize this book because you really should discover it by yourself. It's really more exciting.
Btw you can read this book, a perfect page turner, in less than 2 hours so it's ideal for a short train journey trip.
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| A classic of dystopian fiction *** |
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If you enjoy a good, dystopian, science fiction classic, this book is for you. It tells the story of a Victorian scientist who invents a time machine which seems to be something like a flying exercise bike. He leaps aboard and propels himself far into the future, where the society he has left behind, struggling for ease and technological advancement seems to have imploded, leaving two distinct races, one utterly hopeless who seem to be able to do nothing but coo, dance and strew flowers about, and the other flesh eating monsters from the underworld.
There are also monster crabs.
This is very short, and more of a novella than anything else. It is simply written, and easy to follow, and I imagine at the time of its publication was something of a sensation.
It has not dated well in my opinion, but then I am not big on dystopian fiction. If you are, I am sure you will absolutely love it. |
| The Time Machine is awesome **** |
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I read this novel slowly over the space of about two hours. Ideal train or flight material if you want to look at it in those terms.
It's a fantastic novel told intelligently and is without a doubt a page turner, like, hell, what on earth would you do in that situation? As the novel unfolds it only becomes more exciting and enjoyable. AND it came out the same year as Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure! Hard to believe considering the scientific accuracy. (I'm no scientist, it just seemed that way)
What else can be said? It's wonderful and I'll definitely be reading more of HG Well's works. I'd heavily advise The Time Machine to anyone who reads this review. |
| Brilliant ***** |
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Unlike either of the two main film dramatisations so far and far better for it. Nothing whatsoever to do with the most recent film despite to front cover. Mr Well knows how to spin a good yarn and his storytelling and characterisation is second to none. There is more to this book than just a good story, there is a very good warning to mankind intertwined also.
The 1960's film is closer to the book - for anyone who has not read any of HG Well's stories yet - and I would recommend anyone who has watched either or both of the films to read this. If you cannot feel the words buried deep within your heart and mind by the first few pages then I feel sorry for you.
This and 'The War of The Worlds' are very good places to start to find out the real stories and appreciate what a vision Mr Wells had.
Brilliant from start to finish. |
| I saw the movie first. The book difference was a surprise ***** |
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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 all 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.
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| A timeless classic of science fiction ***** |
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It goes without saying that this book is a science fiction classic in every sense of the word and that H.G. Wells was a founding father of the genre. This book proves that science fiction does not necessarily need to be heavily technical but does need to deal with grand themes such as the nature of society; man's hopes, dreams, and fears; and the very humanity of man. Wells does not go to great lengths in describing the time machine nor how it works. He lays the foundation of the story in science and then proceeds with his somewhat moralistic and certainly socially conscious story. This makes his writing much more enjoyable than that of a Jules Verne, who liked to fill up pages with scientific and highly technical nomenclature. One of the more striking aspects of the novel is Wells' treatment of the actual experience of time travel--moving in time is not like opening and walking through a door. There are physical and emotional aspects of the time travel process--in fact, some of the most descriptive passages in the book are those describing what the Time Traveler experiences and sees during his time shifts.
Basically, Wells is posing the question of What will man be like in the distant future? His answer is quite unlike any kind of scenario that modern readers, schooled on Star Wars, Star Trek, and the like, would come up with. He gives birth to a simple and tragic society made up of the Eloi and the Morlocks. In contrasting these two groups, he offers a critique of sorts of men in his own time. Clearly, he is worried about the gap between the rich and the poor widening in his own world and is warning his readers of the dangers posed by such a growing rift. It is most interesting to see how the Time Traveler's views of the future change over the course of his stay there. At first, he basically thinks that the Morlocks, stuck underground, have been forced to do all the work of man while the Eloi on the surface play and dance around in perpetual leisure. Later, he realizes that the truth is more complicated than that. The whole book seems to be a warning against scientific omniscience and communal living. The future human society that the Time Traveler finds is supposedly ideal--free of disease, wars, discrimination, intensive labor, poverty, etc. However, the great works of man have been lost--architectural, scientific, philosophical, literary, etc.--and human beings have basically become children, each one dressing, looking, and acting the same. The time traveler opines that the loss of conflict and change that came in the wake of society's elimination of health, political, and social issues served to stagnate mankind. Without conflict, there is no achievement, and mankind atrophies both mentally and physically.
This basic message of the novel is more than applicable today. While it is paramount that we continue to research and discover new scientific facts about ourselves and the world, we must not come to view science as a religion that can ultimately recreate the earth as an immense garden of Eden. Knowledge itself is far less important than the healthy pursuit of that knowledge. Man's greatness lies in his ability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. Speaking only for myself, I think this novel points out the dangerousness of Communism and points to the importance of individualism--if you engineer a society in which every person is "the same" and "equal," then you have doomed that society. |
| I saw the movie first. The book difference was a surprise. ***** |
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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.
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| the Most overrated writer of science fiction!! * |
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| Granted Wells was far, far ahead of his time, but really, his writing stinks. There's no character formation (bland unlikeable protagonists) and no passion for the art of storytelling. If he had a writing partner who could of helped him with these shortcomings, his very original ideas and his true vision of what he was trying to write might have come through better. I'm glad he was there to get the ball rolling for science fiction, but I forced myself to read all his books on the hopes and say-so that these were classics. I'd rather have read Verne, Bester, Miller and Huxley. |
| The Time Machine **** |
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| The Time Machine by H.G. Wells depeicts the story of a man known as the time traveler who travels into the distant future with a time machine that he creates. I enjoyed this book pretty well, it is quite short and a quick read. The story is told through the voice of a man who is visiting the time travalers house at one of his many dinner parties. The entire book is written in first person. All and all a good book and an interesting view on what future lies ahead as told in the late 19th century. |
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