The World Set Free

by H. G. Wells Narrated by LibriVox Community

Overview

The World Set Free is a novel published in 1914 by H. G. Wells. The book is considered a prophetical novel foretelling the advent of nuclear weapons.

A constant theme in Wells's work, such as his 1901 nonfiction book Anticipations, was the role of energy and technological advance as a determinant of human progress.

The novel opens: "The history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal." Scientists of the day were well aware that the slow natural radioactive decay of elements like radium continues for thousands of years, and that while the rate of energy release is negligible, the total amount released is huge. Wells used this as the basis for his story. (Summary on Wikipedia)

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"The World Set Free, with its predictions of aerial warfare, atomic bombs, and international peace conferences, takes first place in the Nostradamus sweepstakes for those who prefer their science fiction to be predictive."
—Los Angeles Review of Books

AUG/SEP 02 - AudioFile

Published in 1914 and set in 1956, this is a fantasy of the possible. Before scientists split the atom, Wells foresaw the wonders of robotics, the positives and negatives of computers, and the horrors of weaponry that could bring an end to civilization as we know it. Wells's sometimes unpopular social policy rails against the dangers of isolationism and offers the logic of globalization. Shelly Frasier performs the narrative with appropriately thoughtful distance. She manages sensitivity and complexity as George Ponderevo considers mankind’s inevitable end. "…And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them." A prophetic, imaginative social reformer, Wells has long been recognized as a man ahead of his time. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170396610
Publisher:	LibriVox
Publication date:	08/25/2014
Sales rank:	386,628

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