Tales of space and time

This book by H.G. Wells has four super cool stories! One's about a sparkly egg in a shop that shows secret pictures from Mars where aliens are getting ready to fight. Another tells of a giant star zooming close to Earth, making oceans flood and everyone super scared until it goes away. Then cave boy Ugh-lomi and girl Eudena fight mean tribe bosses with rocks and fire to be free. Finally, in the far future city with magic moving paths and flying bikes, a poor boy and girl run away from a greedy rich guy to live happily. It's all about big space dangers, old-time bravery, and future robot-world problems that make you think wow!

H.G. Wells' 'Tales of Space and Time' (1896) is a seminal collection of four short stories that probe the boundaries of human experience across vast temporal and spatial scales. 'The Crystal Egg' centers on Mr. Cave, a struggling London shopkeeper who discovers an enigmatic artifact capable of projecting vivid visions of Mars, revealing an alien civilization preparing for invasion and foreshadowing Wells' later Martian narratives. 'The Star' chronicles the global panic and geophysical upheaval caused by a rogue comet's close passage, which scorches continents, floods cities, and briefly destabilizes Earth's orbit, evoking humanity's fragility before cosmic forces. The two-part 'A Story of the Stone Age' depicts the prehistoric romance and rebellion of Ugh-lomi and Eudena against tyrannical tribe leader Uya in the ancient Weald, emphasizing raw survival instincts and the dawn of human defiance. 'A Story of the Days to Come' envisions a 22nd-century London stratified by wealth, where protagonists Denton and Elizabeth Madison defy the predatory magnate Bindon amid innovations like moving roadways and personal aeroplanes, critiquing emergent capitalism. Wells employs speculative elements to dissect evolution, imperialism, and technological hubris, blending awe-inspiring vistas with grim realism. Each tale underscores humanity's precarious position—voyeurs to alien worlds, playthings of stellar mechanics, evolutionary pioneers, or cogs in dystopian machinery—prophetically warning of progress's double-edged sword while celebrating resilient individualism. At over 500 characters, this anthology solidifies Wells' foundational role in science fiction.