Finished: The Time Machine (Wells). Before Brave New World, 1984, and Anthem there was The Time Machine. Hmm...interesting little book. Written in 1895, it seems to be a sort of grandfather to those futuristic books. The Time Traveler creates a machine that takes him to 802,701 A.D. He discovers, or assumes, that mankind has split into two forms of beings, the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi are happy, light, unintelligent creatures who love flowers and eat only fruit. They live above ground and seem to be provided for with clothing, etc. They are terrified of the dark. The Morlocks live in a subterranean world full of machinery. It is assumed they keep the Eloi in their clothing, etc. They are meat-eaters...when the dark comes, they eat Eloi.

The Time Traveler decides that the Morlocks are the part of mankind that used to be the working class, and the Eloi used to be the upper class. Neither seem to have keen intelligence, so he postulates that mankind finally succeeded in becoming so technically superior, with no more disease, war, etc., that mankind had no more need for intelligence, strength or ingenuity...the things needed to make those accomplishments. So, mankind evolved into the slap-happy Eloi and the base-needing Morlocks. After the Morlocks steal his time machine, The Time Traveler has an adventure getting it back. He is nearly killed by the Morlocks and his one little Eloi friend, Weena, is presumed to perish as The Time Traveler is escaping the Morlocks. The Time Traveler takes off in his machine, and goes all the way to the end of time, stopping in a few more "times" along the way...watching as the earth evolves into a lifeless nothing. Frightened and discouraged, he sets the switch back for his current time and makes it back home. It has only been a few hours in real time. Of course, none of his friends believe him. He decides to set off again, and this time take some supplies and a camera (duh!!). After three years, he has still never been heard of. The End.

I'm not a SciFi fan at all, but it has been interesting to read each of these books and see how each of the authors viewed mankind turning out. Of course, The Time Machine went further in time than the others, so I wonder what H.G. Wells' in between time period of a Brave New World or a 1984 would have been. Anyway...yay...I think I'm done with SciFi. :-) Although...after I finish reading all the other books I want to read, I may give one of the longer Ayn Rand books a try...maybe. I don't know if they're SciFi or what though.