Praise for H.G.Wells!

This has to be one of my favourite books of all time. With beautiful leather bound "old school" War of the worlds cover with silver tinted thin pages, this book is beautiful not only in content but in looks.

The Seven Novels include:

The Invisible Man.
The Island Of Dr Moreau.
War Of The Worlds.
The Time Machine.
The First Men In The Moon.
In the Days Of The Comet.
The Food Of The Gods.

The Majority of these books are a MUST read. Days of the Comet and Food of the Gods are a little dull compared to the rest however still provide excellent philosophy.

H.G. Wells is one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. This collection; which includes The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, and In the Days of the Comet; are masterpieces. My favorite stories are The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds, probably because these were some of the first science fiction that I had seen and then read.

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.

1) The Time Machine
2) The Island of Dr. Moreau
3) The Invisible Man
4) The War of the Worlds
5) The First Men in the Moon
6) The Food of the Gods
7) In the Days of the Comet

It takes a certain adjustment of the literary ear to appreciate fiction written a century ago, but H. G. Wells never disappoints. Wry, comical, irreverent, the book skewers the narrowness of English village life and the failings and unforeseen consequences of the scientific empirical mindset in this tale of the invention of a new super food and its effect on the countryside surrounding Hickleybrow in Kent (Wells's birthplace). Dubbed "Herakleophorbia IV," the food is put, by its creators, under the supervision of an uneducated and slovenly pair of yokels on an "experimental farm," where it soon enters the local food chain. The resulting giant wasps, rats, and chickens (not to mention foliage) wreak havoc on the countryside. Once let out, the food cannot be contained however, and is soon fed to one of its creator's children and a small number of other babies, including a princess. What happens when these giants grow to adulthood is nothing short of an evolutionary and civilizational upheaval. Far from the kind of "nature strikes back" scenario so beloved of film adaptations of science fiction novels, the giants prove to be a strong and noble offshoot of the species, and the book ends on a lyrically optimistic note, at least for those who entertain the possibility of positive human evolution.

So far I've read The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau and have loved them both. I'm currently in The Invisible Man, and there are some turns of phrase in here that I just laugh out loud at. These books are so good! It was split down the middle for me. I loved The Time Machine and The Food of the Gods, and enjoyed The Island of Doctor Moreau for a time, but I wasn't a fan of the others. I didn't even make it through In the Days of the Comet. I made it to the third chapter or so and just ended up being like, "Fuck it." and returned it.

HG Wells was way ahead of his time. Very little that is bad in this book, except may Year of the Comet. Food of the Gods is a very well written book. Time Machine is ground-breaking. War of the Worlds and Island of Doctor Moreau are better than their movies. From Earth to the Moon is almost prophetic of Apollo in many of its details.

I love Well's science fiction and how ahead of his time he was.

I enjoyed many of these classics, but In the Days of the Comet was a real slog.
My library copy (Dover Publications) didn't include the introduction that other reviewers refer to; I wish it did.

After reading other readers review of this collection of 7 stories -- I am definitely in the minority with how I rate it. Yes, it was worth reading and I am glad I read the stories ("The Time Machine", "The Island of Dr. Moreau", "The Invisible Man", "The War of the Worlds", "The First Men in the Moon", "The Food of the Gods" and "In the Days of the Comet"). However, I did find Wells style very static and dated. Static in the way he does not introduce much dialogue in characters. Most of the stories are in a narrative form offered by the main character, and most of the stories wander into side items that don't truly propel the story along. All of the stories are well meant with the protagonist mainly of intentions offering political sensibility of the time as well as some thought provoking attitudes on class structures. My favorite story of the seven was what other readers typically have pointed as Wells weakest of the seven stories. I truly liked "In the Days of the Comet," and mainly for one reason, it offered the most in what could be looked at as dialogue, and it offered a female character. Most of the other stories are told by males, with just a random mention to women. I found this as odd in span of the other 6 stories. Not that an adventure (SciFi or other genre) requires a love interest to make it a good story. I mean if that was the case, I guess I would reading Fabio style Harlequin romances (I always joke with my wife that Danielle Steel -- in that "he" is her favorite author!). I just felt that I needed some dialogue, and I needed some heart. I mean, I had read Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (unabridged 1400 page version), and loved the side stories and the richness and the main characters (both male and female). As a whole that book was completely rewarding and was "great!" As for Wells style, maybe the true lover's of SciFi novels are use to the narrative style, I was not. So my endorsement is that if you want to say you have read these classic stories and mark them off your 'bucket' list of stories read -- then by all means read this book. For me however it was sort of...dry. (long review, but I deserve it after reading a very long collection of stories!)

I haven't finished all of these yet, but I just adore H.G. Wells and the cover for this volume is phenomenal.

There is no point in me providing a detailed critique of each of the individual novels in this omnibus edition of Wells' early science fiction books. They are, with the probable exception of 'The Food of the Gods' and 'In The Days of the Comet', extremely well known texts that have been discussed by thousands over the century or so since they were first published.

Having said that, and as this is about the fourth or fifth time I have read these individual stories (in the case of 'The War of the Worlds' maybe another few times on top of that), I would argue that some of the novels are much stronger than others, and there are issues I have picked up that were not so obvious to me in the past.

First off, it is clear that Wells often was more focused on the idea or ideas that he wished to examine through the artifice of a story, rather than writing a fully realised novel that is multilayered in terms of character or narrative. In my opinion the better novellas are those that are not so ideologically or thematically simplistic. For example, 'In The Days of the Comet' is a early socialist utopian novel that at times reads like a bad romance. 'War of the Worlds', classic as it is, still has issues regarding the narrative continuity and under-developed protagonist. 'Food of the Gods' is a rather uneven tale that veers into an unresolved silly fable having spent far too much time in the opening chapters focused on the science of 'Boom Food'. 'The Time Machine' is also rather shallow.

Having said all this, almost all of the novels herein are significant texts both in terms of Wells' career and the development of science fiction as a genre. 'The Food of the Gods' and 'In the Days of the Comet' are far less important books; to be honest if one wanted a better representation of Wells' corpus perhaps one of his social romances ('Tono Bungay', 'Ann Veronica', 'Kipps', 'The History of Mr Polly') could have been included instead of those two books. However the publishers decided that they wanted to focus on Wells' science fiction novels and that has led to the inclusion of these lesser works.

as I said before, this is not the first time I read this omnibus edition. However I was able to note this time around certain aspects of each novel that I had missed before. for example, in 'In The days of the Comet' Wells makes a rather obnoxious anti-semitic statement. In 'The War of the Worlds' the narration is seriously flawed. My opinion of 'The First Men in the Moon' has been elevated, whereas I found 'The Invisible man' less laudable than before.

Tat this edition of so many Wells' novels may still be available is a good thing, and if you want to read these works I have no hesitations in giving my recommendation. However I have some issues with the novels selected, and at over 800 pages it may be more more engaging that the reader looks for the individual novels.