Search Worlds Without End

The Sleeper Awakes is H. G. Wells's wildly imaginative story of London in the twenty-second century and the man who by accident becomes owner and master of the world. In 1897 a Victorian gentleman falls into a sleep from which he cannot be waked. During his two centuries of slumber he becomes the Sleeper, the most well known and powerful person in the world. All property is bequeathed to the Sleeper to be administered by a Council on his behalf. The common people, increasingly oppressed, view the Sleeper as a mythical liberator whose awakening will free them from misery.

The Sleeper awakes in 2100 to a futuristic London adorned with wondrous technological trappings yet staggering under social injustice and escalating unrest. His awakening sends shock waves throughout London, from the highest meetings of the Council to the workers laboring in factories in the bowels of the city. Daring rescues and villainous treachery abound as workers and capitalists fight desperately for control of the Sleeper.

Gathered here for the first time are Miles J. Breuer's first publication, "The Man with the Strange Head"; his neglected dystopian novel Paradise and Iron (appearing here in book form for the first time); stories such as "Gostak and the Doshes" and "Mechanocracy"; and Breuer's essay "The Future of Scientifiction," one of the early critical statements of the genre. Also included are some of the author's letters from the Discussions column of Amazing Stories.

Much of what we know as science fiction saw the light--and found its themes, styles, and modes--in the science fiction magazines of the early twentieth century. It was in these magazines of the 1920s and 1930s that Breuer often led the way. Breuer himself found his inspiration in the work of H. G. Wells and in turn influenced science fiction masters from Jack Williamson to Robert A. Heinlein. The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories collects the best work of this pioneer of the genre.

Contents:

• ix - Miles J. Breuer Science Fiction Pioneer of the Nebraska Plains - essay by Michael R. Page
• 1 - The Man with the Strange Head - (1927) - shortstory
• 12 - The Appendix and the Spectacles - (1928) - shortstory
• 25 - The Gostak and the Doshes - (1930) - shortstory
• 44 - Paradise and Iron - (1930) - novel
• 257 - A Problem in Communication - (1930) - novelette
• 285 - On Board the Martian Liner - (1931) - novelette
• 312 - Mechanocracy - (1932) - novelette
• 339 - The Finger of the Past - (1932) - shortstory
• 350 - Millions for Defense - (1935) - shortstory
• 366 - Mars Colonizes - (1935) - novelette
• 394 - The Oversight - (1940) - shortstory
• 415 - The Future of Scientifiction - essay
• 419 - Selected Letters - essay
• 429 - Breuer's Science Fiction - essay by uncredited

In the twenty-first century, a battered world is ruled by a crafty old tyrant, Genghis II Mao IV Khan. The Khan is ninety-three years old, his life systems sustained by the skill of Mordecai Shadrach, a brilliant young surgeon whose chief function is to replace the Khan's worn-out organs. Within the vast tower-complex, the most advanced equipment is dedicated to three top-priority projects, each designed to keep the Khan immortal. Most sinister of these is Project Avatar, by which the Khan's mind and persona are to be transferred to a younger body.

Shadrach makes the unsettling discovery that it is his body that is to be used. His friends beg him to flee, but he refuses to panic.Instead, and with startling composure, he evolves a dangerous plan that could change the face of the earth or, if it backfires, mean the end of life.

"Shadrach in the Furnace" is at once a broad, sweeping novel and a harsh, abrasive, irreverent book about a life-and-death battle between two titans - one the epitome of evil, the other a paragon of idealism - in a society pushed to extremes.