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The Last War: A World Set Free (Bison Frontiers of Imagination) Paperback – March 1, 2001

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

11

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"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.

Print length

166 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Bison Books
Publication date

March 1, 2001
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.45 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

080329820X
ISBN-13

978-0803298200
See all details

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

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bison Books; New edition (March 1, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 166 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 080329820X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0803298200
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.45 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,677,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,914 in Classic American Literature
- #35,919 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #88,689 in Science Fiction (Books)

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Arthur W Jordin

The End of War

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2012

The Last War (1914) -- originally The World Set Free -- is a standalone SF novel. Yet it is more like an extension of A Short History of the World into the future than a classical novel.

In this novel, Holsten is a young mathematician who, at the age of fifteen, studied the phosphorescence of fireflies. Then he was given a spinthariscope. This led him to physics.

Frederick Barnet is a fairly prosperous young man who is a student in London. He traveled to Italy, Greece, Egypt, the Balkans and Germany.

In this story, the prehistory and history of Europe is traced to young Holsten. Meanwhile, a physics professor gives a lecture on Radium and Radio-activity in Edinburgh. He predicts wonderful discoveries coming from the work of Madame Curry and others.

Years later, Holsten set up the atomic disintegration of a minute particle of bismuth, that exploded into a heavy gas with great violence and extreme radio-activity. The gas was transmuted over seven days into gold.

For the next twenty years, minor difficulties prevented any striking applications of his discoveries. But the Holsten-Roberts engine was introduced in 1953 to replace steam engines for the generation of electricity. The atomic engines appeared in land, sea and air vehicles and soon changed transportation.

In 1956, Barnet became a victim of the economic effects of atomic engines. His family fortune was in coal. With the introduction of low cost atomic power, the value of coal plummeted. His father declared himself ruined and committed suicide.

Barnet finds himself fiscally insolvent along with other wealthy men and unemployed coal miners. He wanders the streets and out into the countryside. Then war starts in Europe and he is called back into the military.

Barnet stations his company on the line and fights the enemy. But orders from higher command are disrupted for several days. Then he is ordered to withdraw into the low lands.

Barnet was an alert witness of the atomic bombing of the Dutch dikes. Later, he takes his men toward Paris and sees the destruction in that city. Eventually, he learns of the atomic bombing of Berlin.

This tale recounts the atomic bombing of cities around the world. A great council of rulers is convened upon the slopes of the Italian Alps to discuss the termination of the war. Almost everybody is eager to stop the bombing, but some have other plans.

This edition has an introduction by Greg Bear that blames -- or credits -- Wells with the rift between classical fiction and science fiction and a subsequent divide between the arts and sciences. It seems that Wells desired the friendship of Henry James, but was constitutionally incapable of becoming an acolyte of any man.

The title of this edition is more specific than the original title, but is the only edition with this name. Such title changes confuse the readers and lead to purchasing the same book two or more times. Title changes should not be allowed without good and sufficient reasons. Notice that British and American editions often have such discrepancies in the titles.

Recommended for Wells fans and for anyone else who enjoys the history of science fiction. Read and enjoy!

-Arthur W. Jordin

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Jeffrey Leach

Socialist Wells writes about nuclear war

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2006

By the time British author H.G. Wells got around to writing "The Last War," in 1914, the general public already recognized he was a master of science fiction. "The Time Machine," "The Invisible Man," "The War of the Worlds," and "The Island of Dr. Moreau" had all come out some twenty years before he penned this slim book about global atomic war and the subsequent restructuring of human civilization. Most readers today only remember Wells as an amazingly prescient science fiction author. He was, however, so much more. For example, he wrote a number of non-fiction pieces, perhaps the most important being his two-volume work "The Outline of History". First published in 1920 and an instant success with the public, Wells went on to revise his historical opus on several occasions--a sign of its enduring popularity. Moreover, and many people familiar with the author's name don't remember this little tidbit, Wells was an avowed socialist. I'd go so far as to call him a communist, especially after reading "The Last War". This look at nuclear cataclysm is less a triumph of science fiction and more a pamphlet used by Wells to espouse his socialist/communist belief system. I loathe communism.

I don't, however, necessarily hate this book. The story starts out on a very powerful note, with Wells distilling the technological prowess and advancement of the human race down to a single chapter. According to the author, it is man's destiny to somehow harness a science that will replicate the power and intensity of the sun. Nuclear power! The breakthrough comes soon enough when a young man named Holsten figures out how to release the inner power of the atom in 1933. Benefits galore spring from the wonders of atomic power. Goodbye horse and buggy and steamships, hello atomic powered cars, airplanes, and ships. Mankind realizes a new age in transportation, industry, and myriad other facets of human existence as the atom becomes the centerpiece of technology. Unfortunately, humanity also starts building new weapons incorporating the new technology. Coupled with the capitalist system's failure to adapt to the demise of the industrial age, social unrest and general hostility flare up. Then the wars start, destructive wars involving millions upon millions of soldiers going head to head across the entire world. It's only a matter of time before the atomic bombs start dropping.

Wells complicates things (and increases the deadly carnage) by making his atomic bombs devices that soldiers can throw by hand as well as drop by plane. Even worse, the warheads don't simply level cities; they continue to detonate for years afterwards, burrowing deep into the ground and spewing huge amounts of flame and radiation. Millions, if not billions, die in these atomic fires. Paris goes up in flames, as do Berlin, London, and most other big metropolitan centers around the world. Entire armies vanish off the face of the earth as the war turns into genocidal madness. In one instance, bombs dropped on the dams in Holland unleash floodwaters that kill hundreds of thousands in a few hours. Unleashing the power of the sun leaves civilization tottering on the brink of utter annihilation until a spark of sanity saves us at the last second. The remaining leaders of the world gather to create a single global government that will oversee the banning of atomic weapons and war. Too, this body promises to use technology to elevate mankind to a better existence. Those leaders still devoted to war quickly fall prey to the peacemakers, and the world government receives the support of the earth's war weary population.

"The Last War," manages to put forth some gripping scenes of war despite its annoying socialist/communist message. Wells describes the destruction of Paris in gripping, memorable detail, down to the effects the explosion and radiation have on the human body. The destruction of the dams and the watery aftermath are pretty darn exciting as well. Most entertaining is the author's description of how the bombs work. He invents an element, Carolinum, to fuel his atomic devices. The core of the bomb reacts when introduced to open air, so a soldier or pilot must pull out a plug before throwing or dropping the warhead on enemy troops and cities. You certainly wouldn't want to drop that blazing sucker in your lap while flying a plane! The design of the bomb is absolute malarkey, but it's still amazing that Wells could visualize such devices and their ultimate use as a weapon as early as 1914. Scientists knew a bit about radiation and the power hidden in the atom before and during this time, but the real breakthroughs came in the 1930s, exactly the time in which Wells foresaw the beginning of the nuclear age.

Sadly, the good parts of "The Last War" disappear under an avalanche of socialist agitprop. Wells can't resist slamming the capitalist system early on in the book, blaming it for creating conditions that lead to all-out nuclear conflict. Then there's the single world government stuff in the middle of the book. The really, REALLY scary stuff shows up in the final chapter. Set in a future far removed from the horrors of atomic war, Wells shows us the advances civilization has made without the threat of conflict hanging over its head. What's wrong with that? Nothing, except most of it resembles Soviet dogma of the 1920s through the 1950s. He talks about changing the very structures of the human mind and body as well as radical feminism that denies biological differences, among other things. Wells obviously believed in the malleability of the human mind and body, and that governments should work to bring about this new reality. That's exactly what Lenin, Stalin, and the rest of the killers over in the Soviet Union tried to do. They failed miserably. Give "The Last War" a chance, but beware of the Stalinist propaganda contained within.

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JDD

THE WORLD SET FREE by H. G. Wells

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2010

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.

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