"The fear I felt was no rational fear, but a panic terror not only of the Martians but of the dusk and stillness all about me." -- War of the Worlds
Herbert George Wells was an English writer born in 1866 and passed away in 1946. He wrote dozens of novels, short stories, and works of social commentary, as well as biographies and autobiographies. As an author, Wells is best remembered for his novels, The War of The Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Time Machine, and is often credited with being the father of the science fiction genre.
During his own lifetime, Wells was most well known as a forward-looking social critic, a futurist, who devoted his literary talents to the development of a progressive vision on a global scale. Wells wrote a number of utopian works and foresaw the advent of aircraft, tanks, space travel, nuclear weapons, satellite television, and something resembling the internet. His science fiction works included time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering.
This week's questions:
-What world-building elements do you feel are most important for distinguishing science fiction from fantasy?
-Have you ever made predictions about what technology will be like in the future? What inspired your predictions?
We also welcome any other discussion or comments about H. G. Wells or his works.
If you have another author you'd like to see a discussion on, please leave it in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a future chapter!
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells