I did consider putting these in two different review posts but decided against it! Two reviews for one post. 🙂
The Time Machine
Genre: Time Traveling sci-fi (The original?)
Basic Summary: A Time Traveler tells his tale to a group who mostly don’t believe him. Except one guy but he’s unimportant. His tale consists of him going into the future and seeing humanity regress.
Warnings: The Time Traveler is a creepy mo-fo.
Review:
I feel I should like this book. It is creative and H.G. Wells though beyond his time, literally. It’s a book where a guy travels in the future and sees how life is like. It’s about two races of people and one race is terrifying to behold.
But there were so many things I didn’t like about this book. For one, it’s told primarily through the dialogue of the Time Traveler. He gathers this group of people (no one quite knows why) and tells them his story. It’s not my favorite story telling device. I prefer it more for fantasy when a bard is telling a story or something like that.
Also, the Time Traveler is a creepy person. He goes in the future and isn’t there two days before he sleeps with one of the Eloi (a race of people who live above ground). Now, you may think “What’s the big deal? It’s far in the future!” The Time Traveler makes it a point to say how childlike the Eloi are a lot. He refers to it quite a bit. And also how they’re not very bright. And he can’t communicate very clearly with them. It’s just…shifty is what it is.
The Morlocks, the other race of people, were creepy but not very well thought out. There was no nuance.
I know this book is classic sci fi and it’s unique and creative and the first of its kind. It’s, I think, a sin for me not to love it….
But I just couldn’t.
Rating: 1/5
The Invisible Man
Genre: Megalomaniac Goes Invisible
Basic Summary: A man covered in bandages comes into town. The towns people wanna know what has happened to him. Turns out, he’s invisible.
Warnings: There is violence but it’s not too detailed or gory.
Review:
I thought out of the two books, this one was the better one. The Invisible Man is primarily told through third person. The first half of the book mostly follows the towns people and how they navigate around and with the invisible man. I laughed when Mrs. Hall was trying to find out if he was injured and how he was injured due to his bandages. The mounting tension between the townspeople and the invisible man was well done. I liked the dialogue and the pace of the novel until the second half. The second half then goes into the Invisible Man being found out and him running from the townspeople after he assaulted some of the people.
The Invisible Man goes into a type of madness and decides to go on a reign of terror. It wasn’t out of the blue but it just seemed…lack luster? It wasn’t as exciting as I was hoping. I think it may just be because the style of the time it was written.
Overall, I enjoyed it and would recommend.
Rating: 3/5