Story: 6.5 / 10
Characters: 7.5
Setting: 10.0
Prose: 8.0 ( )

3.5

Often fun/interesting, but devoid of any real story and a bit preachy. There are more characters than needed and none of them fleshed out too well, but really the whole thing is an ideas book and it delivers them in a witty fashion. Paced better than I expected, though it does meander a bit towards the end.

Known to be one of Wells' "Utopian" novels, I expected it to flop for me, but I actually really enjoyed it. In The Days of the Comet and The Dream come under the same umbrella and are pretty much the two worst books of his I've read. ( )

Really good and timely still.

It actually takes the idea of a peaceful Utopia and doesn't back down from it the way modern stories do. Modern stories usually have some sort of horrible secret behind the so-called Utopia which, in the end makes our world better, but this one is just like "nope, this is a better world" and tries to build up hope of our world one day achieving it.

Lots of really interesting views from the late 1800s-early 1900s in here as well. ( )

A fine novel presenting a mirrored view of humanity through the reflection of an ideal world. In this book Wells pits his earthly characters as infectious agents in an advanced civilisation that has itself progressed beyond what they refer to as 'The Age of Confusion", this age of confusion is a reference to earthly politics, social moors, sex, religion, education, industrialisation, and capitalism, to name a few of the more discussed references in the novel. In my opinion this world presented by Wells is not a socialistic or communistic simulacrum, as these concepts are also critiqued towards the end of the story. I think the underlying theme is colonisation - not unlike what tribal communities experienced with missionaries attempting to civilise them through religion. Wells writes, 'Man was no longer crippled and compelled; it was recognised that he was fundamentally an animal and that his daily life must follow the round of appetites satisfied and instincts released. The daily texture of Utopian life was woven of various and interesting foods and drinks, of free entertaining exercise and work, of sweet sleep and of the interest and happiness of fearless and spiteless lovemaking.' Mr. Barnstaple whose spontaneous need to 'get away from it all' becomes a literal adventure into his own idealistic world. The story is a blend of action, adventure, social and political commentary, with a science fiction plot. All in all it's a tidy tale, with some astute observations on the crudeness of humanity. There are some fine witty moments with Mr. Barnstaple's interactions with his fellow human travellers, (as more then one earthling enters Utopia), especially to do with a very irritating priest. ( )

"Rotation through the F dimension" is this vintage Wellsian novel's trick for moving between parallel universes reminiscent of the "braneworlds" sometimes suggested by the string theories of today's physics. Wells's obvious purpose, besides simply telling a story, was to condemn the sorry state of human society in this world (Earth) by contrasting it with the far more advanced society in a particular parallel world ("Utopia"). He did this very well and, I'd say, with great appropriateness both for his time and for ours.