Men Like Gods

The main protagonist of Men Like Gods is Mr Barnstaple, a careful driver and depressive journalist writing for The Liberal newspaper. It is to his consternation, therefore, that while carefully motoring along the Maidenhead road he skids on a bend and finds himself in another world altogether - in short, a supposed Utopia. This Utopia has its own socialist government and is very similar to the Earth. However, as pathogens have been eliminated the newly arrived visitors from Earth pose a grave threat to the Utopians by compromising their already weak immune systems. The people from earth find themselves being quarantined until a solution to this problem can be found. As no progress is being made many begin to resent this isolation and before long some plot to take over Utopia. Mr Barnstaple finds himself a total outsider, both with the Utopians and his fellow earthlings, and escapes from the quarantine castle just as the Earthlings' revolt begins. How can he survive in this Utopia and how can he get back to his Earth? Men Like Gods was first published in 1923.

Born Herbert George Wells in Kent in 1866, H. G. Wells was an outspoken socialist and pacifist, whose works caused some controversy. He is more widely known as a science fiction writer for the novels that he published between 1895 and 1901: The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, When the Sleeper Wakes and The First Men in the Moon. All, except for When the Sleeper Wakes, have been made into films.Along with Jules Verne, H. G. Wells is also known as 'the Father of Science Fiction'. His later novels were more realistic and he wrote many genres, including contemporary novels, history and social commentary. H. G. Wells died in 1946.