Ebook The Man Who Ended War Azw3 Tác Giả Hollis Godfrey

Introduction of the ebook: The Man Who Ended War

Đánh giá : 3.36 /5 (sao)

The Secretary of War of the United States receives a letter sent to his and all other nations, declaring that war has too long devastated the earth and the time has come for peace. It orders them to destroy their weapons of warfare and disband their militaries. The letter ends: “One year from this date will I allow for disarmament and no more. At the end of that time, if n The Secretary of War of the United States receives a letter sent to his and all other nations, declaring that war has too long devastated the earth and the time has come for peace. It orders them to destroy their weapons of warfare and disband their militaries. The letter ends: “One year from this date will I allow for disarmament and no more. At the end of that time, if no heed has been paid to my injunction, I will destroy, in rapid succession, every battleship in the world. By the happenings of the next two months you shall know that my words are the words of truth.” It is signed “The man who will stop all war.”

The government officials at first dismiss this as a letter from a crank. Then a few battleships vanish, one per week, without a trace. What new technology enables this man to carry out his threat? Can he be found and stopped? Will the major powers of the world agree to disarm or will they blame each other and start a war?

Recipe: Take an American investigative reporter, add his science professor friend and the professor’s beautiful intelligent sister, throw in some early 20th century quasi-science, some romantic longing, some detective work in London, and a good measure of suspense.

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Review ebook The Man Who Ended War

Quite an amazing book. I would have given three stars only for the actual reading experience, as there were a lot of wild chases and similar adventure scenes as well as description of science that were as vague as they were long, so it all seemed a bit silly – but there’s an extra star for being that very rare thing: a true science fiction story (i.e. one where science is at the centre of the fiction) and for having a wonderful, strong female main character.

Written in 1908, this book combines a Quite an amazing book. I would have given three stars only for the actual reading experience, as there were a lot of wild chases and similar adventure scenes as well as description of science that were as vague as they were long, so it all seemed a bit silly – but there’s an extra star for being that very rare thing: a true science fiction story (i.e. one where science is at the centre of the fiction) and for having a wonderful, strong female main character.

Written in 1908, this book combines a number of aspects that were highly topical at the time: a tense state of international affairs threatening war to break out at any time between nations armed to the teeth (especially with the German-British naval arms race) (since around 1900), a pacifist movement and first international meetings to promote world peace (since the 1890s), the discovery of radium with its many mysterious characteristics (1898) by a female scientist, the discovery and development of wireless transmission and radio waves (1890s).

So, how does the author combine all these in his story?
(SPOILERS!)
A man has developed a machine that can make metal disappear. He contacts the American government with a blackmail letter: either the nations disarm voluntarily or he is going to destroy all armaments with his machine. To show he means business, he starts sinking battleships, one of each nation’s (and the men on them with them). For some reason, the nations blame each other for that, and the world is at the brink of war.
An American journalist sees the letter and goes to investigate. He goes to a radium research institute, where he finds a woman scientist hard at work with experiments. He falls completely in love with her. She and her brother, who runs the lab, agree to help him find “the man” (as he’s always just referred to by them). They construct an apparatus that detects the waves produced by the man’s machine and can point to their origin. The chase leads them to London, where they hunt for the man’s lab.
Eventually, Britain and Germany are ready to go to war: a major naval battle is on. But before any fighting, all ships of both fleets disappear one after the other. In shock, the nations finally meet to agree on disarmament. World peace is actually achieved. “The man” remains hidden. It takes some effort to get the message about world peace to him (as he keeps destroying ships).
Once that is achieved, though, the happy couple now can take the time to get married, but they still want to find “the man”. They finally do, just as he had used his machine one last time to destroy himself and his secret with him. It remains open whether they let the world know about this or not (as the disappearance of the threat would surely mean general re-armament – but that is a problem the story doesn’t go into.)

It is told in the first person by the main character, the journalist. This is why we get insights into his own feelings, but only observe other characters from the outside (i.e. a well-handled first-person viewpoint). For the lovers, this means that we hear about the man’s feelings but can’t know the woman’s except by the signs that he perceives. I found this adorable: he loves her so entirely, she rocks his whole world, and we hear about that explicitly. We can see her responding favourably to him, and at one point unusually withdrawn into herself, so we know she returns his feelings, but there is nothing romantic and emotional on her side (as the narrator couldn’t know her feelings), so she always remains the highly capable and professional scientist, enterprising and energetic, an admirably strong female character, I thought. …more