In the Days of the Comet
H. G. Wells
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
William ("Willie") is a student living in the British town of Clayton. As a Socialist, he tries to move power from the upper class to the working class. Interestingly, in a fictitious confrontation Britain declares war on Germany. Willie falls in love with Nettie, but when she elopes with an upper-class man, Willie resolves to kill them both. Throughout the novel there is present in the sky a large comet which gives off a green glow. As Willie prepares to shoot the lovers, two battleships appear and begin shelling the coast, causing Willie to nearly lose his targets. As the comet enters the atmosphere, it gives off a green gas which envelopes everyone including Willie, who falls asleep. Willie wakes up a changed man. He is able to reason so clearly that he realizes the foolishness of his plan for revenge. Other people have changed too. Our hero marvels at how humankind has risen to new levels of vision and understanding. (Summary from Wikipedia) (9 hr 50 min)
Chapters
Reviews
Unknown
Terrible story for H. G. Wells and even worse readers. Do the readers ever listen to themselves, I wonder? I have endured the readers and poor story to look for some semblance of a story, but alas, no story has come forth. Skip this one and get that nap instead.
peachesandpits
Very different considering how old this story is definitely a must listen...
good story very interesting and suspenseful
A LibriVox Listener
Interesting concept
TwinkieToes
Interesting concept - a new way to build a utopia of sorts: by having the new atmosphere remove all the flaws in the human character: selfishness, baseness, dissimulation, etc. After the comet comes, the plot slows down considerably to explain the differences between the old and the new order of things. It got a little monotonous in that way. There are some morals and theology that I greatly disliked in this story. It attacks Christianity and Judeo-Christian morality. So, yeah - interesting concept, but only 3 stars for the slowdown of plot and the philosophies I didn't like. Readers were adequate to great. No one stuck out as being bad.
OMG
A LibriVox Listener
the final reader on the novel was excellent but for HG Wells, this is in my opinion a horrible book. too descriptive of minor details that in no way help the plot. reader struggled with the vernacular thus disrupting the flow of the story just increased the pain of getting to the point
Really interesting story
Ronald Newcombe
This was an intriguing listen, I wasn't sure where this story would go. The readers were generally good with one or two exceptions, and the intro/epilogue reader was a standout.
Kzitek
Good story, can't stand how slow the reader is.
Great Book by H.G. Wells
A LibriVox Listener
H.G. Wells tells of a change by a comet and a love story. He does a marvelous job, a must read.