The First Time Machine - The Time Machine By H.G Wells

 At first glance, if you never read The Time Machine (by H.G Wells) and never heard of its legacy, you may not realize what this book is. You may not read just because it seems like a generic time traveling story, but this book is much more than that.

The Time Machine was written by H.G Wells and published in 1895. It was the first of its kind, which is time travel with a time machine. Now obviously because it was published over 120 years ago there are a lot of outdated parts of the book, including the explanation for how time travel works, but I really didn’t care about those inaccuracies while reading, and to be honest I found myself enjoying the book a lot more because of those outdated ideas. Nowadays there are usually more complicated ideas about time traveling which make a bit more sense, but H.G Wells presents the idea of time traveling (or technically in the book, the time traveler) in a way that is simple and makes sense to a degree. Also because the book is so old, it's ideas like time travel feel fresh because everything nowadays are so much more different.

One of the best parts of the book, and H.G Wells' stories as a whole is how the characters and the world are like. The way H.G Wells writes is that the world is the main focus rather then the characters. H.G Wells also has deeper meanings to his stories which are usually warnings to humanity about our future, which The Time Machine definitely has. But anyway, the characters in The Time Machine are also interesting, and they seem important too.

As much as I wish I could sit here and talk about the plot of the story and the places where the time traveler travels to, I would much rather have you read it yourself, so in order to convince you even more to read it, below is a table which talks about the pros and cons of the book.

Pros	Cons
The writing style of H.G Wells is unlike anything you’ve probably read, because 1. It’s old style and 2. The way he makes characters not the main focus of the story, but the focus at the same time. For example, none of the characters have any names; for example, the time traveler	Vocabulary is a bit hard to understand at times (though you could have a dictionary next to you or on your phone)
Not predictable	Some people may not understand more complicated ideas in the story (though I do think if you think hard enough you will understand)
Compelling, realistic characters
Great world building
A  classic

Now you may look at the chart and not see much, as it’s very vague, but the problem is that I don’t want to spoil the story. So if by this point you are not convinced, read the next paragraph which includes slight spoilers for the first chapter or two. If you are convinced, then skip the next paragraph. 

The Time Machine starts off at dinner, with the time traveler’s dinner guests sitting with him. The time traveler proposes the idea of time travel, and that time is the fourth dimension, and we can move through it, like the other dimensions. He brings with himself a miniature version of the time machine he is working on, and when he activates it, it vanishes in front of everyone. Then the time traveler shows them the full sized time machine, which is almost done. Most of them are uncertain, including the narrator, as the time traveler has tricked them in the past, but the time traveler says that he is serious. The next week when the dinner guests return, the time traveler is nowhere to be seen, but after a while, he bursts through the door, and is in a wreck. He craves for meat and wants to eat before he explains what has happened.

So now after writing this intro to the book, I do think it might be worth reading if you are uncertain. But anyways, I hope you at least enjoyed this blog and actually read the book.

-  Mahdi