When Worlds Collide

Not many science fiction writers have won the Nobel Prize for Literature, but Kipling was the first member of this exclusive club. His finest science fiction is a pair of stories concerning the Aerial Board of Control, "With the Night Mail: A Story of 2000 A.D." and "As Easy as A.B.C.: A Story of 2150 A.D." Kipling shared with Wells the idea that control of the air would lead to peaceful world government, and the first of these stories simply recounts a transatlantic journey by dirigible. Though the story is made particularly memorable by the inclusion of several pages of newspaper advertisements from this future age which, taken together, provide a wonderful snapshot of daily life in this future world. By the second story, set 150 years later, the world government has become more oppressive, and "As Easy as A.B.C." tells how agents of the Aerial Board of Control have to rush to Chicago to put down a revolt by people demanding a return to democracy. Why it's on the list: Taken together, these are fascinating stories which present a vividly realised portrait of the future, right down to the minutiae of what people eat and read and wear. They also present the first glimpse of a world government of flyers, which Wells himself wouldn't fully develop until The Shape of Things to Come some thirty years later.