The Man Who Ended War

In 1908, a mysterious letter arrives on the desks of the world's most powerful leaders. Its author declares war on war itself, demanding immediate global disarmament or face the destruction of every battleship on Earth. Government officials laugh it off as a prank, until the ships begin disappearing one per week, each vanishing without a trace. Who is this man, and what impossible technology allows him to strike at the navies of the world? Hollis Godfrey's prescient novel follows correspondent Orrington and scientist Dorothy Haldane as they investigate the truth behind the threat, uncovering a figure who may possess the means to remake civilization or plunge it into chaos. What begins as a fantastical premise becomes a meditation on power, peace, and the violence underlying international order. Released a decade before World War I transformed the geopolitical landscape, this early work of pacifist science fiction asks uncomfortable questions about the cost of peace and who has the right to enforce it. For readers who enjoy early speculative fiction, political thrillers, and novels that imagine peace enforced through extraordinary means.