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The Wreck of a World
Little is known about author W. Grove (real name Reginald Colebrooke Reade, 1853-1891), save that he penned one of the earliest novels dealing with artificial intelligence (A Mexican Mystery, in 1888), followed in short order by this entry, a thematic sequel set in the then-distant future of 1948, when sentient machines rise up to challenge mankind as rulers of the Earth. A rare and elusive steampunk classic, finally available in digital form, complete and unabridged. Presented by Brad D. Sibbersen, author of The World That Time Forgot, Welcome to Mad Science U, and others.
77 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1889
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 26, 2021
This short novel from 1889 is mostly of historical interest as an early Steampunk-like story where machines take over the world. Although this is a sequel to "A Mexican Mystery" from 1888, which is an early example of machine intelligence, it can be read independently. (That is good because "A Mexican Mystery" is quite hard to find.)
It is easy to read, and parts of it are full of action, but it wouldn't satisfy most modern readers. (It could be updated into an interesting film or comic.) It isn't as badly dated as some early SF, and it even has a strong, independent female character. Still, it is lacking in details and any attempt at plausibility. It is never explained how the machines developed the ability to reproduce, nor how they are getting their supplies of coal. It goes very quickly from a few self-reproducing train engines, to thousands of machines of various types. We follow the inhabitants of one small town as they flee the machines. They pass through several large cities that have been completely abandoned in just a few days. No survivors and no corpses, just empty cities everywhere. They take a few ships from New Orleans through the Darien canal and settle in Honolulu. (Apparently the machines also killed everyone there and then left. The Darien canal doesn't really exist but was once a proposed canal through Central America.)
Brad D. Sibbersen did a good job editing this book and making it available. Many times when out-of-print and out-of-copyright works are made available these days as e-books, they are bursting at the seams with typos and poor formatting. This one is much better quality.
It is easy to read, and parts of it are full of action, but it wouldn't satisfy most modern readers. (It could be updated into an interesting film or comic.) It isn't as badly dated as some early SF, and it even has a strong, independent female character. Still, it is lacking in details and any attempt at plausibility. It is never explained how the machines developed the ability to reproduce, nor how they are getting their supplies of coal. It goes very quickly from a few self-reproducing train engines, to thousands of machines of various types. We follow the inhabitants of one small town as they flee the machines. They pass through several large cities that have been completely abandoned in just a few days. No survivors and no corpses, just empty cities everywhere. They take a few ships from New Orleans through the Darien canal and settle in Honolulu. (Apparently the machines also killed everyone there and then left. The Darien canal doesn't really exist but was once a proposed canal through Central America.)
Brad D. Sibbersen did a good job editing this book and making it available. Many times when out-of-print and out-of-copyright works are made available these days as e-books, they are bursting at the seams with typos and poor formatting. This one is much better quality.
January 31, 2025
AI versus humanity is a common theme nowadays. This is one of those, but was written in 1890! It is probably the first of the genre. Automatic machines go out of control and start building more of their own. Then, of course, they rebel against their original creators. The action includes sea battles and a love story at the end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews