Anybody here like reading HG Wells?

[Connavar]

Haha you guys do like disappearing for weeks over the summer...I was in the office mid July and there were three of us, and after lunch only two...and I have been working at a pretty big international company! Four weeks consecutive holiday! Jealous :wink: still I get a weekend in cornwall next week from thursday and then Blenheim horse trial on sunday - bareback SJ!

I haven't seen a library, which is weird because I'm in a university city, all nice and cobbled...but still anticipation of getting back to my libraries (in my house...some floor libraries, and actual library and some random bookshelves...) is wonderful Wells is glorious and easy and still relevant and funny (in an ironic way) and extremely well written and put together...

Which University city? Uppsala? Umeå? I was in my homeland Somalia over the summer and there was like one library in a whole state. Here we have like 30-50 libraries in every big town.

Wells is awesome and i will make him a top priority when i get off my current noir,african lit reading phase and get back classic lit.

 

[Kylara]

Down in the south, living between heatwaves (ish) and rain...Lund...sold my bike yesterday, I have never EVER seen so many bikes...

Wells should always be a priority :wink: I try to read at least a short every few months...

 

[Stephen4444]

That sounds like his stories more interesting because of that and i have read little of his non-fiction. Being a socialist despite in a time where it was big world events,and not so popular. Now authors can say that and not be shunned at least if they aren't in USA.

But what ? His personal political ideology doesn't make him less or more.

Thank you Connavar,
I appreciate your insight, and how true your statement is. Most people, (understandably,) read books as works unto themselves; especially the “great ones.” When I say this, I mean that I truly read to enjoy the work, and immerse myself in that world. If I “like” a book, generally I will go back to that book and critique it. I dissect why I like it. I find that I like “morality plays,” books with ideas, concepts, and meat in them. Whether I agree or disagree with their “values” is immaterial. Their process for getting their ideas across in a way that persuade or change the Cult of personality fascinates me. Often these zeitgeists; HG, Rand, Orwell, etc, weave a tail that stays with you due to these core beliefs that bleed into their works and consciously or subconsciously make the work more than what it would be without.
I do love the serialized space operas. They are the cake and soda of the reader universe but I need those meat and potatoes of the philosophical novels produced by those such as HG. Not only do I like the meat but I also eat the marrow. By reading about the lives and times of the writers as well as personal journals; you can read their works again with renewed vigor and renewed understanding, getting the full meal by dipping into the trough once again.

But then again… as Freud says… “Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar.”

 

[Cayal]

Trust us in Sweden we have had the worst,rainy depressing summer in years and we save alot of money to escape to warmer places like Australia. Although i saw on CNN your big cities are highest hotel prizes.

Whats up Kylara i could have borrowed for him/her a copy of HG Wells books in Library

That's because we're close to nothing but New Zealand.

You're close to everything but Australia.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

War Of The Worlds is one of the all-time greats. One of very few books I regularly re-read.

 

[clovis-man]

If my memory is still accurate, I recall that one of the things that stuck with me in War of the Worlds was the period late in the tale where all communication had utterly failed and it was not known how things had turned out. Perhaps just a turn of the century phenomenon, but certainly suspenseful and anxiety-producing. In today's instant gratification world, I would imagine a different, more immediate scenario. We just can't stand not knowing everything all the time.

 

[DougTurnbull]

He is much more fresh,readable than Verne today thats for sure. I couldnt finish my first and only Verne. Wells on the other hand is just like later social SF i like. My fav kind of SF is authors who build social SF ideas behind their stories. The Time Machine was so fresh in that sense.

My only trouble with Wells is i wonder which is his next best book after The Time Machine?

I would suggest War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau. Give Verne another chance. Which book did you try?

 

[hitmouse]

Wells and Verne are often mentioned in the same breath, which is understandable given their timing, and the genre which references many of their ideas. However, Wells is a much more complex, interesting, and fundamentally better writer than Verne (IMHO.)

Wells was never particularly quiet about his politics (nor were many of the good contemporary writers), and he had a fairly colourful private life. His non-SF fiction is interesting and makes observations about British class and society, as do WOTW, and the Time Machine.

 

[nerd literature]

HG Wells is a forerunner and influence for the science fiction in the decades to come after he wrote his classic novels. He built or perfected all the archetypes that made science fiction such a boon to the movie industry in the 40s, 50, 60s to today. The Mad Scientist, the Alien Invasion and Time Travel (he actually coined the term Time Machine). I can say that without his creativity and foresight that science fiction that we all have come to love would not be so rich and wondrous

Best, Rob

 

[BigBadBob141]

I've enjoyed "The Time Machine", "The War Of The Worlds" & "The Invisible Man".
Some of his short stories are well worth a read, "The Land Ironclads" fore saw the first Tanks.
"The Country Of The Blind" where a sighted man finds it hard to cope, and a nice little horror story "The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid" are just a few of the little gems he wrote.
P.S. There is also a little known novel called "The War In The Air" where you have German Zepplins bombing New York!!!

 

[kythe]

I've now read "The Time Machine" and "The Invisible Man". I want to read "War of the Worlds" as well. I really enjoy these stories.

Even though they are relatively short books written over a hundred years ago, Wells has been very influential. His stories are still familiar today in pop culture. Movies are still being made on these themes and there have been a number of spin-off type stories in newer sci fi. My kids watch a cartoon "Phineus and Ferb", and one of the earlier episodes featured the kids building (and using) a time machine that looked exactly like the one in the 1960 movie version of Wells' story.

I see these stories as being what started the modern sci fi genre as we know it.

 

[JoanDrake]

If you haven't already get a copy of his short storys. The Land Ironclads predicted tanks in 1903 and another called The World Set Free references Atomic Bombs in 1913.


Wells' works are true classics. They age so gracefully that they could all have been written yesterday.

 

[neopeius]

Anybody here who doesnt like to read HG Wells?

To me he is a real pioneer and a great SF author. The Time Machine is one of my alltime fav books.

Quite.

I even liked his monograph on the Italian front in WWI.

 

[BigBadBob141]

I enjoy Wells, both his short stories as well as his novels.
He wrote some very interesting stuff, his story "The Land Ironclads" (an Ironclad being a type of war ship) predicted Tanks, it was written well before the 1st World War!
As well as his well known novels "The Time Machine" & "The War Of The Worlds" there are others worth looking out for, for example "War In The Air" has a scene in which German zepplins bomb New York.
And he wrote some very good short stories such as "The Flowering Of The Strange Orchid".
All in all a man very much ahead of his time.

 

[drayfield]

I recently read Out of the Silent Planet and particularly enjoyed a few of the digs at Wells' First Men in the Moon.
I love Wells, I'm currently house-hunting in Woking and was genuinely excited when driving through Horsell Common...

 

[Stephen Palmer]

yes - one of the great things about WOTW is that sense of realism from the Surrey/SW London setting. Love that.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think The Island of Doctor Moreau is one of the best pieces of SF I've ever read. It's exciting, well-written, full of surprises and packs more ideas than most modern trilogies. Religion, empire-building, race, sex and law all come under attack in less than 200 pages. Powerful stuff!

 

[psikeyhackr]

If you haven't already get a copy of his short storys. The Land Ironclads predicted tanks in 1903 and another called The World Set Free references Atomic Bombs in 1913.

I am going to have to read The World Set Free some time. It is so curious that we hear about Arthur C. Clarke and geosynchronous satellites more than we hear about H. G. Wells and the Atomic Bomb. Clarke new about RADAR and the German V2 rocket. Wells made a much greater imaginative leap from what he knew at the time.

psik

 

[Extollager]

I recently read Out of the Silent Planet and particularly enjoyed a few of the digs at Wells' First Men in the Moon.
I love Wells, I'm currently house-hunting in Woking and was genuinely excited when driving through Horsell Common...

Thanks for mentioning that connection you felt. Neat!

Glad you liked OSP, too.

 

[Jesse412]

The only things I've read by him were a few short stories. The New Accelerator was probably my favorite. It's about a scientist who invents a drug that basically gives the user super speed. What I like about this story is it seems like a fairly realistic depiction of what would happen to someone had they gained this power. Long before any Flash comics had brought up the idea.