The Time Machine

Back in June, I read H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, a book which I’d wanted to read for a while and found myself really really enjoying (even if it was confusing and creepy and weird). And for one of my university units, I had to read H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine.

And, again, I really really enjoyed it. 

So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes…and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth. There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.

Even though, again, I got confused. I’m very easily confused. 

I knew absolutely nothing about this book when I started it. I knew he travelled in time (the title kind of gave that away) and I’d heard of it, but I didn’t really know what to expect. 

I’m slowly trying to read more and more books outside of my comfort zone, moving away from the young adult vibe I’m used to and more into the a d u l t books that used to scare me. Which is why I read The Island Of Doctor Moreau in the first place and why I’m slowly collecting older books that used to scare me. Granted, yes, most of the ones I’ve read recently are ones I had to read for University, but I’ve really liked the ones I had to read (with maybe one or two outliers). The Time Machine is one super out of my usual books but had surprised me. 

Well, it’s kind of my kind of book with the dystopian future mood I quite like, but I very rarely read older books about the future. 

It’s weird and creepy. I’m a fan of the weird and creepy books and I need to read more of them. It’s set 800,000 years in the future where the time traveller is forced to explore a world so advanced and different from his own that he has no clue what’s safe and what’s dangerous. At first, everything seems beautiful and amazing with lots of fruit and innocent, unintelligent life forms (the Eloi) that inhabit what was once his home world. Of course, it’s not all perfect and beautiful and flawless.

The Morlocks, the ‘evil’ lot, really freaked me out. Like really really. They’re creepy and scary and evil and so diversely different to the Eloi. As someone who isn’t always a fan of the dark (I’m a wimp sometimes), I’m not a fan of creatures that live entirely in the darkness. 

I don’t usually read time travel books. I’ve read a couple of set in future books, but not really the travelling in time books. Mainly because, and I can’t stress this enough, my thick brain finds time travel confusing. I get stuck when I have to work out the timeline and where or how everything fits in together and how things have changed because of something small that happened. I also can’t help but point out the obvious plot holes and issues and why it doesn’t make any sense. This book is no different. I saw the issues, but it was easy to ignore and forget the issues and move on. 

Because it’s set so drastically far into the future, far enough where the world in unrecognisable, it was easy to forget that he’d travelled ahead in his own world rather than away to some far distant planet full of weird alien creatures. You were reminded throughout that this isn’t a different world, but our world, and you could see it through the characters and the creatures and the place itself. 

I don’t want to say much, I don’t want to spoil the book because this is one because I really really think is worth picking up if you like dystopian futures or time travel or science fiction or that kind of stuff. Or if you want something different. Or creepy. Basically, this is a good one. plus it’s very very short and takes next to no time to read. What have you got to lose???