The Time Machine

March 1, 2008
Gr 7 Up-Wellss simple stories are surefire hits. Is time travel possible? What would it be like to be invisible? These slim versions of the classics provide both the mind-bending plotsalthough slightly edited, such as a twist ending in "The Time Machine"and also some discussion questions and writing prompts. The artwork and paneling are slightly oversize, hinting at a younger audience, but the coloring and lettering have that familiar computer-enhanced sleekness comic readers know well by now. Because of the simplified texts and the slimness of the volumes, these titles are great choices for boosting the reading interests and skills of reluctant readers."John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

alanius - What if someone told you that time travel was possible; that you can journey to the past or venture into the future? The Time Traveler, whose name is never revealed, is an intelligent but extremely eccentric scientist who discovers that there are four known dimensions of space--which really only means that you can easily move up and down, left and right, forward and backwards, and through Time. As long as you have entire consciousness and speed, you can break its constraints move around it. And so the unnamed Time Traveler brings himself to the year 802,701--that’s 30 million years from his own time. When he finally finds his way to the future, he finds his home--London--to be gone. Every building that formed the city no longer stands--just structures that act as homes to a society of simple-minded and innocent creatures who call themselves the Eloi. But as he continues his stay with them, he notices strange things, things the Eloi won’t tell him about. Sinister ghost-like beings that come in the night --deep voids in the ground that lead into what seems like nothing, and why are the Eloi so deathly afraid of the dark?--but ultimately, no one tells the Time Traveler about what happened to the human race. Most science fiction books during that century--the 1800s--were centered around the entire idea of being able to travel through time, but H.G. Wells was the first to actually try to explain the science of moving through the dimension of duration. Most of you probably wouldn’t enjoy books written in 1895--that’s 119 years old-- but The Time Machine really is worth reading-- and its only a little less than a hundred pages long. You’ll find that the Time Traveler, especially, is one of the most interesting parts of the book because you get to understand the mind of a scientist--it makes you think like him when you look at the world. The Time Machine is a novel that stands the test of time and humanity. But if there’s one thing I didn’t love about this book is how Wells views the--truly haunting--fate of us. And he definitely deepened the meaning of The Time Machine with thought-provoking ideas people today haven’t really cared enough to think about--the idea that today’s problems such as rampant industrialization and especially class struggle, will carry on to the future even 800,000 years from now. And although it’s only fiction, the way Wells portrays the future can very well be true. The human race doesn’t end, of course--but something much worse happens; something inhumane. “It sounds plausible enough tonight,” says the Time Traveler, “but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning...for after the Battle comes quiet.”