The World Set Free

The first storyteller dreamed of catching the sun—and, Wells suggests, began the long chain of human invention that might make the dream real.

Published in 1914, H. G. Wells’s novel looks ahead to a future shaped by humanity’s ancient hunger for power. It opens across millennia, from flint tools and village fires to the discoveries that transform the modern world, then carries that progress toward a terrifying possibility: atomic energy turned into a weapon. As nations reach for forces they may not be able to control, the struggle is no longer simply for victory, but for the future of civilization itself. Can humanity learn to live together before its newest power consumes the world?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

Who are we? We're Cairn Press. Our background is in design, publishing, typography, and technology. These skills fuel our mission to create the highest quality Public Domain eBooks available online, at an affordable price. We give them the treatment they deserve; our proprietary process restores books for a better overall user experience in design, readability, and e-reader compatibility.