Invisible Man...
I continue to read the Easton Press Masterpieces of Science Fiction that were sitting in my TBR pile. The next book in the series was another Wells book. You may recall that I blogged about The Time Machine last week. Today's subject is the less-celebrated, but almost as frequently filmed, The Invisible Man.
While equally innovative for its time, and equally involved in implausible scientific speculation, I found that Invisible Man showed its age a bit more that War of the Worlds or Time Machine. The reason for this is actually what many people (including the people who introduced the book) have pointed to as a strong point: the depiction of village life in 19th Century England. Though it certainly adds to the anthropological interest of the book, I found that the story sometimes took a back seat to the idle prattle of the villagers.
Most annoying, though, was the main character, who was an ill-tempered boor from beginning to end. Not enough humanity to make me care.
Having said that, I urge everyone to read it - it's a vital part of the SF canon (Kevin Bacon notwithstanding) and has been the starting point for many subsequent stories.
Writing: started a new SF tale, but wrote a couple of sentences only, and even those will be revised.
While equally innovative for its time, and equally involved in implausible scientific speculation, I found that Invisible Man showed its age a bit more that War of the Worlds or Time Machine. The reason for this is actually what many people (including the people who introduced the book) have pointed to as a strong point: the depiction of village life in 19th Century England. Though it certainly adds to the anthropological interest of the book, I found that the story sometimes took a back seat to the idle prattle of the villagers.
Most annoying, though, was the main character, who was an ill-tempered boor from beginning to end. Not enough humanity to make me care.
Having said that, I urge everyone to read it - it's a vital part of the SF canon (Kevin Bacon notwithstanding) and has been the starting point for many subsequent stories.
Writing: started a new SF tale, but wrote a couple of sentences only, and even those will be revised.