At work I'm helping write book reviews, so when customers click "gimme this" (like Sci Fi Classics) a staff review of that type book will appear. I chose H.G Wells' "The Time Machine to review. Wells published this in 1895, and it is considered a seminal work in the genre.
Right off, I liked the tale's moodiness: how the "well known" dinner guests in the opening pages remain oddly anonymous - while the room they are in is described in meticulous detail. He sets a mood of juxtaposing the normal with the strange. And the "the time traveler" expects his dinner guests (and us) to believe his fantastic story entirely. It's akin to being invited to dinner by a friend who has just returned from an alien abduction.
Right off, I liked the tale's moodiness: how the "well known" dinner guests in the opening pages remain oddly anonymous - while the room they are in is described in meticulous detail. He sets a mood of juxtaposing the normal with the strange. And the "the time traveler" expects his dinner guests (and us) to believe his fantastic story entirely. It's akin to being invited to dinner by a friend who has just returned from an alien abduction.
Anyway, I haven't finished this book, small as it is, yet. When it's done I will write the review.
Imagine - this was written when the only time machines was clocks and watches. Before technology as we currently take it for granted. And before the benefit of years of watching sci fi TV and movies. HG Wells had to make this up out of his own imagination, folks.
