After reading The Forever War * with it's time travel by effect of relativity I've moved on to time machine-free time travel by means of a really long sleep...

It's hard to judge this novel on its own merits, rather than making comparisons with later depictions of dystopias such as the equally highly stratified society of Brave New World , published over a quarter of a century later. In some ways it's very much of its time: more so in the racism and sexism which may be far more jarring to a modern reader than Victorian predictions of future technology. Indeed the predictions of technology seem far more accurate than some of the future attitudes. By the late 2090s it appears we will have moving walkways, televisions and aeroplanes, and the now merely 'half savage' Negro will unquestioningly follow the orders of his white masters.

In Wells' preface to the 1921 edition, he admits that by that time he is convinced that this future society of a more-or-less literally stratified society crammed into few massive cities with the countryside empty is rather unlikely. He no longer believes that evil capitalists will take over the world, however the "money is power" idea would seem to be more relevant now in a time when companies lobby politicians and some companies have more money than the economies of some entire countries. The future is a strange place in which to live...


* in the Peace & War Omnibus by Joe Haldeman