HGW trivia: Not only was this guy a pioneer if science fiction, he also invented the first published miniature combat game. Well's wrote and published Little Wars, a complete rulebook for simulating combat tactics with toy soldiers and replica canons. The rules are strikingly similar to any contemporary tactical minis game like War Machine or Warhammer 40,000.
Scott Gastineau it’s just the rules. Men, for the most part, played with miniature soldiers, horses, canons etc. for at least over a hundred years before Conan Doyle wrote them down!!!! war tactics are war tactics - for pete’s sake. there’s a famous old book on war tactics written by a Japanese man centuries ago, but i can’t remember his name. it’s all there.
Wells dabbled in both Gothic horror, as well as Victorian horror. Certainly a master of sci-fi, and well studied. I am very hopeful about these applications here. As demonstrated some understanding of general relativity, when looking at a ‘reverse’ image of his small universe, where we wind up where we began. These guys who are writing in this period are curious, and intelligent, at once. Thanks again. Good Sho 🙏🏽🎩❤️✨🌙💫
Seven Dials was a very run down and unsafe neighborhood, it was the sort of neighborhood one might expect to find gin houses, prostitutes, and all manner of untrustworthy and generally dubious merchants in.
Great stuff! As a fan of HGW I love hearing his works read well. Maybe you could do 'The Sea Raiders', with its tentacled monsters? Fun for the kiddies!
Lindsey Baker me too I never was one for sci-fi the only alien stuff I like is explaining how alien the monster is compared to us in the Eldritch darkness lol
Ian, you're one fabulous narrator and one of my most favorite favorites. Thank you for your fine renditions. Peace, Love and Good Vibrations, BanjoQueen
When Horror Meets Science Fiction Episode 2: The Crystal Egg Penned by British writer, H. G. Wells, the tale tells of a shop owner, named Mr. Cave, who finds a strange crystal egg that serves as a window into the planet Mars. Chapters: 00:43 - The Crystal Egg Narrated by Ian Gordon for HorrorBabble Production by Ian Gordon Intro music: "Above the Blue Smoke" iangordon.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-monochrome Support us on Bandcamp or Patreon: horrorbabble.bandcamp.com www.patreon.com/horrorbabble HorrorBabble MERCH: teespring.com/stores/horrorbabble-merch Search HORRORBABBLE to find us on: AUDIBLE / ITUNES / SPOTIFY Home: www.horrorbabble.com Rue Morgue: www.rue-morgue.com Social Media: facebook.com/HorrorBabble instagram.com/horrorbabble twitter.com/HorrorBabble
I wonder if Tolkien read this story and if it gave him the idea for his Palantir in the LotR, or if seeing stones are an older idea used by both he and Wells?
this waws outstanding - never knew Wells did this type of writing! It also seems more than a bit Lovecraftian, or did Lovecraft's vision seem more Wellsian?
From what I understand of this story its a prelude to War pf the Worlds as the crystal egg allows the viewer who gazes into its depths to see what is on the surface of Mars.
Good story -- not great but lovely still. I wasn't expecting such vivid and relatable characters. It lacks a certain element of adventure that we have cine to expect from subsequent genre stories. There is no climax, I suppose I am saying. That lack of adventure, however, makes it feel all the more feasible, like a story your neighbor tells you about what happened the previous day. I liked it. Isn't it fascinating how HGW's crystal eggs mirror the way that entangled particles work in quantum physics? One day, we might have communication devices which look more like radios than a witch's crystal ball but function very much like this. Data goes in one device and comes out the other with no physical linkage between the two for signal interception or interference.
He was quite the visionary, for sure. It's not exactly quantum entanglement, but this recent news is both interesting and promising: www.scientificamerican.com/article/100-million-plan-will-send-probes-to-the-nearest-star1
hi - i have been trying to find even decent HG audiobook stuff and there's really nothing out there. i know he's usually considered scifi, but you do have two of his stories, and there are other kinda horror-type, scary works, too. i'd love to hear you 'read' more of his shorter works at least. it is just a suggestion, but i really would like to hear some good Wells - pleeeease. thanks much, much, much :} (even if you don't record more HG, you're really the best!!!)
This story is pretty poor in my opinion. Not the narration, which is top notch as always. The prose itself is substandard to what Wells was capable of. As for the story itself, there was no rising action, there was no falling action. The denouement, or lack thereof, was apropos of nothing. It's just one long shaggy dog story - emphasis on long. This is a story that has nothing to say, and spends far too much time not saying it.
It's true that not much happens in this story, but it is special as the only glimpse Wells ever gives us into mars itself. The martians from War of the Worlds are described here as they behave in their natural atmosphere, the humanoids they prey on like cattle, and one of their walkers, but now we also know their planet is full of giant arthropods and some kind of winged martian class.
So some disliked this...maybe they tried to crack the egg and ruined a good frying pan. I love eggs! Just not the ones from LB426. Rare steak is better than rare starship mate!
