Many of H.G. Wells books deal with what we call science fiction. Such as The War of The Worlds, The Time Machine or the Invisible Man he likes to write about wonders brought about by new technology or alien ways. He loved a good What-if-this-happened? Yet there was also a social scientist within him. With such novels as The Island Of Dr. Moreau and The Food Of The Gods he also explored the human condition and how fixed or flexible it could become.
In the Food Of The Gods two men, Mr. Bensington and Professor Redwood put their knowledge together to make a chemical that allows an animal or plant continuous growth without need for it to stop to build up energy or material.
Soon mankind is dealing with giant wasps, chickens, grass and all kinds of harmless or very dangerous creatures. And soon babies are given the BoomFood to make them into giants. What should mankind do with the giants? Employee them? Bar them from the rest of civilization? Kill them?
The novel is full of humor, mostly pointed at the class system, scientists, the common man and society in general. There is even a slight hint that each new generation THINKS of itself as giants, as big minds with big ideas.
The funny part was the slow change of the characters' impressions on me, as I started to think of the normal sized humans as pigmies near the end and the giants as the normal sized humans. This was done mostly by allowing them to become the major characters, shifting the point of view, so we started to see more of the giants, their way of life, their problems and less of the normal humans. Also, the normal humans seemed to whine a lot.
Clearly this novel has effected many other books and many, many sci-fi B-movies. THEM just to name one. Get it used or new.
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