Customer Reviews

Men Like Gods

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If all you've read of Wells is The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Island of Dr. Moreau, you're not getting the full story. This novel--writen some twenty-five years after the aforementioned works--shows the author's more philosophical side; there's less of the straight SF romance aspect to it; it's also, in my estimation, a considerably more gripping read.

In short, it's about a group of people who are inadvertantly drawn into an alternate dimension, which turns out to be a paradisiacal version of Earth thousands of years in ahead of contemporary society. There's some action involved, but it's more a book of moral philosophy than anything else, as it explores issues of what humanity should be and be striving for. I liked it a lot, and you should try to find a copy and read it.

Almost everyone knows of H. G. Wells' other works like The Time Machine, but this book, never as popular and certainly mentally deeper, is really the way to get a look into this renowned author's mind.

As another has mentioned, this isn't so much a high science romance but rather a story that incorporates social philosophy. It is a social philosophy almost entirely 180 degrees out from my own. And just to get it out and over with, yes; there are a lot of misconceptions regarding evolution, biology and science. To enjoy the story, it is necessary to make the same exceptions for those misconceptions as we happily make for errors regarding electricity while reading Frankenstein.

Our main character is what we would refer to as a typical middle class working stiff. He suffers the same discontentment that many today do with children growing up not exactly the way we would wish for them, a spouse that is less than exciting after all these years, a boss he doesn't respect and a job he detests going to. Sound familiar? An impromptu holiday winds up quickly as an accidental push into a sort of parallel dimension with all the others who traveled the road near the same time. Their cars simply wind up in a new place after a bit of a jolt.

In this new place, the people are all perfectly formed, beautiful, supremely intelligent and telepathic. The story, which I won't ruin further by detailing, revolves around the inevitable clash of the "modern" human in a place that has eschewed all the things we consider worthwhile and made themselves infinitly superior. Needless to say, our hero develops the appropriate appreciation and awe and eventually returns home a different man. Should I detail further, I will certainly ruin the action that isn't at all sparse in the story.

I'll admit that I was very surprised by the book. I had pictured the author in different ways, as far as his ideas and opinions, but never like this. This is the socialist and communist dream made manifest. Of course, the problem with that delves down into our deepest pre-history and evolution but he couldn't know that. As primates who "collected" as our evolutionary advantage, we can no more leave behind the desire for personal property and the safety of objects than our need for oxygen to fuel our bodily processes. It is part and parcel of who we are.

The largely unspoken, but occassionally obvious use of eugenics and denial of parentage to achieve these aims is a bit frightening and may be difficult for modern sensibilities, but it was an openly discussed topic during that era and should be considered in that light.

Reading this book is a great idea for anyone who has an interest in H. G. Wells and his marvelous works because it does help to round out his viewpoints in other works. It's also a less P.C. work that allows a reader to pause and think of their own opinions as the story moves along and various philosophical points are brought to light by the action.

You end up in a new world - because of magic or hypnosis or some kind of accident. You learn about the native lifestyle and come back to your normal world, wiser, with knowledge to help all mankind.
Boring, seen in a hundred other books. But this is slightly different. Slightly more realistic than even some of Mr. Wells' own versions of utopia.
Because in this one the Earthlings bring illness and evil ideas to Eden. Yes, the flawed Earthlings bring death and destruction to Utopia and what are the goodie-goodie natives going to do about it?
I also love how Wells hints at the fact that while the people of utopia are well meaning and nice, they do seem to treat the Earthlings as lower creatures. After all they ARE Superior. By the end of the book, in fact, only the flawed or the very young show any interest in the main character from Earth. They have moved beyond us, to the point where even some of the ideas they have do not translate, and they see us as early examples of flawed humans. Like we may look at a pet ape.
Unlike his work, A Modern Utopia (Forgotten Books), this just feels more realistic and, sometimes, even has a touch of humor. This is just how people would act if they were dropped into a utopia. Sad to say I feel this hits our soul and ideals, or lack of them, right on the nose.
Enjoy!

Truly a rare find, this book gives us a deeper insight into the life and times of the author, H.G. Wells. It does so indirectly, though, for it is not a book about his life as it was or about his world as he saw it but rather a book about how certain characters respond to encountering a civilization other than their own. The characters were written by Wells in a way that reflects certain attitudes and moral values of his time. As such their feelings, their actions, their strengths and their foibles are commentary not only on their own society but on modern humanity as a whole.

Another reviewer on this board has given this book a poor rating, seemingly because the utopian ideal depicted in the book is not possible nor scientifically logical. While that is certainly the case, is "The Time Machine" any less enjoyable becuase temporal physics doesn't work the way Wells writes it as working? Is "The Lord of the Rings" any less enjoyable because there are no such things as elves?

When reading this book I would not suggest that you look upon it as a plan for building a utopian future. It is fantasy and not a guide to world-building. Instead, look at the idea of perfection Wells puts forth... look at the things he sees lacking in his own society and wishes somehow could magically become part of it. Look on this work not as a treatise on how to make the the world perfect, but rather as an author's delving into the reality of the human condition and his hopes and fears of what that condition could become... not through evolution but through the power of the mind to change who we are.

If you read it in that light, I think you will find it both enlightening and enjoyable to read.

Men Like Gods by H. G. Wells. Published by MobileReference (mobi).

Truly a rare find, this book gives us a deeper insight into the life and times of the author, H.G. Wells. It does so indirectly, though, for it is not a book about his life as it was or about his world as he saw it, but rather a book about how certain characters respond to encountering a civilization other than their own. The characters were written by Wells in a way that reflects certain attitudes and moral values of his time. As such their feelings, their actions, their strengths and their foibles are commentary not only on their own society but on modern humanity as a whole.

I like Wells' SF books. This one has a SF aspect to it, but it is primarily a work of social philosophy. British travelers are accidently transported into another dimension, where human beings live a life of productive labor, sociability (no one is too introspective), lack of private property, and almost complete nudity. According to Wells, this is paradise, and people here are not much different from Gods. It turns out that in this dimension, civilization had taken almost exactly the same course as it did on our Earth. The differences are superficial. Then at some point during the industrial age, a great transformation began to take place. Over the course of a hundred or so generations, private property in all but personal things was abolished, there were no more sexual preditors, and people have become open with strangers in their thoughts and actions. They have also become much taller, stronger, much more beautiful and intelligent.

This utopia relies on the Lamarckian misconception of biological evolution, where acquired improvements are transmitted to the next generation, culminating in a generation of God-like human beings. It also relies on the misconception that private property is at the root of societal evils and that people would want to get rid of it for good.