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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
fast-paced
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It got me through it it one sitting, but it is definitely a bit more uncomfortably of its time than I was necessarily prepared for (should have been, wasn’t). It’s a classic horror villain often overlooked in the modern lists as far as I can tell, but he’s showing up a bit more for me these days. He came up in Glass Scientists and The Daughter of Doctor Moreau so I felt I should go back and see his origins finally.
And it’s fine. I liked the front half more, with the dawning horror of what was happening and the escape in the jungle, but once Prendick realizes his lot and he’s helpless to do much but surrender himself a bit and stay with Moreau and Montgomery since he has no other choice….it lost me. The horror of it was laid bare instead of kept to the shadows, and it was horrible, but it went from creeping fear to general body disgust, and it dances on old racist ideologies that I should have anticipated. Wells is a great author, but this one feels its age, and the science suffers from a modern glance since it’s not actually plausible with what we know now. (Tho, with some technological implants….stick a computer in there with the right charges to the right points of the brain…I can almost promise someone’s tried it somewhere, ethics be damned.)
It’s fine, but the spooky unknowns and slow reveals and dramatic terrified escapes in the front half are way more compelling than the bloody reveals and bitter semi acceptance for the sake of survival in the second.
It asks some seriously interesting questions about morality and faith and trust and science and humanity, and I’d need to study to context of the times to properly grasp it, so. 3 stars it be, personally.
And it’s fine. I liked the front half more, with the dawning horror of what was happening and the escape in the jungle, but once Prendick realizes his lot and he’s helpless to do much but surrender himself a bit and stay with Moreau and Montgomery since he has no other choice….it lost me. The horror of it was laid bare instead of kept to the shadows, and it was horrible, but it went from creeping fear to general body disgust, and it dances on old racist ideologies that I should have anticipated. Wells is a great author, but this one feels its age, and the science suffers from a modern glance since it’s not actually plausible with what we know now. (Tho, with some technological implants….stick a computer in there with the right charges to the right points of the brain…I can almost promise someone’s tried it somewhere, ethics be damned.)
It’s fine, but the spooky unknowns and slow reveals and dramatic terrified escapes in the front half are way more compelling than the bloody reveals and bitter semi acceptance for the sake of survival in the second.
It asks some seriously interesting questions about morality and faith and trust and science and humanity, and I’d need to study to context of the times to properly grasp it, so. 3 stars it be, personally.
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A more “modern” Frankenstein than many other stories given that title. Obviously it’s not as modern as others, but it’s just as creepy, disturbing, and actually more gruesome! The idea of this island unknown to everyone except for very few where unspeakable horrors take place is just so unnerving, and the interesting philosophy of Dr. Moreau is what really ties it all together for me. If he was just a mad scientist or something like that it wouldn’t be half as interesting, but he is very well spoken and clear in how he views the world. If what he was doing wasn’t so abhorrent one may actually understand his viewpoint. Our protagonist is very easy to root for, in spite of arrogance being present in not just him but almost every character. Everyone is incredibly intolerant and volatile, so arguments happen almost every chapter, which is saying something considering how short they are. The culture surrounding the creations is my favourite part of the book, and how they have come to understand the world they live in. Imagine if your maker not only walked the same lands as you, but viewed you with a slight disgust and used violence as a first resort whenever a question of him was asked. This book will stick with me, mostly for the horrifying and disgusting subject matter, but also for how Wells utilised that matter to speak about other important topics like prejudice.
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
(LibriVoxed.) Shit gets really real, really fast in this (anti-?)colonialist parable about the "white", "pale" London-expelled Dr. Moreau and his "Beast People". Did Dr. Moreau turn humans into the Beast People? Or did he turn animals into people? Who knows. Either way, he's a colonialist jerk. Our sensitive, trusty narrator, Prendick, feels godawful, all of the time. So did I. Really well-written. (The prof of the sf MOOC I'm taking noted that, in his day, everyone thought H.G. Wells was the shit, and we seem to have forgotten him a bit since. It's true - the writing is plain, absorbing and expressive! Really nice!)
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
One of the hazards inherent in reading older science fiction (especially sff published before the turn of the century!) is that the science just wasn’t there at the time it was written, and in some unfortunate cases like this one (where we now understand a hell of a lot more about biology and evolution), that makes the book more of a time capsule than a thrilling tale. At least, it did for me.
The Island of Doctor Moreau follows Edward Prendick, sole survivor of of the shipwreck of the Lady Vain, who is taken aboard a passing vessel and ferried along to the mysterious island where the good (?) doctor Montgomery works, along with British exile Doctor Moreau, who Edward had heard of, as he was infamous in London for his unethical experimentation. Immediately upon arriving at the island, Prendick begins witnessing strange things, and strange beings who move and act like humans, but have more than a touch of the animal about them. Things spiral down from there.
Once the actual story started to unfold, after Prendick reaches the island and Doctor Moreau is forced to reveal the nature of his experiments, my brain just kept going on repeat, THAT’S NOW HOW IT WORKS. THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS. I was completely unable to believe in the fundamental premise of the story, so this never got beyond the level of an interesting artifact for me: Interesting to think about, but completely implausible. Your mind as a reader has to be able to imagine the story into reality, and I couldn’t do that here.
Which is a shame, because before the reveal of what was actually going on, I thought this was my favorite thing of H.G. Wells’ that I had read. I enjoyed the castaway beginning, and Edward’s sensing of something odd and sinister going on was effectively creepy. All the creep was let out of the balloon for me, though, when the nature of Moreau’s work was revealed.
I still haven’t read the fourth of Wells’s most famous novels, The Invisible Man, and I’m hoping it works more like The War of the Worlds in plausibility than this one, or that I’m at least able to suspend my disbelief long enough to have a good time.
The Island of Doctor Moreau follows Edward Prendick, sole survivor of of the shipwreck of the Lady Vain, who is taken aboard a passing vessel and ferried along to the mysterious island where the good (?) doctor Montgomery works, along with British exile Doctor Moreau, who Edward had heard of, as he was infamous in London for his unethical experimentation. Immediately upon arriving at the island, Prendick begins witnessing strange things, and strange beings who move and act like humans, but have more than a touch of the animal about them. Things spiral down from there.
Once the actual story started to unfold, after Prendick reaches the island and Doctor Moreau is forced to reveal the nature of his experiments, my brain just kept going on repeat, THAT’S NOW HOW IT WORKS. THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS. I was completely unable to believe in the fundamental premise of the story, so this never got beyond the level of an interesting artifact for me: Interesting to think about, but completely implausible. Your mind as a reader has to be able to imagine the story into reality, and I couldn’t do that here.
Which is a shame, because before the reveal of what was actually going on, I thought this was my favorite thing of H.G. Wells’ that I had read. I enjoyed the castaway beginning, and Edward’s sensing of something odd and sinister going on was effectively creepy. All the creep was let out of the balloon for me, though, when the nature of Moreau’s work was revealed.
I still haven’t read the fourth of Wells’s most famous novels, The Invisible Man, and I’m hoping it works more like The War of the Worlds in plausibility than this one, or that I’m at least able to suspend my disbelief long enough to have a good time.