A review by emreadsfiction
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

4.0

"There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change."

★ full review on my blog! ★
If you had a time machine, where would you go? To the end of our galaxy? To a not so distant future where all the problems of the present have been solved? I find that this is the least important question proposed in The Time Machine. Rather, this story asks the reader to dig more deeply. Is consciousness a good thing?

I found The Time Machine to be both philosophical and entertaining. At once, I was eager to see how the time traveler will escape the year 802,701 and questioning the way consciousness drives us as individuals. Without it, we might achieve a sense of peace, like cattle in a pasture, the only fear being prey. Yet our having consciousness leads us to believe the constant pursuit of peace is achievable. And who has truly felt that? What human has ever experienced peace and silence like that of the Eloi?

I'm gonna be so real, I picked up this book because I realized the shortest book I've read this year was an Ali Hazelwood novella, and frankly I don't want to see her name and cover come up every time I look at my 2023 goodreads summary, so I had to read an even shorter book before the end of this month. However, I really, really enjoyed this story and all of the complex thoughts it stirred in me.