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140th out of 633 books
—
2,159 voters
A Scientific Romance
It is 1999, and David Lambert, jilted lover and museum curator, is about to discover the startling news of the return of H. G. Wells's time machine to London. Motivated by a host of unanswered questions and innate curiosity, he propels himself deep into the next millenium. As he sets foot in the luxuriant but menacing new landscape, he soon begins to explore the ruins of h...more
Paperback, 360 pages
Published
January 15th 1999
by Picador
(first published 1997)
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I read and enjoyed several of Wright’s non-fiction books over the last year and I was aware that he had written a novel as well, so when I spotted this soft-cover edition on the clearance table at Book and Co. I picked it up on a whim. Maggee and I were between read-alouds at the time, and I suggested that I read her a sample few pages of this one, and it turned out to be a real “find”. David Lambert, an archeologist whose special field is nineteenth century technology (and the works of H.G, Wel...more
Oct 17, 2011
Michael
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Nobody
Recommended to Michael by:
Forced to read
I read this book back in high school, forced to read it. And I must say, it really felt forced, because the book was terrible. I can only sit and wonder what the hell went though the teachers' minds as they picked this book, it was awful.
The book is about this guy David who has grown tired of life currently; his best friend, Bird (who is really the famous saxophone player Charlie Parker) and he had a falling out, and the love of his life Anita, has died. David ends up discovering H.G. Wells' tim...more
The book is about this guy David who has grown tired of life currently; his best friend, Bird (who is really the famous saxophone player Charlie Parker) and he had a falling out, and the love of his life Anita, has died. David ends up discovering H.G. Wells' tim...more
A Scientific Romance is one of my favourite books. I recently reread it and found it holds up extremely well. It is the story of anthropologist David Lambert, who finds H.G. Wells' time Machine (or more accurately, Wells' lover Tatania's machine) and sets off for 500 years in the future. I'm not giving much away when I reveal that the world he discovers there is completely changed by a catasphrophic increase in global temperatures. The 20th century Britain he leaves is utterly gone, replaced by...more
Jun 19, 2011
Magdelanye
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
This was my second reading of this book, and how glad I am that I went with the nagging conviction that this was indeed the book I needed to read next, for I got much more out of it this time.
.
Our hero is an archeologist of his own past. Even before his flight in the time machine, he is obssessed with his old lover and the unsatisfactory triangle with her other lover, his best friends. The details are revealed haphazardly but what seems to drive him the most is the desperate hope that he will ev...more
.
Our hero is an archeologist of his own past. Even before his flight in the time machine, he is obssessed with his old lover and the unsatisfactory triangle with her other lover, his best friends. The details are revealed haphazardly but what seems to drive him the most is the desperate hope that he will ev...more
I remember buying this book when it first came out in 1998 after reading a review of it in the Washington Post and have finally gotten around to reading it. Time travel stories and movies have always fascinated me and this story of travel to the year 2500 A.D. was no exception. In this, the protagonist discovers that the time machine of H.G. Wells was returning to London in 1999. He also learns that he is afflicted with CJD (mad cow disease) and so decides to travel to the future in hopes of a c...more
I'm sick of saying I when i write reviews and I'm just as fed up of saying 'this book is..' so I'm going to miss that bit out now on the assumptions that everybody reading this will know that it is 'I' reviewing and that is it is 'this book' that is being reviewed. Thus we learn. So..
Thought provoking and disturbing.
Hmm.. maybe needs some embellishment. OK..
Provoking thoughts of worry and concern that the things we are doing to this world will lead to a loss of habitat and subsequent catastrophi...more
Thought provoking and disturbing.
Hmm.. maybe needs some embellishment. OK..
Provoking thoughts of worry and concern that the things we are doing to this world will lead to a loss of habitat and subsequent catastrophi...more
Mar 30, 2008
John
rated it
2 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone interested in disutopian fantasies.
Recommended to John by:
John Whiting
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Unsettling and provocative examination of how human behaviour contributes to our demise. Set in the UK of the future, the character trips forward in time with all his 'baggage' (including his reasons for time travel)and comes to face the nature of our being. Imagine facing the "ladder of technology which is missing the bottom rungs" or a warmer earth climate where our indoor plants thrive and GMOs survive. animals survive
Ronald Wright's books on the Maya were always important to me and this novel, I believe his first, had everything going for it...dystopian vision (always a sure winner with me but then I might be a pessimist) and a wise sense of work that had come before. Want a stark vision of how it might all turn out...read this before you read his marvelous Massey Lecture on progress.
A post-dystopian, Wells patische where The Time Machine ( a la Wells) actually exists giving the lead character an opportunity to discover the future whilst ruminating on his past- chiefly in the form of a lost love and a lost best friend. this is a brave book in that the single narrative voice is present for most of the book along with descriptions of a totally transformed Britain and hints of social breakdown and state of emergency type history narrative lost in the mists of global warming and...more
My first instinct was to give this book three stars because in a small way I felt jipped. I can't say more otherwise I will give the plot away but in the end I decided on the four because the writing is just that good. The discriptions are amazing and the references within the text often beyond me but one or two I looked up. For a quite indefinable reason, I couldn't put this book down.
a sci-fic so i wasnt sure id like it but it got me from the first page. starts out as if you kow everything thats happened to them and hes giving you info that has only just happened so you need to keep reading to get all caught up as it slowly becomes revealed to you.
I love literature that is literary... this book is full of quotes of poems and prose. The biggest inspiration is HG Wells The Time Machine, in fact I wish I'd read that already, although A Scientific Romance stands on its own.
A nice tribute to HG Wells, but doesn't really add anything to the spec fic genre...better to read his non-fiction, Time Among the Maya or a A Short History of Progress to get many of the same ideas, more compellingly expressed.
Read this in high school. Very introspective, and kind of gross at times. Still, the plot idea is interesting.....would appreciate better if in a Christian book.
Clever post-apocalyptic, highly allusive, a page-turner if you have low tolerance (i.e., you possess a mind) for so-called page turners.
It started of ok but I soon found my self skimming pages. I was likely in the wrong frame of mind when I read it.
This book is a true work of art. If the way something is written means as much to you as what the plot is then I can't recommend this book enough. This is actually the third time I've read it and I never get tired of it.
Dull, and dull and depressing. I think I have just realized that books which are mostly one person with little human interaction in them are not for me. Read about 200of about 350 pages and giving it up.
I was fooled, not until I got into the book did I realize it was Sceince Fiction. Enjoying it very much.
Moved a little slowly to be good, but the conclusion was interesting.
Feb 01, 2010
Stephanie
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
dystopian-fiction
Great book for fans of HG Wells' The Time Machine.
Yes, I too want a time machine.
I couldn't get very far in it at all. I found it very hard to deal with everything written in the past tense. The author made no effort to explain who anyone was or what the narrator was talking about. Presumably it unfolded slowly, but too slowly for me.
I really enjoyed this book although it took a while for me to get used to the style of writing and to get into the story. It was a clever homage to the Wells story and an interesting commentary on the future of our world.
Sep 15, 2008
Deodand
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
science-fiction
I wasn't sure I was going to finish this at 50 pages. The first part of the book seems poorly put-together and doesn't draw the reader to seek the conclusion. I was predicting the ending by that point and I was pleased and surprised to find that my expectations were wrong. It took a strange turn.
I didn't like the ending either, and yet here I am giving it three stars. Maybe I'd give it 2.5 if I could.
I didn't like the ending either, and yet here I am giving it three stars. Maybe I'd give it 2.5 if I could.
Loved it again, as usual. Third read?
I wanted to love it. It has so many elements I love. Instead I found it dull, plodding, heavy, and overly cerebral. It seemed to strive for wit, but was encumbered with convoluted threads of vague portent and overwrought sentimentality. Maybe I missed the point and it was meant ONLY to be tongue in cheek.
Apr 17, 2008
rabbitprincess
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those who enjoy speculative fiction
Recommended to rabbitprincess by:
the prof for this course
Wow. This was a stunning book. Compelling, emotional, original, and just plausible enough to make you worry (if you're the worrying type).
I really liked this book, but I read it right before I gave birth and it gave me nightmares after my son was born.
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Ronald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the...more
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