Paul reviewed TIME MACHINE; ED. BY PATRICK PARRINDER. by H. G. Wells (PENGUIN CLASSICS)
Review of 'TIME MACHINE; ED. BY PATRICK PARRINDER.' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Like most of Wells' books, this hasn't aged well. Other than travelling forwards in time once - which is pretty much all the Time Machine does (the other trips are so fleeting as to be largely forgettable) - there isn't a great deal going on. There don't seem to be any female characters with agency, and the only one we really hear anything about spends the entire time clinging to a male character. Yes it's a product of its time, but that doesn't make it any less jarring. The end is unsatisfying - what happens to the Time Traveller?
Worth reading once to get a feel for how science fiction used to be, and how far the genre has come. Not one I'll be returning to anytime soon, unless I want to try it in another language (the low page count and less advanced vocabulary make it a reasonable choice …
Like most of Wells' books, this hasn't aged well. Other than travelling forwards in time once - which is pretty much all the Time Machine does (the other trips are so fleeting as to be largely forgettable) - there isn't a great deal going on. There don't seem to be any female characters with agency, and the only one we really hear anything about spends the entire time clinging to a male character. Yes it's a product of its time, but that doesn't make it any less jarring. The end is unsatisfying - what happens to the Time Traveller?
Worth reading once to get a feel for how science fiction used to be, and how far the genre has come. Not one I'll be returning to anytime soon, unless I want to try it in another language (the low page count and less advanced vocabulary make it a reasonable choice for that).
