Games, Books and Films

“There is no difference between Time and any of the three dimensions of Space except that our consciousness moves along it,” claims the Time Traveller (’for so it will be convenient to speak of him’).

And so on the basis of this theory begins a classic science-fiction novel from H.G. Wells, that despite having been written well over a hundred years ago now, still shines brightly.

Narrated by an unnamed man and taking place in the late 19th century, The Time Machine focuses on the Time Traveller, who first describes to a group of friends the logic behind travelling through the Time dimension, and then proceeds to try out his newly-built time machine, reappearing shortly afterwards to tell his guests of a quite extraordinary eight day trip into the distant future.

So, unlike in the recent film-adaptation, the bulk of the story sees the Time Traveller telling of his trip to London, 802701 A.D. Upon his arrival, it’s fair to say he was not expecting the frail-looking, slight, almost child-like descendants that he would encounter. The Eloi, as they to become known, were simple people, who seemingly had lost the emotions of fear and anger and instead just ran around giggling a little whilst handing each other flowers.

Wells’ description of time travelling is instantly attractive; the future proves a mixture of wonderment and disappointment to the central character, who on the plus side notes the lack of bugs and bacteria in the air, the growth of lavish, soft lawns and a plethora of unknown fruits in the surroundings; but is also aggravated by the short attention spans and apparent lack of intelligence in the Eloi race.

Things go unexpectedly wrong for the Time Traveller on the first night though - his machine goes missing! Forced to stay in this alien environment, he makes an attempt to learn the Eloi’s simple but restrictive language and understand their peculiar behaviour traits.

As it turns out the Eloi do have one, very extreme, fear - darkness. Intrigued, the Time Traveller moves out into the nighttime and discovers the pale, horrifying Morlock creatures prowling the land. He deduces that both the Eloi and Morlock creatures descended from humans, but branched of at some point to live in Upperworld and Underworld environments. The Morlock’s live underground in tunnels, and prove very sensitive to light. It becomes quickly apparent that Time Traveller suspects the Morlock’s have stolen his machine, and he also grows to despise them for the cannibal tendencies; he tells of the satisfaction he felt when crumpling one’s skull with his fist! And so with his aptly-named Eloi companion Weena, he sets off in search of his machine and a way to return to his own time.

Though the book is only 95 pages long, it is quite heavy going - it took me several sittings to read through it all. Perhaps this is to do with Wells’ interesting but also scarily feasible explanations of time/space travel, it gets very complex at times and you’ll need 100% concentration to understand what is happening - he was a genuinely intelligent author and this comes across throughout the novel.

Characters are fairly good, though it’s only the Time Traveller who is described in any great depth; his fears, feelings, expectations and reactions are all made very clear to the reader and it’s surprising how much depth there is to the book considering it is so small by today’s standards.

Overall, I found it a fairly challenging read (I’m used to Stephen King and James Patterson!), but a story that ultimately triumphs due to it’s unorthodox but absorbing view of the future. Ahead of it’s time, and recommended to science-fiction fans.

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