Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Shape of Things to Come [Book Review]

"The Shape of Things to Come" is a very long novel by H. G. Wells. It was published in 1933. Seriously, this is a very long book. It clocks in at 155,000 words. It took me months to read. Let this review help you decide if you want to make the same journey as I did.

This book sort of sells itself as a science fiction, but I question that. The idea of it is that a friend of the narrator was receiving visions or dreams about a possible future in the early 30's. This is after WW1 but before WW2. The book contains none of the events of WW2 and barely anything of Hitler. It is as if those things did not happen. This man is apparently seeing how the entire world forms together as a socialistic one-world state. To me, the whole thing about it being one man's vision strikes me as an excuse to give the book a narrative story feel, but honestly... H. G. Wells just wanted to go off about his socialistic fantasies here.

The first part of the book is mostly just about how bad war is. You will probably not have too much trouble relating to what he is saying in these pages. War is bad. There is nothing good about it. But this ultimately leads to a change in people who want the world to get better. It progresses to a worldwide socialist revolution that takes hundreds of years to be fully realized.

In order to get to this, the author relates how various things such as religion, capitalism, and the concept of the family and personal possessions must be irradiated to make this vision a reality. Yes, the book goes really hard against Christianity, because that's what socialists do. They don't want one standard of morality; they want it to be whatever the herd wants it to be, which can be fickle over a long period of time as well as across the world itself.

The book also details the sudden and inexplicable removal of all government at a later date, leaving everything in the hands of the people. I guess H. G. Wells never realized that people in power tend to want to keep it. He gave the human race way more credit then they deserved. Oligarchies should have formed in his scenario, and he gave no plausible reason why they wouldn't have.

By the end of the book, everything seems great... except for one very disappointing thing. There is almost no talk of futuristic technology even by the year 2100. Honestly, it still really feels like a slightly better version of the 30's. The most spectacular technology he came up with was prefabricated housing. That actually does exist today, and everyone agrees that it isn't as good as the alternative. Where are all the flying cars, spaceships, and other cool things? No. It's all about humans just living in a socialistic world state. There is still science, but it's barely getting anything done.

If you find "The Shape of Things to Come" on an online bookstore, you might see it with flying cars on the cover. This was simply slapped onto it because the book was public domain and by H. G. Wells, a man famous for his unique views of the future. This book barely qualifies as a science fiction and certainly does not have any flying cars.

This book was simply a medium for Mister Wells to spout off about his socialistic beliefs, and it is thinly vailed as a science fiction book. The whole book is extremely whiney. It constantly complains about anything that it doesn't agree with. It does not show an encouraging view of the future, but it does show a world where everybody is controlled by a population that is godless and with no definitive morals. Anyone who disagrees must conform. I ask you: how was H. G. Wells not terrified by his own fantasy? How was he not disturbed by his own look into the future. He was such a great visionary, but his final vision was the most boring of them all.

If it isn't clear, I do not recommend this book unless you want to look into the mind of a socialist. If you already know what that's like, then you can skip this long book entirely. Don't be fooled by the author resting under the title. It was simply a vehicle to pitch his ideology and nothing more.

This blog was written on March 16, 2025.

Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ

Check out my books! Thanks!