{"product_id":"the-star-h-g-wells","title":"The Star — H. G. Wells","description":"\u003cp\u003eA strange object appears near Neptune, growing brighter night after night. While the world carries on as usual, one mathematician calculates the approaching danger.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eH. G. Wells’s complete 1897 cosmic-disaster short story, with the original English text and one original illustration from Amazing Stories, June 1926. The magazine publisher’s separate introduction is omitted.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReflowable EPUB with selectable, searchable text, adjustable type, embedded fonts and linked contents. New AI-assisted cover by Nile Book Store. Contains catastrophic destruction and mass death. Original text and source edition public domain in the USA; source credits and licence included.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"nile-free-epub-download\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/4798\/0280\/files\/the-star-en-complete_282925b8-1fe0-45f4-9859-c5ea439aefd8.epub?v=1792311085\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" download\u003eDownload the complete English EPUB — free\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"\/ar\/products\/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%85-%D9%87%D9%80-%D8%AC-%D9%88%D9%8A%D9%84%D8%B2\"\u003eالطبعة العربية\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003csection id=\"nile-opening-preview\" dir=\"ltr\" style=\"border:1px solid #dfdacb;border-radius:12px;padding:20px;margin:20px 0;background:#fffdfa\"\u003e\u003ch2\u003ePreview — opening of the book\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFirst six source paragraphs\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height:1.85\"\u003eIt was on the first day of the new year that the announcement was made, almost simultaneously from three observatories, that the motion of the planet Neptune, the outermost of all the planets that wheeled about the sun, had become erratic. Ogilvy had already called attention to a suspected retardation in its velocity in December. Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated to interest the world the greater portion of whose inhabitants were unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune, nor outside the astronomical profession did the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet cause any great excitement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height:1.85\"\u003eScientific people, however, found the intelligence remarkable enough, even before it became known that the new body was rapidly growing larger and brighter, that its motion was quite different from the orderly progress of the planets, and that the deflection of Neptune and its satellite was becoming now of an unprecedented kind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height:1.85\"\u003eFew people without training in science can realize the huge isolation of the solar system. The sun with its specks of planets, its dust of planetoids, and its impalpable comets swims in vacant immensity that almost defeats the imagination. Beyond the orbit of Neptune there is space, vacant so far as human observation has penetrated, without warmth or light or sound, blank emptiness, for twenty billion times a million miles. That is the smallest estimate of the distance to be traversed before the nearest of the stars is attained. And, saving a few comets, more unsubstantial than the thinnest flame, no matter had ever to human knowledge crossed the gulf of space, until early in the twentieth century this wanderer appeared.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height:1.85\"\u003eA vast mass of matter it was, bulky, heavy, rushing without warning out of the black mystery of the sky into the radiance of the sun. By the second day it was clearly visible to any decent instrument, as a speck with a barely sensible diameter, in the constellation Leo near Regulus. In a little while an opera glass could attain it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height:1.85\"\u003eOn the third day of the new year the newspaper readers of two hemispheres were made aware for the first time of the real importance of this unusual apparition in the heavens. “A Planetary Collision,” one London paper headed the news, and proclaimed Duchine’s opinion that this strange new planet would probably collide with Neptune. The leader writers enlarged upon the topic. So that in most of the capitals of the world, on Jan. 3, there was an expectation, however vague, of some eminent phenomenon in the sky; and as the night followed the sunset round the globe thousands of men turned their eyes skyward to see—the old familiar stars just as they had always been.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"line-height:1.85\"\u003eUntil it was dawn in London and Pollux setting, and the stars overhead grown pale. The winter’s dawn it was, a sickly filtering accumulation of daylight, and the light of gas and candles shone yellow in the windows to show where people were astir. But the yawning policeman saw the thing, the busy crowds in the market stopped agape, workmen going to their work betimes, milkmen, the drivers of news carts, dissipation going home jaded and pale, homeless wanderers, sentinels on their beats, and in the country, laborers trudging afield, poachers slinking home, all over the dusky quickening country it would be seen—and out at sea by seamen watching for the day—a great white star, come suddenly into the westward sky!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cfigure style=\"margin:1em 0\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/4798\/0280\/files\/the-star-original-magazine-illustration.jpg?v=1792310903\" alt=\"Original magazine illustration\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto\" loading=\"lazy\"\u003e\u003cfigcaption\u003eOriginal illustration from Amazing Stories, June 1926; depicts the later catastrophe in the story.\u003c\/figcaption\u003e\u003c\/figure\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ca id=\"nile-preview-epub-download\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/4798\/0280\/files\/the-star-en-opening-preview_77e7526a-ef14-4d51-aeac-32e94a563ec0.epub?v=1792311085\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" download\u003eDownload the opening EPUB preview\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/section\u003e\u003cstyle\u003e#MainProduct-template--27612128411896__main .nbs-digital-trust,#MainProduct-template--27612128411896__main .nile-digital-note,#MainProduct-template--27612128411896__main .product-form__buttons,#MainProduct-template--27612128411896__main .product-form__quantity{display:none!important}\u003c\/style\u003e\u003cscript data-nile-preview-placement=\"under-cover\"\u003e(function(){function place(){var section=document.getElementById(\"nile-opening-preview\");if(!section)return;var product=section.closest(\"product-info\");if(!product)return;var gallery=product.querySelector(\"media-gallery\");if(gallery\u0026\u0026section.parentElement!==gallery){gallery.appendChild(section);section.setAttribute(\"data-placement\",\"under-cover\");}}if(document.readyState===\"loading\"){document.addEventListener(\"DOMContentLoaded\",place,{once:true});}else{place();}})();\u003c\/script\u003e","brand":"Nile Book Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67716938760440,"sku":"NILE-STAR-EN","price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0802\/4798\/0280\/files\/the-star-hg-wells-english-cover.png?v=1792310874","url":"https:\/\/nilebookstore.com\/ar\/products\/the-star-h-g-wells","provider":"Nile Book Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}