Tales of Space and Time [Paperback]

Herbert George Wells (Author), H. G. Wells (Author), Andrew Moore (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2008

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English writer best remembered today for his science fiction works. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction". --- He has foretold many futures for us, some utterly abhorrent, others more or less attractive... There was, for example, "The Man Who Could Work Miracles": "his name was George McWhirter; ... he was a little man and had eyes of a hot brown, very erect red hair, a mustache with ends he twisted up, and freckles." This unpromising looking individual, and he was a blatant skeptic, too, becomes suddenly possessed of the power to make anything happen that he wills, but he finds the use of this mysterious gift by no means to his advantage. It brings him and others into all sorts of trouble, and only his renunciation of it saves the world from destruction. --- We shudder at the thought of humanity being suffocated on a blazing world as in "The Star", ... which is a little gem in its way without a superfluous word or a false tone... Those were the days when Mr. Wells was writing for pleasure. He was enabled to throw off in the early nineties a swift succession of short stories astonishingly varied in style and theme. As he became more experienced in the art of writing, or rather of marketing manuscripts, he seems to have regretted this youthful prodigality of bright ideas. Many of them he later worked over on a more extensive scale as the metallurgist goes back to a mine and with an improved process extracts more gold from the tailings and dump than the miner got out of the ore originally. --- In its power to forecast the future science finds both its validation and justification. By this alone it tests its conclusions and demonstrates its usefulness. In fact, the sole object of science is prophecy... The mind of the scientific man is directed forward and he has no use for history except as it gives him data by which to draw a curve that he may project into the future. It is, therefore, not a chance direction of his fancy that so many of Wells's books, both romances and studies, deal with the future. It is the natural result of his scientific training, which not only led him to a rich unworked field of fictional motives, but made him consider the problems of life from a novel and very illuminative point of view. (Edwin E. Slosson)

Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Mondial (December 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595691200
• ISBN-13: 978-1595691200
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,947 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great collection of timeless tales, January 31, 2012

By 

ej_moore "Emily Moore" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tales of Space and Time (Kindle Edition)

For those readers who haven't yet read H.G. Wells, this book is a wonderful introduction to his work. The stories are timeless, and after reading this collection, I highly recommend you read his entire body of work. It's all wonderful stuff.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Navigation, April 20, 2011

By 

James O. Smith (Minneapolis, Minnesota USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tales of Space and Time (1900 Edition with ClicBrowz navigation) (Kindle Edition)

This is what it says it is: a public domain text with navigation that allows the user to easily navigate the entire book, providing forward, backward and cross links to every section of the book. Most public domain texts (and far too many new texts) are just plain texts rendered into the Kindle format. This text was carefully constructed to fit the structure of this book.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Free SF Reader, January 19, 2008

By 

Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of Space and Time (Short Story Index Reprint Series) (Hardcover)

A nice little collection of science fiction from Wells, from Martians to future history and your near miss astronomical disaster.

Tales of Space and Time : The Crystal Egg - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : The Star - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : A Story of the Stone Age - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : A Story of the Days to Come - H. G. Wells
Tales of Space and Time : The Man Who Could Work Miracles - H. G. Wells

Tuning in Mars.

4 out of 5

Just a near miss, that planet going past Earth. Nothing to worry those Martians.

4 out of 5

Cave girl, cave man, cave bear, plus lions and horses,not tigers.

3 out of 5

Giving the past lifestyle a try.

3 out of 5

It is really not a good idea to stop the Earth's rotation.

3.5 out of 5

3.5 out of 5