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I gave this collection four stars because it's H.G. Wells. Honestly, his style hasn't aged very well. With the exception of a few stories, the tales are all told second-hand. The first-person narrator knows someone or meets someone who has an extraordinary tale to tell and passes it on to him. The narrator then tells the reader the story--just as it was told to him. A straight third-person POV would have worked much better.
As edited by Ursula K. LeGuin (with commentary), this collection is broken down into six categories:
I. Visionary Science Fiction
II. Technological and Predictive Science Fiction
III. Horror
IV. Fantasies
V. Fables
VI. Psycho-Social Science Fiction
I was really surprised at how poorly the science fiction short stories in the first two sections worked. Not only were most of the stories set up in that third-hand reporting style, but they bogged down in scientific explanation. Now, I have read quite a few of Wells' SF novels, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau are really wonderful examples of Wells' talent at taking science and combining it with an exciting story that both entertains and educates. The problem with the short stories is that the packs the same amount of science into them as he does into a novel and the story gets lost in the details. In the first two sections, only Under the Knife and The Star stand out as being really good stories.
Once we leave the first two sections and move on to the Horror, Fantasy and Fable sections, Well's storytelling gets to shine through. He's not trying to make science comprehensible to the masses anymore and can focus on just telling a story. Here again, he relies heavily on the third-hand narration technique, but it's not quite as annoying. Many of the stories in this section reminded me very much of The Twilight Zone. In fact, I suspect quite a few stories in that classic TV series were inspired by the short stories of Mr. Wells. The fables were particularly interesting because they are so unlike any of Wells' other work. In these sections, my favorite stories were The Magic Shop, The Door in the Wall and The Wild Asses of the Devil.
The last section had only two stories. One, The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper was written rather late in Wells' career and is a fine story about a man who gets a copy of a newspaper published 40 years in the future. The final story in the collection, The Country of the Blind, was originally published in 1904 and re-published in 1939 with a different ending. LeGuin says that this is the best of Wells' short stories, but I personally liked The Magic Shop better. The story is printed here with both endings and I do believe the 1939 ending is far better.
I think one of the problems I had with this collection is that all of the stories seemed so familiar. However, I believe that is because Wells was a great inspiration to future generations of science fiction. His stories are the originals and the newer ones are just copies. This collection is well worth reading if you are a science fiction aficionado because it will give you insight into the origins of the genre.
As edited by Ursula K. LeGuin (with commentary), this collection is broken down into six categories:
I. Visionary Science Fiction
II. Technological and Predictive Science Fiction
III. Horror
IV. Fantasies
V. Fables
VI. Psycho-Social Science Fiction
I was really surprised at how poorly the science fiction short stories in the first two sections worked. Not only were most of the stories set up in that third-hand reporting style, but they bogged down in scientific explanation. Now, I have read quite a few of Wells' SF novels, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds and The Island of Dr. Moreau are really wonderful examples of Wells' talent at taking science and combining it with an exciting story that both entertains and educates. The problem with the short stories is that the packs the same amount of science into them as he does into a novel and the story gets lost in the details. In the first two sections, only Under the Knife and The Star stand out as being really good stories.
Once we leave the first two sections and move on to the Horror, Fantasy and Fable sections, Well's storytelling gets to shine through. He's not trying to make science comprehensible to the masses anymore and can focus on just telling a story. Here again, he relies heavily on the third-hand narration technique, but it's not quite as annoying. Many of the stories in this section reminded me very much of The Twilight Zone. In fact, I suspect quite a few stories in that classic TV series were inspired by the short stories of Mr. Wells. The fables were particularly interesting because they are so unlike any of Wells' other work. In these sections, my favorite stories were The Magic Shop, The Door in the Wall and The Wild Asses of the Devil.
The last section had only two stories. One, The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper was written rather late in Wells' career and is a fine story about a man who gets a copy of a newspaper published 40 years in the future. The final story in the collection, The Country of the Blind, was originally published in 1904 and re-published in 1939 with a different ending. LeGuin says that this is the best of Wells' short stories, but I personally liked The Magic Shop better. The story is printed here with both endings and I do believe the 1939 ending is far better.
I think one of the problems I had with this collection is that all of the stories seemed so familiar. However, I believe that is because Wells was a great inspiration to future generations of science fiction. His stories are the originals and the newer ones are just copies. This collection is well worth reading if you are a science fiction aficionado because it will give you insight into the origins of the genre.
