H. G. Wells

A scientist renders himself invisible and finds that his condition, far from giving him power, makes him a terrified outcast. Wells's 1897 thriller is simultaneously a gripping chase story and a study in how isolation corrodes a mind.

Published in 1895, The Time Machine is H.G. Wells's first novel and the story that introduced time travel to popular fiction. The Time Traveller journeys 800,000 years into the future to find humanity split into two degenerate species — the gentle Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks — and must fight to survive long enough to return home.

Martians armed with heat-rays and poisonous black smoke invade Surrey and reduce civilisation to rubble in days. Wells's 1898 novel remains the template for every alien invasion story since — and a sharp commentary on colonial violence.