Book Review: The Time Machine by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells - fairy skeletons.
The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 and later adapted into two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in many media. This story is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre.
The Time Machine was altogether a very abstruse narrative of one unnamed man's travels into the deep future. I read it on my Kindle, where it's free due to its classic status.
The book was initially narrated in first person by an unnamed narrator. Then, however, the mood shifted as he (presumably) transcribed the Time Traveller's telling of his voyage on the Time Machine. The Time Traveller's name was never revealed.
It's an interesting portrayal of the future, where the Golden Age of Mankind has already passed, and the species is crumbling. The technological advances commonly seen in science fiction were absent, which was definitely refreshing after the slew of dystopian novels that have been plaguing me these days. Yeah, I know this book was written a realllly loong time ago, but the relieving effect remains the same. I mean, everything seems so clichéd these days that anything different is such a rush, you know?
It was a sort of unprecedented way to think of the demise of humans, and the ruined splendor of the aftermath of human folly. I know that I never thought of the end of the world the way it was delineated in The Time Machine.
I generally don't like science fiction classics (i.e., Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, etc. etc.) very much - I mean, they're deep and all, but the science fiction elements and the slow prose of old books just doesn't click for me. The Time Machine was actually okay... I mean, for such an old book. Yeah.