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A review by manureads
The First Men In The Moon by H.G. Wells
The First Men on the Moon is the story of a man who procrastinates writing his play by going to the moon, which I’m sure is relatable to a lot of people! I did not give this book a star rating because I have very mixed feelings about it. I can see why it is considered a classic, but in my opinion it doesn’t really deserve to be anymore because it doesn’t do anything interesting for sci-fi, especially today.
Bedford and Cavor are both extremely unlikeable. Bedford has grand business ideas but is incompetent and selfish and Cavor is an irresponsible scientist, at best, and at worst he is a sociopath capable of killing us all by accident and telling himself it’s all justified in the name of knowledge. Put together, these two are the worst people to meet with aliens for the first time, and one of my worst nightmares. I don’t remember the last time I actively rooted for the main characters to fail.
The book had some very strong parallels with colonialism – Bedford says plainly that he wants to come back with guns to kill the selenites and take their gold. I was relieved when he lost his only way to go back to the moon. According to the introduction, Wells wrote it deliberately as an analogy but I don’t know whether it was meant to come across as criticism or anything like that. It doesn’t really matter, it mostly made me sad to think humans would not have learned from their mistakes and would still be in a colonialist mindset when going to explore outer space (yes, I am very much aware that this is what’s currently happening, but I expect better from science fiction, thanks.)
That is not to say that the book does nothing right. The ´science´ was obviously outdated, but I could still appreciate the creativity behind the idea of a substance that “cuts us off” from gravity and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the moon environment. I did not pay much attention to the selenite society because I was too distracted by my irritation with the disaster duo. I also really liked the writing, and there are a few sentences that I re-read just so I could fully appreciate them and because they were a reprieve from the rest. H. G. Wells also throws some shade at Jules Verne and Shakespeare which is quite funny.
I am still going to try and read A Modern Utopia since I happen to own a copy, but my expectations are a lot lower now and I am starting to wonder whether science fiction books can be considered ´classics´ in the same way as contemporary fiction or even fantasy.
Bedford and Cavor are both extremely unlikeable. Bedford has grand business ideas but is incompetent and selfish and Cavor is an irresponsible scientist, at best, and at worst he is a sociopath capable of killing us all by accident and telling himself it’s all justified in the name of knowledge. Put together, these two are the worst people to meet with aliens for the first time, and one of my worst nightmares. I don’t remember the last time I actively rooted for the main characters to fail.
The book had some very strong parallels with colonialism – Bedford says plainly that he wants to come back with guns to kill the selenites and take their gold. I was relieved when he lost his only way to go back to the moon. According to the introduction, Wells wrote it deliberately as an analogy but I don’t know whether it was meant to come across as criticism or anything like that. It doesn’t really matter, it mostly made me sad to think humans would not have learned from their mistakes and would still be in a colonialist mindset when going to explore outer space (yes, I am very much aware that this is what’s currently happening, but I expect better from science fiction, thanks.)
That is not to say that the book does nothing right. The ´science´ was obviously outdated, but I could still appreciate the creativity behind the idea of a substance that “cuts us off” from gravity and I really enjoyed the descriptions of the moon environment. I did not pay much attention to the selenite society because I was too distracted by my irritation with the disaster duo. I also really liked the writing, and there are a few sentences that I re-read just so I could fully appreciate them and because they were a reprieve from the rest. H. G. Wells also throws some shade at Jules Verne and Shakespeare which is quite funny.
I am still going to try and read A Modern Utopia since I happen to own a copy, but my expectations are a lot lower now and I am starting to wonder whether science fiction books can be considered ´classics´ in the same way as contemporary fiction or even fantasy.