The Time Machine and Other Stories

I haven’t read HG Wells since I received a collection of his stories for my 16th birthday. Of course, what I mostly remembered was The Time Machine, and being fascinated by the Eloi and Morlocks but bored by the rest of it. This particular edition is an audio collection of 10 stories of various quality, including The Time Machine. I expected that my experience with TTM would be entirely different as an adult, but was surprised to find that once again, the section following the encounter with the Eloi and Morlocks was a snoozefest, this time with a little eyeroll over the giant crab things. The difference is that I felt a little sorry for the Morlocks this time around, rather than sharing the narrator’s visceral disgust. I was much show more more interested in the author’s theories regarding the evolutionary outcome of the current (late 1800s Britain) political, social, and economic climate. I wonder why it never occurred to him that the oppressed industrial workers would revolt and take over as the balance of power shifted with the ruling class becoming increasingly weak and ineffectual with indolence and soft living?

The remainder of the short stories were mostly entertaining. Standouts were The Country of the Blind, The Man Who Could Work Miracles, and The Flowering of the Strange Orchid. The Cone was satisfactorily gory.

Stories in this collection:
1. The Time Machine
2. The Country of the Blind
3. The Diamond Maker
4. The Man Who Could Work Miracles
5. Aepyornis Island
6. The Flowering of the Strange Orchid
7. The Cone
8. The Purple Pileus
9. The Truth About Pyecraft
10. The Door in the Wall

Audiobook, borrowed from my public library. This is the first time I’ve borrowed a book in the playaway format, and I didn’t like it. For one thing, I had to supply my own battery. For another, the rudimentary playing controls made navigating through the short stories somewhat difficult. And lastly, I’m just plain old spoiled by reading apps on my phone, and appalled by how quickly technology becomes obsolete. It wasn’t that long ago that we would have been delighted by an audio coming already loaded in a (sort of) portable digital format, rather than having to keep inserting the CDs into our heavy Sony Walkman/Discman.

Ralph Cosham provides a very good performance. His somehow old-fashioned stylings really fit the stories. show less

‘La máquina del tiempo y otros relatos’ es una magnífica edición de Valdemar en su colección El Club Diógenes, donde se pueden encontrar ocho historias del maestro H.G. Wells:

La máquina del tiempo. (******) El viajero en el tiempo se dispone a narrar a sus compañeros lo que le sucedió cuando probó su máquina del tiempo. Viajes temporales, especulación, aventuras; más de cien años después, muy pocos escritores de ciencia ficción pueden igualar lo conseguido por Wells con está novela corta, un clásico imperecedero. Sólo por esta novela, merece la pena comprar el libro.

El imperio de las hormigas. (****) Un grupo de militares que viajan en un cañonero, acuden en auxilio de una región en Sudamérica amenazada por una show more plaga de hormigas. Muy buen relato.

Una visión del Juicio Final. (**) La población mundial se dispone a pasar cuentas ante Dios. Interesante sin más. El relato más flojo del libro.

Los acorazados terrestres. (***) Dos bandos están en guerra, y uno de ellos está a punto de sucumbir. Hasta que entran en juego unas extrañas máquinas. Wells con toques steampunk. Entretenido sin más.

El traje maravilloso. (***) Historia sobre un hombre al que su madre le hizo un traje con el que acabará obsesionándose. Interesante.

La puerta en el muro. (*****) Lionel Wallace le habla a su amigo acerca de una misteriosa puerta verde sobre un muro blanco, puerta que ha marcado toda su vida. Wells nos cuenta sobre el anhelo por algo y su búsqueda. Gran relato.

La perla del amor. (***) En recuerdo de su esposa fallecida, un príncipe de la India construye un fastuoso palacio. Relato en plan parábola. Interesante.

El país de los ciegos. (****) Extraño relato sobre una región mítica de Sudamérica, en donde sus habitantes están ciegos. Muy buen relato. show less

Four tales comprise this collection, the first of which is the story for which H. G. Wells is most known, The Time Machine. The adventures of a time traveller who builds a machine that propels him 800,000 years into a future that appears utopian only—and quite literally—on the surface has been reprinted thousands of times and adapted into at least a half dozen films that I know of.

However, the other three stories in the collection were new to me: "The Empire of the Ants", "The Country of the Blind", and "The Man Who Could Work Miracles."

Of these, the first is forgettable, the second compelling, and the third entertaining. In "The Country of the Blind," we join professional mountain climber, Núñez, as he survives a fall from show more Parascotopetl in Ecuador only to discovers a hidden land occupied by a population of blind natives. Núñez learns that these people have been without sight for generations and somewhere along the way, lost all knowledge and belief in the world beyond their own village. Núñez recalls the old adage, "In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." He quickly learns just how wrong he is...

In "The Man Who Could Work Miracles," a nebbish clerk with the unlikely name of George McWhirter Fotheringay does not believe in miracles and is all too happily debating their impossibility in the Long Dragon pub when, to his utter astonishment, he performs a miracle by ordering an oil lamp to turn upside down and continue burning. This leads Fotheringay on a journey of escalating marvels that eventually leads to global consequences... show less

What is there to say about classic sci fi? Some hits, some misses, social commentary, urging for personal introspection. Worth the read. Stories include:
The Time Machine
The Country of the Blind
The Diamond Maker
The Man Who Could Work Miracles
Aepyornis Island
The Strange Orchid
The Cone
The Purple Pileus
The Truth About Piecraft
The Door in the Wall

De in deze bundel bijeengebrachte verhalen behoren voornamelijk tot het humoristische genre waarin H. G. Wells een meester is. Alleen het eerste – De tijdmachine (1895) – dat ook aanzienlijk langer is dan de andere is een fantastisch verhaal dat ons een blik in de verre toekomst schenkt, een voorloper van de tegenwoordige 'science fiction', vol vreemde situaties, schrik en stimulerende verbeelding. Dit is het genre dat Wells in zijn eerste periode zo bekend maakte. Maar ook in de andere verhalen, ofschoon reëler van opzet, is de fantasie geenszins afwezig. Het ene is een vernuftig verhaal van een inbraak op een kasteel, het andere een charmante schets van een mislukte verloving of van een afgewenteld faillissement. Er is er een bij show more over een toverwinkel, een andere over een geestverschijning op een herensociëteït. Deze verhalen boeiend en met humor geschreven. show less