by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

What happens when science makes life bigger—but the world refuses to grow with it?

In The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth, H. G. Wells transforms a seemingly absurd scientific experiment into a sweeping and surprisingly modern story about progress, fear, power, and humanity’s resistance to change.

Two scientists, Mr. Bensington and Professor Redwood, develop an extraordinary substance—Herakleophorbia, soon known simply as “the Food”—capable of producing astonishing growth. Intended as little more than an improved food supply, their invention quickly escapes the laboratory. The consequences are spectacular: gigantic plants, monstrous wasps, enormous rats, and eventually human children who grow to dimensions that make ordinary society seem absurdly small.

At first, the giants are treated as curiosities and inconveniences. But as the children mature, their extraordinary strength and intelligence threaten a civilization constructed—physically, politically, and socially—for smaller people. The new generation can lift enormous weights, cross great distances, and contemplate achievements beyond the abilities of ordinary humanity.

Fear soon becomes political. Caterham, the self-proclaimed “Jack the Giant-killer,” rises to power as hostility toward the giants intensifies. Laws restrict their movement, society demands their submission, and the conflict between the old world and the new moves inexorably toward confrontation.

First published in book form in 1904, The Food of the Gods is one of Wells’s most imaginative works of speculative fiction—a novel he described as a “fantasia on the change of scale in human affairs.”Beneath its giant insects, colossal children, scientific mishaps, and dark comedy lies a serious question: When something new outgrows the society that created it, should humanity suppress it—or make room for the future?

This Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint preserves the novel’s original three-book structure and presents Wells’s remarkable vision for a new generation of readers. It includes a new Introduction by Colin Heston.

A classic of early science fiction filled with giant creatures, scientific catastrophe, political satire, social conflict—and H. G. Wells’s unmistakable fascination with the terrifying possibilities of the future.

.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 176p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

What if you fell asleep—and awoke more than two hundred years later to discover that you owned the world?

Graham, an exhausted nineteenth-century man, falls into a mysterious cataleptic trance. When at last he awakens, London has become an immense mechanized metropolis of moving walkways, towering structures, mass communications and flying machines. But the greatest shock is not technological. During his extraordinary sleep, Graham's modest fortune has multiplied through compound interest until he has become the richest man alive—and, at least in name, the Master of the World.

Yet ownership is not power. Graham discovers that a ruling Council has governed in his name while millions of ordinary people live under a rigid system of economic and political control. His awakening threatens the entire structure. Revolution erupts, and Graham is forced to choose between the calculating Ostrog, who believes the masses must be controlled, and a population determined to overthrow its masters.

First published in 1899 as When the Sleeper Wakes, Wells substantially revised the novel in 1910 under the title The Sleeper Awakes. He removed much of the original romantic subplot, tightened the later chapters, reconsidered the story's flying machines, and gave the struggle between rulers and ruled a darker and more ambiguous conclusion.

More than a century later, Wells's vision remains startling. Concentrated wealth, manipulation of public opinion, mass entertainment, technological surveillance, economic inequality and political elites who claim to know what is best for the people make The Sleeper Awakes one of the great precursors of modern dystopian fiction.

This new Read-Me.Org edition presents Wells's revised text, newly reset and lightly corrected for typographical consistency, while retaining the language and character of the original. It also includes a new Introduction by Colin Heston and five public-domain period illustrations by Henri Lanos, the celebrated illustrator of the original 1899 publication.

For readers of The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World and other classics of speculative and dystopian fiction, The Sleeper Awakes reveals H. G. Wells not merely as a prophet of technology, but as a remarkably prescient critic of wealth, power and the politics of the modern mass society.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 174p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

H. G. Wells imagined the nightmare of modern aerial warfare before the modern airplane had truly arrived.

First published in 1908, The War in the Air: And Particularly How Mr. Bert Smallways Fared While It Lasted is one of Wells’s most startling works of speculative fiction—a sweeping story of technological progress, global conflict, and the terrifying consequences of inventions that humanity may be clever enough to create but not wise enough to control.

Bert Smallways is no soldier, statesman, or scientific genius. He is an ordinary, ambitious young bicycle mechanic whose enthusiasm for the new age of machines leads him into an extraordinary adventure. By accident, Bert finds himself swept into the world of experimental aviation and then carried aboard a German aerial armada crossing the Atlantic to attack the United States.

What begins with the excitement and comedy of early flight rapidly becomes something much darker.

Wells imagines fleets of gigantic airships, military aeroplanes, battles fought above oceans and cities, the destruction of New York, international retaliation, and finally a conflict so widespread that the political, commercial, and technological foundations of civilization begin to collapse.

Written years before the First World War demonstrated the military importance of aviation, The War in the Air is remarkable for the questions it asks. What happens when technological change moves faster than political institutions can respond? Can a weapon that can destroy an enemy actually secure victory? What becomes of civilians when the battlefield expands into the sky above their homes? And what happens when every great power possesses the ability to strike beyond traditional frontiers?

Yet this is not simply a novel of machines and warfare. At its center is Bert Smallways—bewildered, resourceful, comic, frightened, and unmistakably human—trying to survive a catastrophe whose causes are far beyond his understanding or control.

More than a century after its first appearance, Wells’s warning has lost little of its force. Aircraft, missiles, nuclear weapons, drones, cyberwarfare, and autonomous military technologies have changed the instruments, but the fundamental problem remains: human beings continually acquire new powers before they have necessarily acquired the wisdom to govern them.

This new Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint reproduces Wells’s historic novel in a freshly reset edition, supplemented by period public-domain aviation illustrations and a new Introduction by Colin Heston that places the book in its historical setting while examining its continuing relevance to warfare, technology, and the uncertain future of civilization.

A classic of early science fiction, future-war literature, and political prophecy, The War in the Air remains both a gripping adventure and one of H. G. Wells’s most disturbing warnings about the price of uncontrolled progress.

.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 210p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

H. G. Wells takes humanity beyond Earth in one of the earliest—and still one of the most imaginative—novels of lunar exploration.

When the eccentric scientist Mr. Cavor invents Cavorite, an extraordinary substance capable of shielding matter from gravity, his commercially minded neighbor Mr. Bedford immediately recognizes its possibilities. Together they construct a spherical spacecraft and embark upon an experiment that carries them farther than either man intended: all the way to the Moon.

But Wells's Moon is no lifeless wilderness. Beneath its strange surface lies an enormous subterranean world of caverns, vegetation and astonishing forms of life. Most remarkable of all are the Selenites, an advanced insect-like civilization whose society has developed along principles utterly different from those of humanity.

What begins with the exuberance of scientific discovery gradually becomes something much more unsettling. Bedford sees opportunity, wealth and conquest; Cavor seeks knowledge and understanding. Their reactions to the Selenites allow Wells to turn the adventure back upon its readers. Who, after all, is truly alien? What happens when one civilization encounters another that it neither understands nor controls? And what might an intelligent extraterrestrial species conclude after learning about human warfare, greed and empire?

First published in book form in 1901, The First Men in the Moon was the culmination of the extraordinary sequence of scientific romances that included The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and The War of the Worlds. It combines humor, adventure, speculation and social criticism with an imaginative vision of extraterrestrial life that helped shape modern science fiction.

This Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint presents Wells's original narrative for a new generation of readers, together with an introduction placing the novel in its literary and historical setting. The edition preserves Wells's extraordinary mixture of Victorian adventure and remarkably modern speculation about alien intelligence, specialization, colonialism and humanity's place in the universe.

A classic voyage beyond Earth—and an encounter with a world stranger, larger and more sophisticated than its human visitors ever imagined.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 184p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

What separates the human being from the animal—and what happens when science attempts to erase the boundary?

Shipwrecked and close to death, Edward Prendick is rescued from the Pacific and carried aboard a strange schooner transporting an assortment of animals to an unnamed island. His relief at surviving soon gives way to suspicion. The island is inhabited by the mysterious Doctor Moreau, a brilliant scientist whose notorious experiments forced him to abandon civilized society.

Then Prendick discovers what Moreau has been doing.

Hidden within the island is the terrible House of Pain, where Moreau has attempted to transform animals into beings resembling men and women. His creations walk upright, speak, obey commandments and struggle to suppress their animal instincts. They call themselves the Beast Folk.

And they live according to the Law.

First published in 1896, The Island of Doctor Moreau followed The Time Machine and became one of H. G. Wells's most disturbing scientific romances. Written during the fierce Victorian controversy surrounding vivisection and experimental biology, the novel pushes scientific ambition to its most horrifying conclusion. Moreau is not simply a conventional mad scientist. He is more frightening than that: an intelligent investigator who has convinced himself that knowledge justifies suffering and that scientific curiosity need recognize no moral boundary.

Yet Wells's real target extends far beyond the laboratory. The Beast Folk imitate humanity through speech, ritual, prohibition and fear. When Moreau's authority begins to collapse, so does the Law that has restrained them. The resulting nightmare forces Prendick to confront an even more disturbing possibility—that civilization itself may be only a thin covering over humanity's own animal inheritance.

More than a century after its publication, the questions raised by Doctor Moreau have become more rather than less provocative. Genetic engineering, biotechnology, animal experimentation and the power of scientists to manipulate living organisms give Wells's nightmare a striking contemporary resonance.

Part science fiction, part Gothic horror and part philosophical investigation, The Island of Doctor Moreau asks questions that remain profoundly uncomfortable: How far should science be permitted to go? Does the ability to alter life confer the right to do so? And how certain are we that the boundary between civilization and savagery is as secure as we imagine?

This Read-Me.Org Classic Reprint presents Wells's original 1896 narrative, together with a new introduction exploring the scientific, ethical and evolutionary questions behind one of the darkest masterpieces of early science fiction.

.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 135p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

They came from Mars—and suddenly humanity was no longer the dominant species on Earth.

When a strange cylinder crashes into the English countryside, curious spectators gather around the crater. What emerges changes the world forever.

The Martians have arrived.

Armed with terrifying technology, towering fighting machines, deadly Heat-Rays, and poisonous Black Smoke, the invaders sweep aside human resistance with shocking ease. Soldiers, artillery, cities, governments, and the certainties of Victorian civilization collapse before an enemy whose scientific superiority appears overwhelming.

Through the experiences of an unnamed narrator struggling across a devastated England, H. G. Wells creates one of literature’s greatest stories of invasion, survival, panic, and social breakdown.

First published in 1898, The War of the Worlds helped establish the modern alien-invasion story, but Wells intended much more than spectacular science fiction. Behind the Martian machines lies a provocative reversal of imperial power. What does conquest look like when the technologically superior invader is no longer European—and humanity itself becomes the apparently inferior population?

Wells strips civilization of its confidence with astonishing speed. Refugees choke the roads. Authority disintegrates. Ordinary people flee for their lives. Humanity discovers that intelligence, technology, and military power do not necessarily guarantee survival.

More than a century after its publication, The War of the Worlds retains its extraordinary power because its central question remains unsettlingly simple:

What if something arrived that we could not defeat?

This Read-Me.Org edition brings Wells’s revolutionary scientific romance to contemporary readers while preserving the extraordinary imagination, urgency, and menace of the original.

.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 207p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

In 1914 H. G. Wells imagined the atomic bomb—and a world forced to confront what such a weapon would mean.

Among Wells’s extraordinary works of scientific speculation, The World Set Free occupies a unique place. Written in 1913 and published in 1914, the novel imagined the release of atomic energy and weapons Wells explicitly called “atomic bombs” decades before Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But Wells was interested in far more than predicting a new weapon.

Beginning with humanity’s long struggle to harness energy, the novel moves toward the discovery of practical atomic power—and then toward catastrophe. The new energy promises abundance on an unprecedented scale, but nations quickly transform scientific achievement into military power. Atomic war follows, devastating cities and demonstrating that the traditional international order can no longer survive the destructive capacities science has placed in human hands.

From that destruction Wells develops his larger and more controversial argument. If technology has made war potentially catastrophic for civilization itself, must humanity eventually abandon competing sovereign states and construct some form of world government?

The World Set Free is therefore simultaneously scientific romance, future history, political argument, and warning.

Its historical significance is remarkable. Physicist Leó Szilárd, who later played an important role in the development of nuclear physics and the history of the atomic bomb, acknowledged Wells’s novel as an influence on his thinking about atomic chain reactions.

Yet the book’s greatest interest today may lie in the question Wells asks beyond the bomb itself: Can humanity develop political institutions rapidly enough to control the destructive technologies its scientists create?

The uploaded Read-Me.Org edition includes Wells’s important 1921 preface, in which he reconsidered his predictions after the catastrophe of the First World War.

More than a century after Wells wrote it, The World Set Free remains an extraordinary encounter between science fiction and history—a novel that did not merely imagine atomic warfare but helped place the idea into the intellectual world from which the nuclear age eventually emerged.Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 216p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

A hidden garden behind a green door. A valley where the blind rule. A magic shop where every trick is real. A crystal window onto Mars.

H. G. Wells is celebrated for The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man, but his short fiction reveals the full breadth of his imagination. In these pages, ordinary men and women stumble across impossible discoveries, strange inventions, terrifying creatures, and worlds that exist just beyond the boundaries of everyday experience.

The Door in the Wall and Other Stories brings together forty of Wells's finest short stories, including every story from his definitive 1911 collection The Country of the Blind and Other Stories together with the additional tales from The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents that Wells himself later left behind. The result is the most complete single-volume gathering of his greatest short fiction from the remarkable decade in which he transformed modern speculative storytelling.

Here are unforgettable classics such as:

• The Door in the Wall

• The Country of the Blind

• The Crystal Egg

• The Magic Shop

• The New Accelerator

• The Star

• The Man Who Could Work Miracles

• The Empire of the Ants

• The Red Room

• The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes

Alongside these famous masterpieces are comic tales, Gothic horrors, scientific romances, social satires, mysteries, and fantasies that display Wells at his most inventive and entertaining.

Whether imagining alien visions, miraculous powers, invisible thresholds, or the unexpected consequences of scientific discovery, Wells continually asks a question that became the foundation of modern science fiction: What would happen if the impossible were suddenly true?

Complete, authoritative, and newly introduced for modern readers, this volume is an essential collection for fans of classic science fiction, fantasy, horror, and one of the greatest imaginative writers in English literature.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 172p.

by H.G. Wells. Edited with an Introduction by Colin Heston.

A hidden garden behind a green door. A valley where the blind rule. A magic shop where every trick is real. A crystal window onto Mars.

H. G. Wells is celebrated for The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, and The Invisible Man, but his short fiction reveals the full breadth of his imagination. In these pages, ordinary men and women stumble across impossible discoveries, strange inventions, terrifying creatures, and worlds that exist just beyond the boundaries of everyday experience.

The Door in the Wall and Other Stories brings together forty of Wells's finest short stories, including every story from his definitive 1911 collection The Country of the Blind and Other Stories together with the additional tales from The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents that Wells himself later left behind. The result is the most complete single-volume gathering of his greatest short fiction from the remarkable decade in which he transformed modern speculative storytelling.

Here are unforgettable classics such as:

• The Door in the Wall

• The Country of the Blind

• The Crystal Egg

• The Magic Shop

• The New Accelerator

• The Star

• The Man Who Could Work Miracles

• The Empire of the Ants

• The Red Room

• The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes

Alongside these famous masterpieces are comic tales, Gothic horrors, scientific romances, social satires, mysteries, and fantasies that display Wells at his most inventive and entertaining.

Whether imagining alien visions, miraculous powers, invisible thresholds, or the unexpected consequences of scientific discovery, Wells continually asks a question that became the foundation of modern science fiction: What would happen if the impossible were suddenly true?

Complete, authoritative, and newly introduced for modern readers, this volume is an essential collection for fans of classic science fiction, fantasy, horror, and one of the greatest imaginative writers in English literature.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 360p.

By EDNA FERBER, IRVIN S. COBB, PETER B. KYNE, JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD, MEREDITH NICHOLSON, and H. C. WITWER. Edited by RAY LONG. Preface by Colin Heston.

In this book, you will find a rare and intimate glimpse into the minds of some of America’s most celebrated storytellers of the early twentieth century. Edna Ferber, Irvin S. Cobb, Peter B. Kyne, James Oliver Curwood, Meredith Nicholson, and H. C. Witwer—names that graced the covers of magazines and the shelves of countless homes—come together in this unique collection to share the stories they themselves hold dearest.

Unlike anthologies chosen by editors or critics, this volume is deeply personal. Each author was invited to select the work that, in their own judgment, best represents their craft, their ideals, and their voice. These are not merely stories—they are reflections of character, ambition, and artistry, chosen by the creators themselves.

The idea behind this book is simple yet profound: who better to decide what is “best” than the writer who gave the story life? Here, you will encounter tales that stirred their authors’ hearts, stories that perhaps marked turning points in their careers, or pieces that captured the essence of their creative spirit.

As Ray Long, the distinguished editor of Cosmopolitan, notes in his introduction, this collection is more than entertainment—it is a testament to the enduring power of storytelling and the pride of authorship. It invites readers not only to enjoy these narratives but to appreciate the personal significance they hold for their creators.

So turn the page and step into a world where the voices of six remarkable writers speak directly to you, offering the stories they love best. In doing so, they reveal something more than plot and character—they reveal themselves.

NY. International Magazine Company. 1925. Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. 157p.

By Robert Louis Stevenson. Edited by Colin Heston

"The New Arabian Nights" by Robert Louis Stevenson is a captivating collection of short stories that showcases his talent for blending adventure, mystery, and humor. Volume 4 of his works includes these tales, which are inspired by the classic "Arabian Nights" but set in contemporary Europe.

The Suicide Club: The collection opens with "The Suicide Club," a trilogy of stories that revolve around Prince Florizel of Bohemia and his loyal companion, Colonel Geraldine. They stumble upon a secret society where members gamble with their lives, seeking an escape from their troubles through death. The stories are filled with suspense, intrigue, and Stevenson's signature wit, as the prince and the colonel navigate dangerous situations to uncover the club's dark secrets.

The Rajah's Diamond: Another notable story is "The Rajah's Diamond," which is divided into four parts. It follows the adventures of a priceless diamond and the various characters who come into possession of it. The diamond's journey leads to a series of thrilling and unexpected events, showcasing Stevenson's ability to weave complex plots and create memorable characters.

Other Stories: The volume also includes other engaging tales such as "The Pavilion on the Links," a story of love, betrayal, and revenge set against the backdrop of a remote Scottish coast, and "A Lodging for the Night," which features the infamous French poet François Villon and his escapades in medieval Paris.

"The New Arabian Nights" is a testament to Stevenson's versatility as a writer. Each story is rich with vivid descriptions, dynamic characters, and a blend of humor and suspense. Stevenson's ability to transport readers to different settings and immerse them in the adventures of his characters makes this collection a delightful and compelling read. Volume 4 of his works highlights Stevenson's skill in crafting engaging narratives that continue to captivate readers with their originality and charm.

Australia. Read-Me.Org. Inc. 2025. 197p.