When The World Shook

Haggard, H Rider

ISBN 10: 1935869566 / ISBN 13: 9781935869566

Published by HiLo Books, 2012

About this Item

© 1919: A stand-alone novel by H Rider Haggard. 1st printing of 2012 edition with an introduction by James Parker. 4th in the 'Radium Age Science Fiction' series of books:- Synopsis: When Humphrey Arbuthnot and his friends are marooned on a South Sea island, they awake the last two members of an advanced race, who have spent 250,000 years in a state of suspended animation. Using astral projection, Lord Oro visits London and the battlefields of the Western Front. Horrified by the degraded state of civilization, he activates an infernal technology capable of destroying the modern world. Only Oro's beautiful superwoman daughter, Yva, who has fallen in love with Humphrey can stop him! Rudyard Kipling helped H Rider Haggard plot his only science fiction novel, which was published in 1919:- Review(s): "A really splendid romance, rich in color, fresh and gorgeous in its imaginative qualities and power, and needless to add, absorbingly interesting" - The New York Times, 1919 / "Rider Haggard has never conceived and placed before our eyes any pictures more thrilling and more impressive than are contained in this latest book" - New York Evening Post, 1919 / "If this is pulp fiction it's high pulp: a Wagnerian opera of an adventure tale, a B-movie humanist apocalypse and chivalric romance. H Rider Haggard's rich universe is both profoundly camp and deeply idealistic" - Lydia Millet, 2012:- (original cost $15.95).

Seller Inventory # 22.140.00003

Bibliographic Details

• Title: When The World Shook
• Publisher: HiLo Books
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1935869566
• ISBN 13: 9781935869566
• Binding: Paperback: 7½" x 5"
• Illustrator: Cover Art: Michael Lewy
• Edition: 2012 Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Very Good: Light signs of wear
• Weight: 0.28 kilograms
• Seller catalogs:
  • Science Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

If representatives of an advanced civilization were to visit our planet today, would they be impressed or dismayed by the way we live?

When three adventurers, Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot, are marooned on a South Sea island, they discover an ancient crystal sepulchre. Inside are two Atlanteans who have been in a state of suspended animation for 250,000 years!

One of the awakened sleepers, the haughty Lord Oro, is the last of the Sons of Wisdom, a superior race who'd relied on their advanced technology to subjugate the planet's lesser peoples. The other Atlantean is Oro's daughter, Yva, heiress to the title of Queen of the Earth... who falls in love with Arbuthnot.

Using astral projection, Lord Oro visits London and the battlefields of the Western Front. Unimpressed with the state of the world in the early 20th century, he sets out to do what he's apparently done once before — use a colossal gyroscope to drown the planet, and restart the course of human history.

A darkly humorous look at the politics and conflicts of his own era by an author best known for swashbuckling adventure novels (including the hugely popular King Solomon's Mines) set in the context of the Scramble for Africa.

About the Author

H. Rider Haggard was a popular English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, including King Solomon's Mines (considered one of the first of the Lost World genre) and She. When The World Shook, which features suspended animation and a machine capable of changing the tilt of the earth, is the most science-fictional of his writings.

James Parker was born in London in 1968. He is the author of Turned On: A Biography of Henry Rollins and a contributing editor at The Atlantic.