The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

Retro Audio Review

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells 
Narrated by Derek Jacobi
Scifi Time-Travel
Unabridged Audio 3+ hours 
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When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700--and everything has changed.  In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony.  The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings--unearth their secret and then retum to his own time--until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.  

H.G. Well's famous novel of one man's astonishing journey beyond the conventional limits of the imagination first appeared in 1895.  It won him immediate recognition, and has been regarded ever since as one of the great masterpieces in the literature of science fiction.

The Time Machine (1960) was one of my favorite movies as a child. I guess I was a weird little girl because I absolutely lived for the days when I could find it on the tv on weekends. For some reason, I never did get around to reading the source material until now.

My first thought when starting this audio and hearing The Time Traveler’s wizened voice as he was blathering on about his stuffy dinner party plans was, “Uh oh, this is going to put me to sleep.”

I was wrong.

It starts out a little dry but it doesn’t stay that way for long. The host soon shares with his guests a strange and difficult to believe tale of time travel and gives them a frightening and disturbing glimpse of the far out future where he discovers humanity has evolved into two distinct classes and that there really is no such thing as Utopia.

I’m not going to give it all away if you are one of the few who haven’t read it or seen either version of the movie (I recommend the 1960 version). I loved this story. It was imaginative and entertaining and still accessible even though it was written in 1895. Wow. I still can’t believe that.

You should read it. Or better yet listen to this audio version read by Sir Derek Jacobi. He does a fabulous job voicing the time traveler even though, I have to say this, his aged voice made the time traveler seem a bit like a lecher whenever child-like Weena was cuddling and caressing him . . . Still, worth a listen.

As a companion to this, I’d like to recommend MEAT by Joseph D’Lacey but only if you have a very strong stomach.