The Last War: A World Set Free (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) [Paperback]

H. G. Wells (Author), Greg Bear (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Bison Frontiers of Imagination | Publication Date: March 1, 2001

"From nearly two hundred centres, and every week added to their number, roared the unquenchable crimson conflagrations of the atomic bombs. The flimsy fabric of the world's credit had vanished, industry was completed disorganised, and every city, every thickly populated area was starving or trembled on the verge of starvation. Most of the capital cities of the world were burning; millions of people had already perished, and over great areas government was at an end."

 

The Last War erupts in Europe, rapidly escalating from bloody trench warfare and vicious aerial duels into a world-consuming, atomic holocaust. Paris is engulfed by an atomic maelstrom, Berlin is an ever-flaming crater, the cold waters of the North Sea roar past Dutch dikes and sweep across the Low Countries. Moscow, Chicago, Tokyo, London, and hundreds of other cities become radioactive wastelands. Governments topple, age-old cultural legacies are destroyed, and the stage is set for a new social and political order.

 

The Last War is H. G. Wells's chilling and prophetic tale of a world gone mad with atomic weapons and of the rebirth of human-kind from the rubble. Written long before the atomic age, Wells's novel is a riveting and intelligent history of the future that discusses for the first time the horrors of the atomic bomb, offering a startling vision of humanity purged by a catastrophic atomic war.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Wells was a visionary author, and many of his sf novels featured innovations that later came to pass. This 1914 novel depicts an atomic war that ravages the globe.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Students of early science fiction will welcome the University of Nebraska Press''s series Bison Frontiers of Imagination."—Times Literary Supplement

(Times Literary Supplement )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080329820X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803298200
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #801,527 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The War To End All War, June 30, 2002

By 

Greg Hughes - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last War: A World Set Free (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

"The Last War" is a novel by H.G. Wells which chronicles the end of civilization by atomic weapons. Like the alien invader theme (also pioneered by Wells), this premise has been used to death in countless books and films and reduced to cliche, but in 1914, when the novel was first published, the idea was completely new. Thirty-one years before Hiroshima and Nagasaki, H.G. Wells wrote the first novel about the effects of nuclear war.

This edition of "The Last War" contains an informative introduction by Greg Bear, describing the social conditions that led to the book's publication, and a lot of background information about Wells himself.

It could be said that "The Last War" is one of the only books where nuclear war proves to be a positive experience. Society is swept away, purged by fire, and a new civilization rises from the ashes of the old. This all happens in a relatively short time. Wells would use this theme again in "The Shape of Things To Come" (1933).

"The Last War" is notable for its prophetic qualities (never mind that the atomic bombs are thrown by hand), but in parts the book can be rather dry. The story doesn't move at the same pace as "The War of the Worlds" or "The Time Machine", for example. Since the end of World War Two and the beginning of the Cold War, the glut of post-nuclear scenarios that followed have been more willing to portray the full horror that such a conflict would bring. In "The Last War" there is a feeling of detatchment, the sense one gets from reading a history book. The book deals more with events than characters.

In summing up, H.G. Wells had no idea he was starting a genre that would become popular for years to come. The post-nuclear world is a place many writers have liked to visit and describe in detail. Wells saw it first.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars THE WORLD SET FREE by H. G. Wells, October 25, 2010

By 

thepaxdomini "The Book Review" (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last War: A World Set Free (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

The World Set Free (recently reissued as The Last War) is a 1914 science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. When atomic bombs are developed and the world is threatened with universal devastation, its leaders are forced to rethink war, government, and society.

The World Set Free is remarkably prophetic, as Wells forecasts both nuclear war and the capacity for mutually-assured destruction. And while Wells misses the mark on the way atomic bombs work (his atomic bombs have the same explosive power as conventional bombs, but they just keep on burning), he certainly doesn't underestimate their destructive power.

This book feels like a novel only in the sense that it relates a series of fictional events. What few individuals appear here are scarcely characters in the literary sense - other than Egbert, none are developed in the slightest. This simply wasn't what Wells is trying to do - Wells is interested in the technology and its ramifications, and because that's what he focuses on, The World Set Free reads like a fictional history book, or perhaps like an outline for a longer novel. This keeps it from ever getting too interesting, and while it's a short book, it can be hard to get through.

In short, The World Set Free is an impressively-imagined but not very well-written piece of prophetic science fiction.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly boring, April 2, 2007

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last War: A World Set Free (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) (Paperback)

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) is best remembered for his pioneering works in the field of science-fiction, most notably The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898). In point of fact, Mr. Wells fiction took him into speculation of how scientific discoveries would affect the future. In particular, his 1908 book, The War in the Air, was full of fascinating forward thinking.

In this 1913 book (published in 1914), the author takes speculation he had read about the possibility of releasing energy from atoms, and writes about a future of atomic power and atomic weapons. The atomic weapons of this book make relatively small, but on-going (for centuries!) explosions. Plus, apparently at the time they knew little about the effects of radiation on living organisms. But, nonetheless, this is the very first story ever written about a nuclear war!

So far so good. Unfortunately, by this time, H.G.'s fiction writing ability was in steep decline, and the best of his fiction was long behind him. The Last War: A World Set Free focuses less on the war than it does on humanity's embracing of socialism. Indeed, the book is less a work of science-fiction, than a polemic for socialism.

So, am I saying that this book was no good, and you should avoid it? Well, I'm afraid that I am. In this story, Wells does not show a good grasp of where the world was headed, as the following quotation will show, "For long decades the combative side in human affairs had been monstrously exaggerated by the accidents of political separation." In point of fact, militarism, hatred, and murder stretch in an unbroken line from the Nazi Storm Troopers of yesteryear, to the suicide bombers of today.

And, to make matters worse, this book is surprisingly boring for a book about nuclear war. Overall, I did not enjoy this book, and I do not recommend it. (I do, though, recommend Wells' The War in the Air.)