"Strikingly perceptive, often controversial, Adam Roberts's intricate readings of Wells's fiction and non-fiction do much to recapture the fascination that Wells exercised for a world-wide audience from the publication of The Time Machine in 1895 to his death some fifty years later. This is a compelling though never uncritical account of Wells's irrepressible energy, his human insights, and--above all--his immense and under-appreciated contribution to 20th-century literature." (Patrick Parrinder, President, H. G. Wells Society) "Adam Roberts' new study of H G Wells, based on a reading of all of Wells' six decades of writing, is unprecedented, invaluable--and unputdownable. Comprehensive, wise, provocative, and searingly honest, this is a monumental achievement in scholarship - as well as an enthralling read. You can almost hear the voice of Wells himself murmuring from the shade." (Stephen Baxter, Vice-President of the International H G Wells Society and author of The Time Ships (1995)).