2016 read #6: In the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells.

In the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells
202 pages
Published 1906
Read from January 10 to January 12
Rating: ★★★ out of 5

I had vague memories of reading this book ages and ages ago, way back when I was living in North Carolina -- twelve years ago now. The framing device in the prologue (and can we talk about how flimsy and ridiculous that was as a framing device?), certain descriptions in the early chapters -- all suggested a near-forgotten familiarity. But after two or three chapters, that sense of familiarity vanished, which led me to conclude that I had tried giving this a go all those years ago, but baffled with the working-class verisimilitude of the first half of the book, I must have given it up not too many pages in.

Nowadays I have a better appreciation of Wells' descriptions of industrial class squalor and the tawdry commercialism of the turn of the century, so this time around, the first half of Comet struck me as an excellent sociopolitical satire set against an atmospheric science-fictiony backdrop. Sharply observed details of working class housing, the cheap luxuries and sad norms of the time, are among Wells' best attempts at the theme. The climax, however, in terms of both action and theme, comes at the halfway mark -- which leaves Comet something of an ungainly, awkwardly paced creature, half penetrating social-character study, half utopian just-so story. Utopias don't get much more diaphanous, after all, than "A gaseous comet impacts Earth and changes the properties of atmospheric nitrogen so that it becomes a metabolic gas, thereby clarifying and vivifying human thought and perceptions." The second half has a Stapledon-esque feel, glimpses of vast social and architectural changes in the aftermath of the comet, enough to intrigue, but far from satisfying. There is also, inevitably, a flavor of racism and antisemitism endemic to the times -- contrasted by an oddly progressive (for Wells) view of women, and even a precocious hint in the direction of Free Love, that preoccupation of SF writers six decades down the line.