Publications Received.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 10017, 7 December 1908, Page 4

Publications Received.

•'The War in the Air, and particularly how Mr Bert Smallways fared while it lasted." T3y H. G. Wells. Messrs George Bell and Sons, London. aB9 pp Illustrated. Price, 2s 6d and 3s. 6d. Mark Twain once made .a remark to the effect ■ (if our memory serves us ' correctly) that astronomy was a most accommodating science—it save a very large return for a" verv small outlay. And the same mav be' said regarding aerostatics—if viewed in the light shed by Mr Wells latest book. . Mr Wells needs no introduction to the reading world. - .Since the publication of. the -Time Machine, - ' -some 15 years ago. his output of quasi-scientific romances has been large. • and still ■ his senilis for framing vast and' picturesque Generalisations on "a very. narrow groundof fact, to quote a recent critic, shows no si-n of abatement. It" is quite-possible that Mr Wells takes himself seriously- as a latter-day prophet, whose mission it is to denounce the evils connected with our modern civilisation : certain- it is that he i- taken seriously by others—on the one hand ■ by those 'whose- political creed cains support from his utterances, and on the other, bv those who-see in him a 'revolutionary fanatic with that doctrinaire cast of mind which, as it used to be more common in France than in England, is sometimes regarded as a mark, of race bnt which, in matter of fact, is merely the - production of a certain-.kind of- intellectual • atmosphere and. a, certain kind of training." But to the average novel-reader Mr Wells is simply the author of a number of thrilling stories, more or less awesome, whose appeal to -the Macaber element in human nature is seldom in vain. The germ of the story under review, which has been running as a serial through the Pall Mall Magazine, is the flying machine: the deductions drawn by Mr Wells from j

known facts regarding the new method of aerial progress are most startling because of their apparent reality. The War in the Air was begun by the Germans, who had invented and manufactured rapid and i entirely practicable airships and singleman living machines; and their first ob- ) jeetive" was the United States. The outbreak of hostilities was fallowed by the destruction of the American naval fleet and the blowing-up of New York, ultimately, all the nations took a hand in a «encral aerial conflict, during the course of which the Yellow Peril loomed large and Pestilence and Famine joined with War in bringing about world-wide devastation. The descriptions of aerial bombardments and the manoeuvring of air fleets and flying machines are realistic in the extreme; so much so that it is at times positively- a relief to remind oneself that such terrors exist, at present, at any rate, only in the imagination of the writer,.who, with his graphic, if often satiric, pen. pictures a conflict devoid ot ail pomp anu L'lorv, unutterably cruel, and v.-onhv to be engaged in by demons rather than men. The book, however, is not all horror and bloodshed. A bright ray is shot through the gloom by the adventures of Bert Smallways, ;-a_ vulgar little creature, the sort of pert, limited soul that the old civilisation of the early 20th centurv produced bv the million.'' Bert is a creation: he lives in the memory; and a tiive of unconscious humor is lent to the sforv bv the fact that Mr Wells evidently despises the child of his own imagination. As one reviews some of Mr Wells work, it is impossible to escape being reminded of the contempt which Swift poured on mankind—though in the former case it may be nothing more than a temporary pose. As a mere novel "The War in the Air" is a good one. Despite its' somewhat morbid "theme, it may be provocative of healthy thought; and, while one may not agree with the writer in all his conclusions, one cannot quarrel with him. for he possesses the saving grace of humor, which greatly modifies the acidity of many of his strictures. But what evil'genius impelled him to lengthen out his cpiloinie to 20 pages, and thus produce an insufferably tedious anticlimax? While it cannot be said that Mr Wells gives us a perfectly-constructed storv. he certainly gives a most realistic, and "in parts highly sensational, one; and further, one which is certain to gain an additional interest by reason of the recent warning of Lord Roberts, and the well-known activity of Germany iii matters martial.

We have received from Messrs Gordon and Gotch the December number of The Lone Hand, and notice that the magazine is losing 'some of the cheap flippancy which characterised its earlier issues. In the present number there are several exceptionally good articles, notably "the remarkable narrative of an Australian girl of French parentage, who accompanied a pilgrimage to Lourdes, and vouches for seeing miracles performed there under her verv eyes." and the "Star Watchers of the South. We are also treated to appreciations of Tommy Burns and Jack Jolinston ; and it may surprise some persons to learn that these well-known chamnions are most- exemplary citizens, despite their rather brutal rofessiou; the former heme a teetotaller and a non-smoker, and one who never "spoke a word that would have shamed the saintliest of Sunday Schools" ; while the latter plays on the double bass, is prominent in the ward politics of Texas and is one of the leading members of the Methodist Church there. The Lone Hand has its usual nuota of fiction and verse, and its other features are well maintained. The pictures are generally up to the average, and in some cases above; and altogether the magazine before us is a bright, readable number.

Wo have also received by courtesy of Messrs Gordon and Gotch the colonial edition of the London for November, a particularly interesting number of that popular magazine, full of the best of reading, both recreative and instructive. Special articles are contributed by Sylvia Pankhurst, who has been much before the public of late as a prime mover in the women's suffrage movement, E. St. John Brenon contributes an appreciation of Miss Ethel Irving, while G. Valentine Williams gives an intimate sketch of the apprenticeship of Germany's Crown Prince, and that master magician, Servais Le Roy, provides a further elucidation of the inner workings of illusions that- have for manyyears mystified the general public. The fiction is from the pens of bright writers and is judiciously diversified. Besides stories by Edwin Pugh, Carlyon W'ells, Alphonse Corn-lander, Walter AVood, and others, Mr Hesketh Prichard contributes another .instalment of his engrossing "Don Q" series.