The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth

Description

The Food of the Gods is a Sci-Fi novel by the finest master of the genre, H. G. Wells.

The “food of the gods” is in fact an ingredient invented by scientists that turns out to be able to accelerate the growth rate of whatever it comes into contact with. The story starts out by introducing Mr. Bensington, a research chemist and his main area of interest, toxic alkaloids, and Professor Redwood, devoted to researching growth.

Bensington becomes interested in researching the substance in the blood that generates growth after the Professor comes to the conclusion that it must be something that probably forms very slowly in humans. After about a year of research, Bensington comes with a substance that he calls the Food of the Gods – he tests the chemical on chicken that grow six times faster than they normally would without the chemical. Due to the negligence of the couple that tends to the chickens that have been fed the chemical, the substance somehow gets into the local food chain and all the creatures in the area start growing six times faster as well.

The chemical is eventually administered to children, and the second book in the novel is taken up entirely by the description of the chemical’s effects on a child. The third and final part of the novel presents a world partially populated by giant humans, giant animals and giant plants and there is also the description of a blossoming romance, but the book leaves numerous questions unanswered and open for debate.

First published in 1904, the novel was just as popular back then as it is now. The topic was approached by several movies, the novel was adapted for comic strips, and it inspired numerous authors to produce their own version of the intriguing theme.
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