The Haunting of H. G. Wells

“Fake news” is nothing new: a news article that perhaps should have been published as a short story? A company of British soldiers overrun by the Germans at the front lines prays to St. George. Out of the fog of war, ranks of bowmen of the time of the Battle of Agincourt and a sword-wielding knight appear and save the day. Talk about the cavalry riding over the hill, just in the knick of time. So why was this supernatural event reported as “news” and not written up in the fiction section? Author and journalist H G Wells is dispatched to investigate.

This is the premise of “The Haunting of H G Wells” and the author Robert Masello uses a technique of mixing real events (there WAS a short story “The Bowmen” like the opening of this book) but the personal events that unfold for journalist and author H G Wells (“The Time Machine”) are of course fictional.

The book is redolent of the awfulness of World War I–we often forget how deadly it was and as the first “modern war” it took a toll on civilians and military that was unprecidented. The “Baby Killers”–Zeppelins that killed civilians at home as well as soldiers on the battlefield, mustard gas and phosgene with its deadly sweet scent of newmown hay, killing the horses used by the cavalry as well as attacking the men (an incident considered particularly brutal by animal-loving Brits) and of course the diseases and the crude surgery still often performed without anaesthesia.

Against this backdrop of brutal war, H G Wells, journalist and novelist chases down the strange tale with his sidekick suffragette Rebecca, and they end up in London with some very strange occult doings (Alistair Crowley, the famous Satan worshiper makes an appearance.) And they uncover a deadly plot that makes him believe he just might be going mad.

The novel is written as a fast read; not a lot of florid language, like the journalist H G Wells was, but still has some romance and gives the atmosphere of World War I London….just not enough in my opinion. It’s not a romantic period novel but it is a good historical novel and will appeal to a broad group of readers–those who love miniseries like “Victoria” will particularly enjoy it.

In fact, I would hope it would be made into a short TV program, it would be really fun.

A quick, light read, nothing too heavy, for those who enjoy historical novels and history.

I wanted to love The Haunting of H. G. Wells, this month. Especially since I chose not to post an Amazon First review last month. After all, science fiction in such a setting as this book is set, could be a fantastic exploration of what might have happened.

Then again, I often am disappointed with alternative histories. For me, they often just dont hold my interest.

On the other hand, Robert Masello has a track record in journalism and in speculative fiction, so I was confident I had made a great choice. Further, this is a stand-alone novel with no cliffhanger.

Certainly, the characters felt real. And the language was clean and consistent with what I expected for the time period, early 20th Century. Mind you, profanities could have been used and still been representative of the time period, but, well, sometimes, the use of only the word rhyming with dam makes for a more relaxing read.

But, well, I was struggling a bit with the flow. It took some time for me to recognize why. Then, lo and behold, I realized my difficulty in keeping glued to the pages was because the author writes in a style that I typically write in passive.

Yeah, I found the novel to be a little to similar to my own writing.

The excerpts demonstrate what I mean. Excerpt 1 displays the dialogue, which is really quite good. Well, except that Churchill could have been nursing a drink and a cigar, I suppose. Although the style is passive, such dialogue could be passive, so I accepted it as is.

However, in descriptions, (excerpt 2), I think passive writing slows down the immediacy that works best in such a story. In other words, I didnt feel I was a fly on the wall.

Excerpt 1 – Dialogue

What exactly is it that youd like me to write? Churchill and Bryce exchanged a look.

Something to lift the national spirit, Churchill said.

Something to confirm what Mr. Machens story has already suggested, the colonel said.

That God is our ally?

That the English soldier is endowed with a nobility of spirit, and the English army with a moral purpose, which will assure us of victory in the end.

Youre the only man who can do it, Churchill urged.

I should think that Machen was. He got this ball rolling, after all.

No, hes too played out, too compromised.

And he writes a lot of stories filled with occult mumbo jumbo, the colonel said dismissively.

The Admiralty office thought I was overstepping my bounds, Churchill said, and that it was out of my official purview. Thats why I took the idea here.

If you are willing, Bryce said, gathering together some papers on his desk, we would want you to travel to the Frontideally somewhere near Mons, in the Ypres salientand billet, for perhaps a week or two, with the officers of…

Excerpt 2 – Description

…Could he do it? Wells thought. He was forty-nine years old, for Gods sake, and even in his prime had not been an especially vigorous specimen; he had always put it down to growing up in straitened circumstances, with a diet sorely lacking in wholesome foods. And he could only imagine the howls from Jane at the very thought of his placing himself so deliberately in harms way.

So what do you think, H. G.? Churchill said. Are you ready to do your bit for king and country?

Bryce gently slid the papersofficial-looking documents, including a mapacross the desk toward him. Wells could spot the empty signature line at the bottom of the form with the heading, all in red capitals, TOP SECRET.

He drew the papers into his lap, and thought, How could he ever face his own young sons, both of them away at boarding school, if he shirked his duty now? How, for that matter, could he face…

BOTTOM LINE

I could almost rate this as four stars. Believe me, I wanted to. But…

Three stars out of five.

It is my third book by Mr. Masello and in all of them author used a similar formula. He takes a well known historical figure and writes a fictional chapter of his life. I like this format. One learns more about the real famous person and about the period in which he lived. But I also always read the authors note to find out which facts are fictional and which are true. In this case the main protagonists is H. G. Wells, the author of The War of the Worlds and other famous books. The action takes place during World War I, and H. G. Wells travels to the trenches of European front in Belgium. Surprisingly big parts of the book are true but H. G. Wells front adventure and events afterwards are fictional.

It was very interesting to read about England during war, with German zeppelins bringing a death from the skies in a manner similar to London bombardment during World War II. Except, World War I could not be fought without horses and mules. I also learned some small tidbits, like that that London was a dangerous place not only to Germans but also to German Shepherds and Dachshunds.
I read with fascination about gruesome fate of soldiers and their never ending suffering in trenches and about ghouls in no mans land in between. The contrast between their lives and English country life was striking.

The protagonists feel alive, the plot is interesting and the book is very well written. However, about half way through, the story stops reading smoothly. Maybe it is too much jumping between different protagonists and side plots or too many parts that dragged on a little. This is the reason that I gave it four stars instead of five.

It’s not often l give up on a book, and maybe this one got better, but… my pet peeve is when an American author writes about a British subject and uses Americanisms. The newsagent wouldn’t have casually ‘made change’for a fiver in 1915. He wouldn’t have had that much money. He wouldn’t ‘make change’ anyway. Cars don’t have goods, they have bonnets…it’s not easy for any author to write about a foreign country, but a little research goes a long way.

I only bought the book because it was listed in Amazon First Reads. It starts with a very strong prologue, but then lapses into sycophantic nonsense about how wonderful HG Wells is. The first few scenes in the book involve people simpering over him, as though he’s so much more than an author and columnist. Even when he gets a bad review of his latest book, the reviewer readily accepts his invitation to his private estate (with private train stop!) and worries about whether she’s going to make the right impression with the great man.

I don’t know how books end up on the 1st Reads list, but can only imagine its some kind of financial incentive between the publishers and Amazon; its definitely nothing to do with whether the book is actually worth reading.

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