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Summary: Definitely worth the read!!!
Review: I found this book extremely interesting and worth the read. The Titanic sinking had a major impact on many people's lives. This book points out some very scary similarities. Hopefully, we will never see a tragedy like this one again. Futility is a quick, interesting, and fun read!!! Not a writing masterpiece, but an adventurous romp. We should be thankful that somone took the time to re-publish this book, especially with the release of the movie!!!
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Summary: This book is amazing!
Review: I have ben looking for this book for a long time & I was shocked when I finally read it!!. It is not a very long book, but what it does have is amazing. The similarities to the Titanic are there, as I have heard of- but what is more amazing is "Beyond the Spectrum", also included in this edition. It is one thing to make a prediction of the sinking of the Titanic, and could be considered lucky- but TWO amazing predictions is too much to believe!!!!! Beyond the Spectrum predicts the attack on Pearl Harbor & the Atomic bomb over 40 years before they happened. Amazing- it convinced me!!!
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Summary: Original version available on microfilm at many libraries.
Review: I read Futility in less that 2 hours at the U. of Washington library where the original version is available on microfilm. This fictional wreck of the Titan is remarkably similar to that of the Titanic, which occured some 14 years after the publication of Futility, but it is not the central theme of the book. But Futility is worth reading for the novelty of the coincidence of early fiction with later fact. R.N. CLARK
Rating: 
Summary: Futility
Review: I would call it an insipid sort of book, very loosely and clumsily constructed. If not for the fact that it resembled the Titanic disasterin some remote way, few would likely know about it. Its coincidence with the Titanic is not nearly so remarkable as some might make out. In fact, the 70-page story contains a few dozen sentences about the Titan and its wreck; most of the rest is unrelated and hard to understand. The style was very abrupt and choppy where the Titan was respected, and too prolific concerning the hero, John Rowland, by the way, who was altogether too heroic. His feminine love was much too perfect, of enough mention was made of her to be able to tell. The story centers selfishly around its hero, who, stranded on an island after the ship sank, one-handedly kills a polar bear with a jack knife to save the heroine's daughter. As for the Titan, it apparently just flops over on its side and sinks.
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Summary: eerie and riveting
Review: I't's very odd how the book predicts history twice in two seperate short stories. The story Colors of the Spectrum describe a man who has invented a variation of radar during an air war with the Japaneese in the month of December. I have given the book a rating of 3 stars because although it would probably make the bestseller lists in the mid-1800's, the plots are rather simple for today.
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Summary: A Book that Foretold the Future
Review: In 1898, and English author named Morgan Robertson published a novel about a huge new ocean liner. The ship was far larger than any that had ever been built. The fictional characters on board were mostly the rich and famous. The ship set off on its first voyage. Halfway across the Atlantic, on a cold night in April, the make-believe ship hit and iceberg and sank. There was great loss of life.
Robertson's book, entitled Futility, did not do well. Few people read it. Few people even knew about it.
Certainly not the owners of the White Star Shipping Line.
Fourteen years after the publication of the book, White Star built what was then the largest ocean liner in the world. In nearly every way, it was almost exactly like the one in Robertson's novel. Both were around 800 feet long and weighed between 60 and 70 thousand tons. Both vessels had triple propellers and could make 24 to 25 knots. Both could carry about 3,000 people, and both had enough lifeboats for only a fraction of this number. But, then, this wasn't supposed to matter; both ships were said to be "unsinkable." On April 10, 1912, the real ship left England on her first voyage. On board were some of the richest and most famous people in the world. On a cold April night, about halfway across the Atlantic, the ship struck and iceberg. With great loss of life, she sank.
The real ship, of course, was the Titanic. As for the name of the imaginary ship, the author called it the Titan. Taken from a book entitled "Amazing True Stories" by Don L. Wolffson
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Summary: The Truth is Strange Enough
Review: It is strange that reviewers of this book so often obviously haven't read it. The World War II story as it seems to be, appears to have been written in 1912 though the list of three copyright dates in this four short-story book don't specify what date belongs to what story. There is no preface or introduction. No claims are being made no explanations offered. There are no sun bombs in Beyond the Spectrum, the afor mentioned story; just an amazing description of a lazer the Japanese use to cause a temporary blindness in American navel forces. It's as if the writer had a vision of the blinding light of an attomic blast and a lazer and thought the two were somehow related. He refers to the light emited as a radiation three or four times. A description of a WWII submarine and the persecution of American Japanese is right on. The Titan story is just as suprising, but again reviewers site some parallels that don't exist. The link that brought me here said there would be material from Dr. Ian Stevenson included. There isn't.
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Summary: Compelling
Review: It was sad and compelling. It was a stirring book and was gripping. I almost never put it down and cried at some parts.
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Summary: A good story, but a fascinating coincidence
Review: John Rowland is a man in much reduced straights. Once an officer on a U.S. Naval warship, he fell in love with a woman who ultimately rejected him, and then descended into alcoholism at the cost of everything. Things might be looking up, when he finds himself a berth as a common sailor aboard the brand new passenger liner Titan, the largest, fastest, most technologically advanced ship afloat. However, when Rowland witnesses the Titan ramming and sinking a smaller ship during the night, he realizes he must stand for what is right. Things become much worse, when the Titan sinks after ramming an iceberg, and Rowland finds himself one of the few survivors, along with the captain. This is Rowland's time of to realize the futility of his former life, and to stand tall. This book was written in 1898, and is of historical interest for the number of similarities between the ship in the story and the Titanic, which sank some fourteen years later. Both the Titan and the Titanic were on their maiden voyages, both had watertight compartments (which made collision a smaller worry), both carried as few lifeboats as the law allowed, both sailed in April heading for New York, both struck icebergs around midnight, and both sank with heavy loss of life. The story in the book is good, not great, but good. If it hadn't been for the Titanic similarities, it probably wouldn't be remember today. Overall I found the story unconvincing, but nonetheless a good read. Also, I found the similarities between the Titan and Titanic somewhat superficial. If you are looking for a pre-telling of the Titanic story, then you will be quite disappointed. Therefore, I would give this book a rather qualified recommendation.
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Summary: What a strange coinsidence
Review: one of the strangest books I've ever read. It has so much in common with Titanic it isn't funny. More like a prophesy book. Everything in this book is almost the same as Titanic: The names of the ships, where the iceberg hit, number of passengers, number of lifeboats, month of maiden voyage and sinking, number of propellars and the length of the ship. I suggest you read this if you want to see one of the weirdest of the many pyschic foretellings of the Titanic disaster. Very, very strange how much Titanic and the Titan (in the book) have in common...
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