Where He's Invisible and a Narcissistic Sociopath

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

You know what? It's not great.

I found it mildly interesting, but he could have made a much better story. The first third of this book is the MC tediously trying to reverse his invisibility. The second third is him recounting the dull story of how he became invisible. And the last third is an action and chase sequence that has the book's only fun scenes. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Imagine you're the first person to think of writing a story about an invisible man. Wouldn't you have your character *do* something with this ability, for good or ill, and make the story about that? Make him a hero or a villain, but have him use his ability for something: solve a mystery, track a criminal, rob banks, get intelligence on foreign spies, something cool.

Or if you're just gonna do what H.G. Wells did, make it a short story. This was so thin it didn't demand even 150 pages. It reminds me of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, where nothing interesting (to me) happens; all he did was show us the marvels of this pretend invention, traveling to amazing places underwater. It's as if both authors expected to wow readers with amazing visuals and unusual settings rather than write a very engaging plot. It is still quite short, as novels go, but longer than it needed to be.

IMO, always.

I found a few things to interest me, especially the final confrontations, and I still want to read other famous titles by the author that I have some curiosity about. But my expectations are lower than they used to be. Maybe he'll surprise me. Fingers crossed.

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Where I Still Liked It After All These Years

Dune by Frank Herbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this in junior high or high school--can't quite pin it down--but I remember it was over a Christmas vacation when I had lots of time just to read, and I really liked it. With the new movie out, I wanted to re-read it and was worried how it would hold up. IMO--it held up very well, and I'm glad for that.

The language is a little different than more recent books. It's odd to find omniscient viewpoint after not seeing it for so long, but there's no difficulty in getting used to it again. I was surprised, though, and how distinctly I remembered most of the scenes; it was very familiar, reading it once more, even though 40 years have passed. Some bits I understood better, paid better attention to, and that helped me like it even more.

Lots of discourse about the book and newest movie, but I don't care to rehash any of it here.

What I like most about the novel is the scope. It reminds me of Foundation, dealing with vast times and distances as well as big ideas. There's something about that which, in addition to engaging my interest and my emotion, engages my curiosity, my sense of wonder, and that's a valuable thing.

Recommended for most.

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