Finally finished this fully. What a slog. Some of the stories were pretty good, I think, I mean I started it in 2012, would read some and then stick it back on the shelf, only to pick it up months or years later to knock off another story. Don’t remember much, but I do know the last couple were a bit trying to get through. Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t bad, but the combination of the old English and his penchant for over explaining even the most mundane made for some struggle reading, skimming or even straight out skipping some sections. ( )

After starting Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and loving it) I wanted to read the books that he drew on. I had preconceptions of the stories as they are widely revisited in pop culture. My preconceptions were wrong. The source material is so much fresher and stronger than I anticipated. I started with The Invisible Man. Blimey! Thoughtful, grotesque, disturbing and funny. Page turning drama. Followed this with The War of the Worlds and was not prepared for how he stress tests the human condition. Wonderful, disturbing and stays with you. Affecting characters created in the briefest encounters. Tragedy, heroism, resourcefulness and insight. Wish I’d read it years ago. Will pause for now as I work through the members of the League. Not looking forward to returning as The Island of Doctor Moreau is on my list. It has never appealed and now I have a measure of how good/unsettling Wells is, I know it will be perfectly disturbing. Shudder. ( )

99/18-Γλυκό και απρόσμενα ευχάριστο . Θυμίζει Ιούλιο Βερν για πιο μεγάλους. Έντονη δράση , αστυνομικό ύφος και γρήγορος ρυθμός. ( )

Incredible stories.I truly do enjoy H.G. Wells. But his stories are a complete mess. They are great stories. But they are made of literary Swiss cheese. It is easy to say that he wrote from the hip and just spat out his adventures on paper. There are SOOO many plot holes in his works that you need a compass and rope to navigate them without falling through the endless amount of “What about?” Every one of his stories leaves you with questions. Particularly questions regarding what happened to the characters. Could it be that he was the inventor of the “ambiguous ending?” No. The endings are clear but the fates of the characters and their reasons for lack of ethics will slap you in the face. This is where Victorian Era lit meets SCI FI. Welcome to the world of “What if and what for.” ( )

War of the Worlds - quintessential science fiction, one of the defining novels of the genre in the 19th century. [5/5]

Time Machine - another absolute classic with imaginative speculation about the future and sophisticated thought into future societal structures. [5/5]

Invisible Man - More of a social novel yet fantastic. [4.5/5]

Island of Dr. Moreau - intriguing story with a great twist and plenty of fodder for bioethical debate. [4.7/5]

First Men in the Moon - I like pre-1969 books about the Moon. This one is imaginative both in the device of transport and the flora/fauna of the moon. [4.0/5]

Food of the Gods - This one is pretty lame and suffers from Wells's failure to account for the mass square law. The social commentary was mediocre and the engineer was the best character. [3.0/5]

Days of the Comet - comet hits earth and turns it into a socialist paradise. The book kept building up "the Change" but ended up being anticlimactic. Well developed characters, though. [3.3/5]

Composite Score: 4.2/5 ( )