Review of 'The Time Ships' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
I have always been a great fan of H.G. Wells, with his wonderful imagination and direct style of writing. Would this sequel be a disappointment? Certainly not, it was great to read. Steven Baxter has done a great job of writing from perspective of a gentleman experimenter at the end of the 19th century, and whilst not quite managing the elegance of Wells, has certainly caught his style of writing and equalled his imaginative reach. Whereas Wells needed only 81 pages for his historic book, Baxter used over 400 times that. For most of the book that was no problem, it was enjoyable to keep on reading, the last section, which was of necessity rather more theoretical did get a bit long-winded in places. A final word to anyone reading The Time Ships who has only seen one of the films or (like me) not read the book for a …
I have always been a great fan of H.G. Wells, with his wonderful imagination and direct style of writing. Would this sequel be a disappointment? Certainly not, it was great to read. Steven Baxter has done a great job of writing from perspective of a gentleman experimenter at the end of the 19th century, and whilst not quite managing the elegance of Wells, has certainly caught his style of writing and equalled his imaginative reach. Whereas Wells needed only 81 pages for his historic book, Baxter used over 400 times that. For most of the book that was no problem, it was enjoyable to keep on reading, the last section, which was of necessity rather more theoretical did get a bit long-winded in places. A final word to anyone reading The Time Ships who has only seen one of the films or (like me) not read the book for a long time; do read (or re-read) The Time Machine first. It is only short and you will get much more out of the sequel if you have read it recently.
