The author calls H.G. Wells' novel a science fiction but focus' on the social aspects of the novel. The novel shows the social issues of the time and Wells' views on them. The novel focuses on the social issues of Wells' time, but is not a science fiction. The science behind his books is well thought, but it provided a setting for his novel and was a different way to portray his social views.

Wells uses science once again to reflect some of his social concerns, however it is not a critical as The Time Machine is. Wells doesn't write a science fiction, but more of a science romance. Science is used as a literary device to create a setting for his novel. The destruction of the Martians by microbes has seemed like an anticlimactic ending to his novel, but the martians portrayed Wells' view, that when a creature evolves, it has gained something, but also something else has to be lost in the process. The novel contradicts the idea that technology makes life better, by showing the defeat of the martians, who are more technologically advanced than the humans, were ignorant and were defeated by a bacteria. The technological advances by humans could lead to the defeat of humans by forces of nature. Wells uses science to mock the human race, in this case the technological advances of mankind.

Beresford states that The Time Machine is a romance, and he uses the time machine as a literary device in order to prove that time travel is possible. Beresford argues that Wells uses the future to criticize the social status of England of his era. The Eloi and Morlocks represented the haves and have-nots. Also further into future the earth is degrading and the question arises, whether the human race had a major impact in the decline of the earth, or if the earth had reached its end of existence. Beresford argues that The Time Machine lacked certain aspects of imagination and style, but it was a brilliant fantasy. The novella represents Wells' views on the world during his time and his experiments with the improbable. It uses the improbable and imaginative to create a satire of the social system in his time.