The Food of the Gods is one of those novels that's probably even more relevant now than when it was written in 1904.
It focuses on two scientists RedwoThe Food of the Gods is one of those novels that's probably even more relevant now than when it was written in 1904.
It focuses on two scientists Redwood and Bensington who invent a substance called Herakleophorbia - The 'Food of the Gods' which causes rapid and unstoppable growth. Mismanagement of the initial chicken farm causes an outbreak of giant plants, wasps and rats. And then we get the new race of giants born into a world unprepared for them....
I loved the story. It has a very relevant what if speculative element - which in light of all the GM modifications and food crisis of late. It asks some very interesting questions, but at the same time has that wonderful romantic adventure element - we have human battles with giant rats and people being eaten. Also a poignant forbidden romance between two giants of different social classes; a princess and a socialist.
I really liked the open ending as well - It's doubtful there will be harmony between humans and giants - but we don't get the extinction of either and there is a slim possibility of hope.
The one thing I would have liked was a tighter narrative following a single set of characters. The characters there are are great if sometimes a bit characatured - some felt vaguly Dikensian in their wonderful descriptions - however the narrative is very disjointed and we get a fair bit of intrusive narrator as one scene of the story finishes - those characters fade out of the narrative but we get a nice little coda of their fate before moving swiftly on.
I thought it was very clever to show the extent of change via a convict released from prison after 20 years - However the character (unnamed?) weird considering he has a whole chapter, disappears once he goes to the anti boom food rally. We get that with the vicar, the upstart Dr. Winkles and a few other characters who sort of pop up and then get killed or fade out of the story. It would have been nice to have a more emotional connection to the cast.
Otherwise this confirms in pretty much every respect why I think H.G. Wells is awesome and a man very much ahead of his time. Very readable, fast paced and still relevant....more
H.G Wells homage fusing The time Machine and War of the Worlds - The female assistant to the creator of the time machine, takes it on a jaunt with herH.G Wells homage fusing The time Machine and War of the Worlds - The female assistant to the creator of the time machine, takes it on a jaunt with her new beau, they break a lever and move in space as well as time, ending up on Mars before the martians invade Earth.
I rather enjoyed this, its a skillfully done mash-up that actually features Wells as a character towards the end....more
It's really hard to rate this, because the film was such a part of my childhood, reading the novel now, nothing really comes as a surprise. It has insIt's really hard to rate this, because the film was such a part of my childhood, reading the novel now, nothing really comes as a surprise. It has inspired so much from Doctor Who to the steampunk genre that it's hard to remember just how groundbreaking it would have seemed in 1895.
While I prefer War of the Worlds and The Island of Doctor Moreau in terms of pace and excitement, The Time Machine has many iconic scenes - from the machine itself to the cannibal Morlocks and tragic death of Weena.
I'm a huge fan of the old pulp planet stories of Burroughs, Adelbert Kline etc - And the Time Machine seems to be the forerunner of these - While its still Earth, the far future resembles these barbarian wolds of savage splendour - Weena a prototype princess - (compare her to Princess Heru in Arnold's Gullivar of Mars: 'a helpless, sodden little morsel of feminine loveliness') - We have cannibals - The Morlocks and of course the giant crabs and squid in the far far future - The Time Machine feels far more like one of these adventure stories than the modern time travel tales we get today and yet it seems to me without Wells neither genres would have happened and it's influence is undeniable....more
Great collection of Killer plant stories from some great classic authors: Nathanial Hawthorne, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, M.R. James, E. NesbittGreat collection of Killer plant stories from some great classic authors: Nathanial Hawthorne, Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, M.R. James, E. Nesbitt, William Hope Hodgson, Charlotte Perkins Gilman....
Particular stand outs (other than the Wells and Hodgson stories, which go without saying as I'm a massive fan of both): Nesbit's The Pavilion, Hawthorne's Rapaccini's Daughter and Mcneile's The Green Death.
There's a nice range of stories here - quiet feminism, murder mystery, mad scientist, eco-horror, western tall tale to full on body horror.
There are relatively few horror anthologies out there that specifically cover Botanical gothic, the only other one that springs to mind is: The Roots of Evil: Weird Stories of Supernatural Plants (Michel Parry ed) which has been out of print since 1976 and is hard to track down these days - so I'm delighted to find this more accessible collection....more
While this is supposed to be a sequel to Well's Island of Doctor Moreau, it feels far more like a reworking of the original story. Its set in the not While this is supposed to be a sequel to Well's Island of Doctor Moreau, it feels far more like a reworking of the original story. Its set in the not too distant future (1996), during a third world war. Our hero Calvert Mardle Roberts is a politician who's space shuttle gets shot down returning from a conference on the moon. He lands on Moreau's Island - Moreau's successor is an embittered thalidomide victim Mortimer Dart - As well as creating cyborg limbs for himself has been busy experimenting with both vivisection and drugs in utero to create a bizarre army of freaks for the war effort.
I loved some of the ideas in this, thalidomide and the idea of using drugs to produce freaks is a brilliant 'modern' twist, however not nearly enough is made of this. The idea is put to far better use in the novel Geek Love by Katherine Dunn where a mother uses drugs during pregnancy to produce circus freaks. Here its rather overshadowed by everything else.
I didn't think enough time was spent on the current situation either. I got confused over the moon, for a while I thought this was actually set on the moon - but I think his shuttle crashed on a return journey. But not nearly enough time is devoted to the war-torn future. Are there colonies on the moon - how far has man expanded into space, what are the world powers? Its all disappointingly sketchy.
Some of the things this does dwell on feel a bit odd as well. In particular Cal's idyll with the seal people. Now not all Moreau's creations are bad. There's a family of seal people who rescue Cal and he lives with them for a bit and embraces their commune of free love. There are several men and their queen Lorta and they have a human child, Satsu aged around 4 or 5. Satsu gleefully joins in all the 'love games of the adults' - and its clear Cal has sex with his "little sucky Satsu" - 'I did not even know that such young children could experience orgasm. But so it was.' This just feels all shades of wrong and other than its obvious shock value, I really can't fathom the point of its inclusion in this.
While I loved some of the new twists, there's not nearly enough originality and this really become a rehash of Moreau, which is fine as far as it goes, but the original packed far more punch and this feels like a lesser version. Still its quite fun, but not nearly as exciting as I hoped and the seal interlude made me quite uncomfortable....more
This is the 2nd of Titan's Sherlock Holmes series, which like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, takes Sherlock and mixes him with other contemporary This is the 2nd of Titan's Sherlock Holmes series, which like League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, takes Sherlock and mixes him with other contemporary literary characters. Book 1 - the Breath of God tackles the Supernatural. This one the scientific Romance.
The main references are Conan-Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) and H.G. Wells (The Island of Doctor Moreau) - And we have Holmes & Watson against someone starting up where Moreau left off.... The supporting characters include Challenger (Doyle again, this time The Lost World) Professor Lindenbrook (Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth) Abner Perry (Edgar Rice Burroughs - At the Earth's Core) and Calvor (Wells again - First Men in the Moon)
Like LXG when it sticks at what its best at (19th century) this is brilliant - I may be biased being a huge Sherlock and Wells fan and lover of hybrids and the science romance, but I liked the story, pace and thought the characters were spot on. My biggest niggle I guess is the superfluity of Lindenbrook, Perry and Calvor - other than to literature name drop (and annoy Sherlock) they have nothing to do with the story and could happily have been left out.
Holmes is a little more human here than Doyle's creation - you really feel Watson's influence on him - like he manages to praise Wiggins - because its something Watson would have done, and little asides like him thinking Watson would be proud of his sensitivity. While there is nothing overt, fans of Sherlock/Watson slash will love Holmes referring to 'My Watson' - how he wished for 'Watson and no other' when he gets annoyed with his companions. And there's a rather interesting throw away line where after reading Watson's ransom note which ends with 'do not make me turn him into something he will regret' Holmes muttered comment is 'a confirmed bachelor perhaps' - euphemism? up to the reader, but it felt to me like a very queer response from Holmes.
So apart from the disappointing use of the literary team-up the rest of this is cracking and does exactly what it sets out to do, put Holmes in a Scientific Romance. Fans of Sherlock and Wells need this one in their collection. There's even a cameo of a Sharktopus!...more
I'm not going to bother outlining the plot because it's so iconic its already ingrained in popular culture. I love Well's down to Earth writing style I'm not going to bother outlining the plot because it's so iconic its already ingrained in popular culture. I love Well's down to Earth writing style - it's succinct, almost journalistic and lets the reader picture the creatures in their minds. The way this is written makes it feel less of a romance and more of an account that makes it all the more believable and therefore chilling.
The story is simple, but there's so much beneath the surface: Man Vs. Nature, Class struggle, religion vs Darwinism, The perils of extreme science, the nature and folly of man. Considering when this was written - 1896 it's astonishingly 'modern' in the themes it's trying to tackle. You can see what it was controversial and considered blasphemous - the 'laws' being a parody of Christian liturgy, Moreau setting himself up as God. I also like that this doesn't moralise or hammer home it's points but leaves everything open to interpretation.
I find it quite amusing that it ends on a note of hope with Prendick finding solace is Astronomy and looking to the stars when we know that Wells went on to write one of my all time favourite novels: War of the Worlds - showing us that even the heavens aren't safe.......more
1898 - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Quartermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man and Hyde) have to deal with the Martian I1898 - The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Alan Quartermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man and Hyde) have to deal with the Martian Invasion of War of the Worlds.
Now I adored the first LXG but this 2nd volume because it's source material is so close to my heart is just a dream come true. For the Martian side of things we reference Wells War of the Worlds but mix in Martian politics from ERB's John Carter and Gullivar of Mars - big squeee here over how seamlessly this is woven together and as for the rest... The literary referencing is so thick and fast that sometimes you have to re-read just to get the subtitles - Genius springs to mind. We have everything here from the Island of Dr. Moreau to Rupert Bear.
The largest chunk of the additional material is the traveller's almanac which takes the reader on a tour of the globe from a fabulist's point of view from the 17th century to 1907 - we look at various past members of the league as they explore fantasy realms from literature. Now I'm fairly well read, but even so there are a lot of references here that escape me - Hope-Hodgson's house on the borderland, Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and the Hunting of the Snark, Haggard's She and Solomon's Mines, Lovecraft, Lear, Gulliver's travels are just a few of the worlds plundered here -
The whole is a bit of a slog - it's text heavy and overly complex as we keep switching narrators but for those who know their literature there's much not to be missed - the Gilbert and Sullivan Lovecraftian operetta is the jewel in the crown of just why LXG is so great.
Overall this is a graphic novel to be savoured and read and re-read - it's so rich in satire and tongue in cheek referencing that you keep finding more and more to delight.
I love the visual quality of war of the worlds - the scenes of deserted London and the rivers choked with red weed are some of the most iconic committI love the visual quality of war of the worlds - the scenes of deserted London and the rivers choked with red weed are some of the most iconic committed to fiction. I love the helplessness of the human race reduced to ants running from a seemingly unstoppable martian force. The two extreme lines of thought represented by the curate and the Artillery man are also really well handled. The Martians themselves with their mechanical carriages are just so wonderfully realised. Also love Wells' prose -
"No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that the world was being watched..."
that's what I call an opening.
What I hadn't ever really picked up on before was the vampric nature of the Martians:
"they took the fresh living blood of other creatures and injected it into their veins"
First ever space vampires? certainly a proto-type.
Loved every minute of WOTW - even the upbeat ending which was somewhat unexpected after the dark fatality of the rest of the story. There's something ironic about this unstoppable titan force being laid low by tiny bacteria.
Note to self, really must read more H G Wells. ...more
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