View source for The Shape of Things to Come

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{{Infobox book
 | title = The Shape of Things to Come
 | original title = 
 | image = Shape of things to come dust jacket.jpg
 | caption = Dust jacket of the first edition.
 | author = H. G. Wells
 | central theme = 
 | elevator pitch = 
 | genre = Future history
 | publication date = September 1933
 | source page exists = 
 | wiki URL = 
 | wiki name = 
}}
''[[The Shape of Things to Come]]'' is a 1933 [[Speculative Fiction]] novel by [[H. G. Wells]], detailing mankind's struggles to survive and reach the future in the midst of global war and societal collapse. 

The original novel predicted [[World War II]] (though in the book the war lasts for a decade or more), which ends inconclusively but decimates all of civilization -- which is not helped by [[The Plague|a horrific plague]] which nearly effaces the human populace.

Wells then envisions a benevolent [[One World Order]] which comes in and, using its monopoly on the world's surviving transportation infrastructure, begins to rebuild society into a scientific [[Utopia]]. After a century, the [[One World Order]] is peacefully overthrown, after which the utopia is apparently achieved.

Some of Wells’ short-term predictions would come true, such as the aerial bombing of whole cities presented in more detail than in his previous The War in the Air and the eventual development of weapons of mass destruction. Others, such as the withering of state-power and the dissolution of Islam, were rather premature.

The novel was [[Film of the Book|adapted to film]] by Wells himself in 1936 as ''[[Things to Come]]''.  Forty-three years later, in 1979, the title ([[In Name Only|and little else]]) was appropriated for [[H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come|another sci-fi film]].<ref>The novel also provided the title for an episode of ''[[Lost]]'' and the closing sequence of ''[[Caprica]]'', among other [[Shout-Out]]s in popular culture.</ref>

{{tropelist}}
* [[After the End]]
* [[Balkanize Me]]: As an aftermath of the novel's version of [[World War Two]], the effectiveness of many countries' governments to enforce their power faded in varying degrees, rendering many regions de facto autonomous.
** [[Divided States of America]]: For example Utah, where Mormonism was then declared the state religion.
* [[Black Shirt]]: Actual [[Fascist Italy]] Black Shirts are still operating some time after the second Conference at Basra in 1978.
* [[Exty Years From Now]]
* [[History Marches On]]: Subverted when the book (more or less accurately) prognosticates the start of [[World War II]]. Then double-subverted when the book's WWII goes on for over a decade and completely obliterates all of human society.
** [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]
* [[No Bikes in the Apocalypse]]: Subverted in chapter 11 ''Europe in 1960'' wherein the ''Diary of Titus Cobbett'' is mentioned, written during Cobbett's bicycle ride through the [[After the End|completely devastated Europe]] of [[Zeerust|1958]].
* [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]]: The book claims to be adapted from the notes of one Dr. Philip Raven.
* [[The Plague]]
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: Wings Over The World.

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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:Literature of the 1930s]]
[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction]]
[[Category:H. G. Wells]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
[[Category:British Literature]]
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