This World Must Die!

Fyfe, H. B. (Horace Bowne), 1918-1997Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 46K words
Chapters: 5

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.This World Must Die! by H. B. FyfeAuthor: Fyfe, H. B. (Horace Bowne), 1918-1997,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 20, 2007

Editor's review

This is a short work by science fiction writer H. B. Fyfe, made available as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. Fyfe was active in the golden age of mid-twentieth-century American science fiction magazines, and his work is often marked by tight conflict setups and ironic endings. The title itself poses a question: who has decided this world must die, and on what grounds. Readers can approach it as a typical old-school science fiction short story, watching how the author builds a world, creates tension, and closes the theme within a limited space. As a public-domain electronic text, it is short enough to finish in one sitting during a commute or lunch break, and it also serves as an introductory sample of the narrative style of American pulp science fiction. Note that early science fiction often sketches characters and social settings lightly; readers may do better to focus on the ideas and period flavor than to expect the complex layering of contemporary long-form science fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want a complete science fiction short story in fragmented time
Beginners interested in twentieth-century American pulp science fiction
Learners who need free public-domain English ebooks for extensive reading practice
Readers who like dystopian titles and suspenseful setups

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer contemporary hard science fiction or long-form world-building
Those with little tolerance for the sketchy characters and settings of early science fiction
Readers hoping for a Chinese translation or a detailed annotated edition

Reading tips

Read the text first without looking at the introduction, then return to see how the title and ending echo each other.
Keep a sheet of paper to note key setups and turning points, making it easier to sort out the structure of the short story.
If reading the English original, single out unfamiliar words and period expressions and look them up together.
After finishing, find a science fiction short story from the same period to compare, and sense the common patterns of pulp science fiction.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story?

According to the Project Gutenberg record, this is a short science fiction work, a public-domain electronic text that can usually be finished in one or two readings and suits fragmented time.

Do I need to know the author Fyfe first to understand it?

No. The story stands on its own and does not depend on the author's other works. If you become interested in his style afterward, you can look up his other short stories published in science fiction magazines.

Is there a Chinese translation of the electronic edition?

This entry is an English public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg, and the materials do not mention a Chinese translation. Readers who need to read in Chinese will have to find a translation themselves or use translation tools.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Fyfe, H. B. (Horace Bowne), 1918-1997 Author

H. B. Fyfe (Horace Bowne Fyfe, 1918–1997) is an English-language author with sixteen works held in the collection, though little is publicly known about his life or nationality. Judging from the listed titles, his writing centres on science fiction and speculative fiction, dealing with alien envoys, satellite systems, war and peace, deadly weapons, and the end of the world; titles such as The Envoy, Her, Satellite System, The Outbreak of Peace, Irresistible Weapon, and This World Must Die! suggest a preference for concise, forceful short stories that explore technology, conflict, and human destiny. The works often carry the tension and speculative flavour of Cold War-era science fiction, with tight plotting and endings that frequently turn on irony or warning. Fyfe is not a widely celebrated classic author, but his productivity and breadth of subject matter are noteworthy.