BEST STORIES OF H.G. WELLS by H.G. Wells (1970)

Well, read parts of it anyhow. Wells insistence on humans being a speck in the universe is not only refreshing, but timely given our recent discoveries of other planets...

This anthology of works by H.G. Wells includes the complete novel The Invisible Man along with 17 of his fantastic short stories. I read Invisible Man many years ago and I have also seen the movie version of it several times so I decided not to reread it. However, I did read all the other stories and was really pleasantly surprised by them. The stories were not all science fiction but included stories of fantasy as well. There were stories of inventions, biological beasts and monstrosities, travels in other dimensions, and mysteries from space. The stories were all originally published from the 1880s to the early 1900s. Many of them reminded me of pulp fiction from the early 20th century that was published in such pulp magazines as Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, or Argosy. I think some of the pulp authors such as H.P. Lovecraft were probably inspired by Wells stories.

I have read most of Wells' more famous science fiction novels including The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine but had never read any of his short stories. One story included in this volume was "The Crystal Egg" which I had heard about as a precursor to War of the Worlds. This was one of the motivations to read this anthology. The story tells of a shop owner who finds a strange crystal egg that serves as a window into the planet Mars. By looking into the egg using a beam of light, he could see the strange beings on Mars as well as the Martian landscape. And the Martians could also use this to look at Earth and its inhabitants. The story was written the same year in which Wells was serializing The War of the Worlds in Pearson's Magazine. Because of the vaguely similar descriptions of the Martians and their machines, the story is often considered a precursor to The War of the Worlds, as the Martian effort to observe and study humanity remotely might indicate their preparation for an eventual invasion. The story was later reprinted in Amazing Stories magazine.

Some of the other stories I enjoyed included these related to biological oddities or monstrosities:
"The Strange Orchid" about a rare orchid obtained from beneath a dead explorer who had died of blood loss. When the orchid is planted it puts off a strong perfume and grows tentacles to attack the orchid owner.
"The Apple" about a man who possesses "The Apple of the Tree of Knowledge." The apple was obtained from a remote valley in Armenia that was supposedly the site of the Garden of Eden. So what happens if you eat the apple?
"The Purple Pileus" about a man who ingests a weird purple toadstool. The mushroom changes his character from a weakling into an unafraid man who takes no guff. So was this a magic mushroom?
"Aepyornis Island" about a man looking for eggs of Aepyornis, an extinct flightless bird, passes two years alone on a small island with an Aepyornis that has hatched. So is he safe from the bird? This was very reminiscent of a Dodo Bird.

"In The Avu Observatory" about a man who is studying the stars at a remote observatory in Borneo when he is attacked by a large bat-like creature that flies in through the observatory hatchway.
"The Sea Raiders" about large octopus-like creatures with tentacles that attack the ships and shoreline of Southeast England.

Other stories:
"The Man Who Could Work Miracles" about a man who could make anything happen just by thinking it. He tells a local reverend about this who wants to change the world for the better but because he is running out of time, tells the man to stop the rotation of the earth which of course has unexpected dire results.
"The New Accelerator" about a man who develops a drug that increases man's abilities a thousand fold. This includes bodily functions, movement, etc. The result is that by moving so fast, others appear to be stopped.
"The Star" about a collision of Neptune and a passing celestial body. The result is a very bright star that is heading towards Earth resulting in very dire consequences.
"Filmer" about a man who invents a heavier than air flying machine but is then too cowardly to go up in it.

I really enjoyed this collection and I can definitely see how other writers were inspired by Wells writing. Another author that was probably inspired by Wells was John Wyndham in his novels such as Day of the Triffids where mankind is at peril from an extraterrestrial source. I know Wells wrote many other short stories and at some point I may seek out more of them.

Unfortunately had to give this one up because the library wanted it back. I like H.G. Wells style of writing very much (lot's of big words)

The Invisible Man was as fantastic as I remembered it, and there were one or two other stories that really stuck with me afterwards. The other stories in the book were just fair.

Read by Greg K.

Monsters from the deep terrorise the coast of Devon. HG Wells' adventure is read by Robert Bathurst.

This book is actually an edition of The Time Machine. However, this isn't visible anywhere on the cover/spine of the book.

One of the stories only - The Sea Raiders

Monsters from the deep terrorise the coast of Devon. HG Wells' adventure is read by Robert Bathurst.

Broadcast on:
BBC Radio 7, 12:00am Tuesday 23rd March 2010

These were great. His writing is so rich and includes clever, funny and resonant turns of phrase. My only complaint was that some stories seemed both pointless and open-ended in such a way that made me wonder if he just sat down at his desk that day and wrote whatever happened to be passing through his mind.

3.5/5
3 ⭐ The Invisible Man
A medical student, turned physics student, in London, is intrigued with the properties of light. Studiously working for years in the student lab, burning the midnight oil so that none disturb him, he discovers the means to make flesh and blood invisible. First trying it on a cat with success, he then tries it on himself. But what he thought would be a boon soon proves to be his bane. Because it's winter, so he must go about naked to be unseen, and it's bitterly cold, raining and/or snowing. His glee at succeeding turns to murderous hatred for his fellow man, for standing in the way of his desires to take what he wants, wherever he goes.
His description of his breakthrough:
" 'but I went to work - like a slave. And I had hardly worked and thought about the matter 6 months before light came through one of the meshes suddenly - blindingly! I found a general principle of pigments and refraction, - a formula, a geometrical expression involving four dimensions. fools, common men, even common mathematicians, do not know anything of what some general expression May mean to the student of molecular physics. In the books - the books that Tramp has hidden - there are marvels, miracles! But this was not a method, it was an idea, that might lead to a method by which it would be possible, without changing any other property of matter, - except, in some instances, colours,-- to lower the refractive index of a substance, solid or liquid, to that of air - so far as all practical purposes are concerned.' "

The undoing of his invisibility:
"Suddenly an old woman, peering Under the arm of the big navvy, screamed sharply. 'looky there!' she said, and thrust out a wrinkled finger.
and looking where she pointed, everyone saw, faint and transparent as though it was made of glass, so that veins and arteries and bones and nerves could be distinguished, the outline of a hand, a hand limp and prone. It grew clouded and opaque even as they stared.
'hullo!' cried the constable. 'here's his feet a-showing!'
and so, slowly, beginning at his hands and feet and creeping along his limbs to the vital centres of his body, that strange change continued. it was like the slow spreading of a poison. First came the little white nerves, a hazy gray sketch of a limb, then the glassy bones and intricate arteries, then the flesh and skin, first a faint fogginess, and then growing rapidly dense and opaque. Presently they could see his crushed chest and his shoulders, and the dim outline of his drawn and battered features."

4 ⭐ The Crystal Egg
I loved this story. The elderly owner of an antique shop in London has in his inventory a crystal egg. Mr Cave also has a wife, younger than him, and two step-children who, along with their mother, don't respect Mr Cave. This egg, Mr Cave discovered, when in a dark room and when a pinpoint of light penetrated it at a certain angle, disclosed a view of a little valley, with two cliffs along either edge, buildings, trees, a little river running through the middle, and remarkable inhabitants of definitely non-human types.
The ending is very sad.

2 ⭐ The Man Who Could Work Miracles
Meh

4 ⭐ The Plattner Story
A Modern Languages Master, in a private school in Sussexville, whose precocious student finds and passes on to him a packet of green powder, tries various experiments on it in Chemistry class, on trying a match on it, causes an explosion and disappears. The students and Headmaster assume he has been "blown to atoms," but nah. He is blown into an Outer World, where all his organs, and his hands, are reversed in position, and remain that way when he manages to get back to our world.
An excerpt from it intrigued me, something to do with my personal experience:
"What are they - these Watchers of the Living? Plattner never learned. but two, that presently found and followed him, were like his childhood memory of his father and mother. Now and then other faces turned their eyes upon him: eyes like those of dead people who had swayed him, or injured him, or helped him in his youth and manhood. whenever they looked at him, plattner was overcome with a strange sense of responsibility. To his mother he ventured to speak; but she made no answer. She looked sadly, steadfastly, and tenderly - a little reproachfully, too, it seemed - into his eyes."

3 ⭐ The Strange Orchid
A man who is an orchid fancier buys several orchids rescued from a deceased man who had an orchid collection in Malaysia. Several of them don't survive, but one of them begins to thrive. However, it turns out to be a vampire orchid. The orchid has attacked the man, and is busily sucking his blood, when his housekeeper, finding he is late for his tea, discovers him passed out in his greenhouse. Of all the things they could use to revive him, listen to what they give him:
"Wedderburn had lost a good deal of blood, but beyond that he had suffered no very great injury. They gave him Brandy mixed with some pink extract of meat, and carried him upstairs to bed. His housekeeper told her incredible story in fragments to Dr haden. 'come to the orchid-House and see,' she said."
"Pink extract of meat" You mean blood? Lol

4 ⭐ The New Accelerator
Looking for stories about drugs that speed you up or change time for you, i found this story, and thus, this book. (I read a story once about a drug that slowed you down, or speeded you up, i can't remember. It took place in a jungle, and it was fascinating, because the protagonist was studying the prolific plants in the jungle setting, growing, as the person was under the influence of the drug. Alas, this was not it.)
This was a good one, though I would have liked the author to expand upon their experiences with the Accelerator.

3 ⭐ The Diamond Maker
What are diamonds? Artificially bumped-up lumps of coal, skillfully marketed to make them seem precious. Mined by poor, exploited humans to make wealth for their heartless bosses.
In this sad story, a man studies, researches for two decades on the making of diamonds...and is successful. But think of the problems with trying to sell them. Nobody will believe you.

2 ⭐ The Apple
Meh

2 ⭐ The Purple Pileus
Funny story about a bad marriage and some purple fungus.

4 ⭐ A Dream of Armageddon
Strange story of two men in a compartment on a train traveling to London. One man is recounting to the other his story of the end of the world. He dreamed a consecutive dream, and he felt sure that his dreaming world was the real one. He had left his hard, political life, to go with his young mistress to the isle of Capri, to live a life of love and pleasure. But leaving his post of power left the way open for his mad employee to turn the world to war. Insisting on continuing his life of love and leisure, he refused to go back and reassume his old yolk, even though his mistress begged him to leave her. They ran from the war that came to their paradise, but two warring sides hemmed them in, and she was shot. He was killed with a sword run through him. And then their were the carrion birds.
Now, in his waking life, he feels sure that this life is the dream.
A lot of parable in this little story for us, the reader, to learn from and heed, if we would.

4 ⭐ Aepyornis Island
This is an amazing tale of a prehistoric bird--the elephant bird of Madagascar, that went extinct ~1000 AD. Too sad, like the dodo.

A collection of Wells' stories that I read in my later high school years. As with any anthology, some stories are more interesting than others. In one of the stories, Wells seemingly foresaw the emergence of the tank as a war weapon.