Talk:The World Set Free

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"No bomb could "explode continuously" without destroying itself."

Well, the sun does it. Let's hope our grandchildren continue to remain as skeptical about this possibility. -- 3 january 2005

Explosions occur "on" the Sun. I mean when sun explodes chances are high our grandchildren won't be skeptical about it at all. However I personally loved Wells nuclear bomb, and wrongly intrepeted as releasing high doses of radiation instead of exploding. -- 20 1 06

That cover image

Seems borderline-promotional to me. It's not contemporary with the book and the artwork reflects a modern interpretation of the subject matter. I guess I'll accept it as long as it's kept down to a reasonable size, and as long as we don't have an image of the original cover art. Dpbsmith (talk) 15:10, 16 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Published in the U. S. as 'The Last War???'"

I don't think so. Used bookseller abebooks shows numerous listings of "The World Set Free," published by E. P. Dutton & Co, New York, 1914 [1]. It has no listings for any book by H. G. Wells entitled "The Last War."

A search of the Cornell University online catalog [2] shows 286 titles by H. G. Wells, none entitled "The Last War" or anything like it. "Labour Wars," "Last Books of H. G. Wells," "Little Wars."

~~The link to the University of Nebraska Press does not link to that book and currently the site appears to be giving nothing but error messages in response to searches.~~ Seems to be working now.

Ah. OK, I've got it. This appears to be a modern reprint, published in 2001. The title is "The Last War: A World Set Free," not "The Last War." It does not seem to have been published in 1914 under that name. I can't determine, either from the Amazon or the UNP website, why the title was changed. Perhaps Bear explains it in the introduction. Anyone know? Did they just want a spiffier title, or was this title Wells wanted, or is this an earlier, previously-unpublished version, or what? Dpbsmith (talk) 15:52, 16 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Found it. Google Books search turns up the relevant introduction. Bear says without any additional explanation that "For this Bison Books edition, The World Set Free has been retitled. For this historical introduction, I will continue to use Wells's original title." Dpbsmith (talk) 15:59, 16 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]