THE WORLD SET FREE

Published in 1914 and set in 1956, this is a fantasy of the possible. Before scientists split the atom, Wells foresaw the wonders of robotics, the positives and negatives of computers, and the horrors of weaponry that could bring an end to civilization as we know it. Wells's sometimes unpopular social policy rails against the dangers of isolationism and offers the logic of globalization. Shelly Frasier performs the narrative with appropriately thoughtful distance. She manages sensitivity and complexity as George Ponderevo considers mankind's inevitable end. "...And these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them." A prophetic, imaginative social reformer, Wells has long been recognized as a man ahead of his time. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]