Customer Reviews

City of Endless Night (Classics of Science Fiction)

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Written shortly after the guns of World War I fell silent, CITY OF ENDLESS NIGHT presents a strange yet well-conceived vision of the future that might have been, had the Great War ended differently. The premise is that allied bombing in an extended WWI had driven the Germans in Berlin underground into a series of bunkers and subterranean factories. The Germans quickly discovered ways of surviving under these bizarre conditions, while the Allies failed to figure out any means of ferreting them out, and the war turned into a frustrating stalemate.

The story is set long after this event, when an American accidentally ends up in underground Berlin and attempts to pass himself off as a citizen. The underground city is a horrifying dystopia built along the latest scientific principles.

Milo Hastings has a nice appreciation for the possibilities and perils of civilization and technology. He was at one point a poultry scientist, and later a proponent of health food and healthy living in an era where such things were unusual. A scientist, a believer in the Common Man, in fresh air, sunshine, good food, and healthy living, Hastings wrote convincingly of a society that made Orwell's 1984 look like a walk in the park.

I find this book to be strangely compelling. The plot runs along familiar pulp-fiction lines, but because the story comes from an era where even non-fiction was written as if it were pulp fiction, this rarely detracts from the story. And the underground city and its society, with their odd combination of WWI-era archisms and appallingly plausible innovations, kept me fascinated to the very end.

This is a wonderful book written in 1926, which gives an alternate ending to WWI that pits Germany against the free world for 150 years causing the Germans to innovate in the field of science, and degenerate in the area of morals. The science fiction element is believable yet fantastic and make for a very interesting read. It is an interesting sociological thought experiment, and definitely worth your time whether you are looking for a standard dystopian novel, or a classic science fiction. Take a look at this classic read.

This book was written before Huxley's "Brave New World" and Orwell's "1984", and makes me think these famous authors were inspired by City of Endless night. Consider that this book was written in 1919, and you realize how much insight the author had. It is a great read, entertaining and thought provoking.

Fantastic Book. A mix of science fiction with a sociological detailed approach. I recommend to read!