War of the Worlds - Featured Author Book Review

War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Genres: Classic, Historical Fiction, Horror,    Science Fiction

     War of the Worlds was originally written in 1898 during a time when aliens was not a common every day theme in entertainment. This classic novel tells of the panic and destruction when aliens from Mars invade earth, wanting to take it over for their own use. The horror component is fairly soft core compared to today's standards, but in its day, it was one of the first books published depicting a conflict between earth and invading extraterrestrials. Told as a first person narrative by an unnamed survivor, he also tells us of his brother's experiences during the invasion.

A Modern Utopia - Featured Author Review

A Modern Utopia by H.G. Wells Genre: Classic, Nonfiction

     Wells has addressed quite a few of the problems with Utopia in this book. Some of his ideas have merit. But no matter the era, it is just impossible to make everyone happy all of the time. There will always be somebody somewhere who will find fault with something that another person feels is absolutely perfect.

     In the 19th century man was enthralled with the ideas of Utopia. Many writers theorized about how it could be obtained. Not just writers and philosophers were captivated with the idea of Utopia, architect Le Corbusier even designed buildings for his idea of the perfect Utopian city. At the time many people thought Utopia was attainable.

The Invisible Man - Flashback Friday

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Genres: Classic, Science Fiction

     When I announced my featured author picks for the month I bet it seemed strange that I had neglected some of H.G. Wells most popular titles. I knew that I had already reviewed The Invisible Man and that I have also recently read Time Machine though I have not reviewed it on here. Originally I had planned to re-read and review Time Machine but while researching the author biography post I learned of his Anticipations book and decided to read it instead. Ok, so that was a mistake as I had found Anticipations incredibly dull. But to be honest, the whole reason that I started the featured author segment was to motivate myself to read some of the books that have been sitting on my "to-read" list for ages that I would not normally pick to read. So, at any rate, I HAVE reviewed H.G. Wells' The Invisible Man and if you'd like to read my review, you can link to it here.

I gave it 4 stars!

Anticipations - Featured Author Review

Anticipations by H.G. Wells Genre: Nonfiction, History

     I like to shake things up and review at least one book by a featured author that is not within the genre that they are best known for. I thought it would be interesting to read this nonfiction novel that was penned by H.G. Wells. This book was published under several titles: Anticipations of the Reactions of Mechanical and Scientific Progress upon Human Life and Thought, Wells' Social Anticipations, and simply Anticipations. In this book Wells gives us his predictions as to where he sees the world headed by the year 2000. Many reviews that I have read for this book proclaim that many of Wells' prophecies were dead on the mark, while some were almost humorous that he was so far off base.

H.G. Wells Quotes - Top Ten Tuesday

Ten quotes from this month's featured author - H.G. Wells

1. “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.”
   ― H.G. Wells


2. “If we don't end war, war will end us.”
   ― H.G. Wells


3. “We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.”
   ― H.G. Wells


4. “Losing your way on a journey is unfortunate. But, losing your reason for the journey is a fate more cruel.”
   ― H.G. Wells


5. “What really matters is what you do with what you have.”
   ― H.G. Wells


6. “I hope, or I could not live.”
   ― H.G. Wells The Island of Doctor Moreau


7. “It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.”
   ― H.G. Wells The Time Machine


8. “Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough---as most wrong theories are!”
   ― H.G. Wells The Time Machine


9. “The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.”
   ― H.G. Wells


10. “I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.”
    ― H.G. Wells

Quotes provided by goodreads

The Island of Doctor Moreau - Featured Author Review

The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells Genre: Science Fiction, Classic, Horror

     This story is told in the first person point of view of a man who has been shipwrecked and rescued at sea by a passing ship. It is hard to imagine the inconveniences of such situations back then. Pendrick pretty much is powerless over his future as his circumstances put him at the mercy of wherever the ship is sailing to. To complicate matters, the captain of the boat is a drunkard and becomes spooked, forcing Pendrick to disembark on the secluded island where he is dropping the other passengers and cargo. Pendrick relates to us the horrors of the creatures that he finds residing on that island.

March Featured Author - H.G. Wells

H.G. Wells Born:   September 21, 1866 Died:   August 13, 1946 Main genre:   Science Fiction

     Born Herbert George Wells in Kent, England and called Bertie by his family, Wells had poor health as a child, in fact his parents were often worried that he wouldn't survive his childhood. At the age of 7 he was bedridden for several months with a broken leg. This started his love affair with the written word as he read several books during this time, even some written by Charles Dickens and Washington Irving. As a teen, he was apprenticed to a draper but didn't care for the profession much. Instead, he continued his education with the aid of a scholarship to the Normal School of Science where he studied physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology.

The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells - Review

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells Genres: Classic, Science Fiction

     The wonderful thing about classics is that the characters are well known. However actually taking the time to read them helps unravel some misconceptions or assumptions made about the character.

     Not many plans are well thought out. While The Invisible Man had thought of many uses for invisibility while he toiled with his experiments, there were many arguments against invisibility that had not occured to him. One of which was excessively obvious when he found himself wandering around London invisible, but stark naked to escape detection, in the middle of January.