Futility: Or The Wreck of the Titan 100th Anniversary edition

Rating:
Summary: Don't have,. Haven't read.
Review: All I can say is that I would like to invest in an original copy of this book. I have heard about it for years and didn't realize it had been reprinted. The Titanic disaster has fascinated me most of my life. When the film came out I knew all of the historical characters' names, ranks, positions within the ship, etc. I have a rather large collection of books about the ship and the events surrounding its demise. This book would be a neat little lagniappe for my library, but only if it were a first edition.

Rating:
Summary: Futility almost seems to foretell the titanic disaster.
Review: Futility is a story about a huge ocean liner called the "Titan" which was the largest and most luxurious ship in the world. The Titan hits an iceberg on its starboard side and sinks in the icy North Atlantic during the month of April. I wanted to read this story because it was believed by some that this story would foretell the sinking of the Titanic 14 years later. I found parts of the book to be interesting; but I had a hard time trying to follow all of the events without rereading some of the pages. At one point, I put the book down because it became a little boring at times. Overall, Futility is a good book to read, and no doubt was a good sea adventure in 1898! I cannot really say there is any similarities to the way the "Titan" sank compared to the Titanic disaster. I gave this book 4 stars, because Morgan Robertson spoke of important nautical terms (like the Titan's 19 watertight compartments, triple screw expansion,etc). These were on ocean liners of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Futility is not the best book I have ever read, but I think it was a pretty good one. It is hard not to try to compare the events unfolding in Futility and compare it to the events leading up to the sinking of Titanic; since the two events are similiar. It is a story that any Titanic enthusiast or historian must read!

Rating:
Summary: The book is only a "Titanic curiosity"
Review: Futility or the Wreck of the Titan is definitely a book that deserves to be mentioned. However, many other books, documentaries, and so-called "historians" (e.g. Charles Pellegrino) have blown it out of porportion. Face it, it's a dry Victorian novel. Yes, I have to agree there are many coincidences -- number of passengers, collison with iceberg in April, the name of the ship. But they are JUST coincidences. Robertson was not only a WELL-KNOWN author in America and Britain, but a seaman who most likely kept up with all the shipping journals. It doesn't take much to predict what a ship might be like in the next 11 years. (construction of Titanic began about 1909)And when do icebergs begin to flow down to the middle latitudes? During the spring, of course, when it's warm. Also, most people never bring up the dissimilarities. For example, the Titan was on her third voyage, not maiden. She was heading toward England. The Titan had a hand full of survivors includin! ! g the captain and first officer versus the real ship, which lost over 1,500 people, including those two men. The people on the Titan experienced a haze or fog. The real people on the Titanic had a beautiful, though moonless night. Even so, only the beginning portion of the book is dedicated to the ship. Don't get me wrong, I do recommend reading the book as sort of a "Titanic curiosity". However, I do think some people will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Premonition, or coincidence? 5- Stars, Read this Book!
Review: History is clear. April 15, 1912, the White Star luxury liner Titanic, on its much anticipated and publicized maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg somewhere in the freezing North Atlantic. Several hours later, the Titanic sank beneath its icy-cold waters. Over 1500 people were killed. In 1898, fourteen years before this horrifying tragedy, an American author by the name Morgan Robertson penned a short novel called Futility, which told the tale of a mammoth British liner doomed to strike an iceberg in the North Atlantic, killing nearly all on board. His ill-fated ship was named the Titan. This, nine years before the Titanic was ever conceived. An odd coincidence, maybe, but one peculiar enough to elicit goosebumps on the flesh of even the greatest skeptics of the paranormal. What is absolutely chilling is that Robertson's Titan was in fact nearly identical, detail for detail, to the true-life Titanic. From the vessels' time of sailing to their top speeds, from their dimensions to the number of passengers aboard, statistical data on both ships are hauntingly alike. Morgan Robertson, who died in 1915, surprisingly never received much acclaim or reputation for his book, and very little else is known about the man who claimed to have been inspired by an "astral writing partner". It is known, however, that he wrote fourteen novels, all ocean-faring adventures (Robertson himself spent his early life at sea). In addition to Futility, Beyond the Spectrum has also been included in the book you are now holding. It is yet another eerie example of his premonition, a short story alluding to a terrible war between the Japanese and Americans, as well as the use of secret super-radiation weapons. This, some forty-one years before the start of World War II, not to mention almost fifty years before the invention of the atomic bomb. Still odd coincidence? Enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Get it for its historical novelty-value
Review: I first learned of this book when reading Walter Lord's famous "A Night to Remember," which was of course later released as a fine film of the same name, and which Lord updated in the early 1980s with the wonderful follow-up novel, "The Night Lives On." At the beginning of "A Night to Remember," Lord alludes generously to Robertson's novel "Futility," about the fictional ship 'Titan' and its uncanny resemblence to the 'Titanic' both in physical dimensions and tragic sinking. From Lord's brief synopsis of Robertson's novel, I got the impression that "Futility" would be a comprehensive novel that went to great lengths to describe the ship (Titan), passengers, crew, disaster, and aftermath. I was very surprised when I opened the shipping box and instead received a very skimpy novelette, weighing in at a whole forty pages or so.

Although "Futility" does have eerie similarities with the actual Titanic disaster, which makes it immediately of high historical novelty value, as a stand-alone novel in its own right it is simply not a very well-written piece of fiction. It has some nice ideas that should have been further developed. The cataclysmic sinking of the Titan is contained in about 1/3 a page, and amounts to "struck an iceberg, fell flat on her side, the end."

Amazingly, the extreme cold of the North Atlantic never seems to be an issue, as it is never mentioned. The story centers around a disgraced former US navy officer who, after his fall, became an ordinary seaman on the Titan. The plot revolves around his love affair (or lack of one) with a former girlfriend. The story is filled with cheesy dialog (even for 1890s Victorian standards) and interminable soliloquies that will have the reader rolling his or her eyes and going "whatever."

The plot of this story can be summed up thus:

- Titan is a huge ship and represents Victorian decadence
- Rowlands (the disgraced officer) loves some girl who's married to someone else
- Girl mistakenly thinks Rowlands is trying to murder her toddler
- Ship hits iceberg
- Ship founders two paragraphs later
- Rowlands rescues his ex girlfriend's toddler
- Rowlands somehow defeats a 2,000 lb polar bear in hand to hand combat
- no one gets hypothermia
- the end.



This story is interesting insofar as its similarity to the Titanic disaster, but beyond that, it is doggerel.

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.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK! MORAGON 'S BOOK IS SO GOOD FOR 1898
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.

Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's NOT like today's writings, but...
Review: This is a story (really stories) worth reading. It is uncanny how the author concocted this whole premise only to have a fatal chunk of it become reality 14 years AFTER it was written! The Edgar Cayce of the sea! Worth having in your Titanic library.

Rating:
Summary: Every "Titanic" buff should have a copy, but...
Review: What "Titanic" buff hasn't heard of the infamous story of the "Titan?" Here, at a very reasonable price, is a chance to actually read the fiticious story which has been unavailable for so long. Unfortunately, once having read the story, most will find it a minor disappointment.

"Futility" is not the epic story of a shipwreck. Indeed, the actual wreck and sinking of the "Titan" takes place over the course of only five paragraphs.

Rather than a maritime disaster, the title "Futility" refers to the events surrounding the main character, John Rowland, before, on and after the "Titan." Morgan Robertson (the author) uses the ship and wreck only to establish a circumstance in which Rowland's true character can be contrasted with the hypocracy of Victorian society.

"Futility" is a novella, easily readable in about two hours. Robertson's writing is flowery by modern standards but always intelligible. After reading it, most are likely to understand why the book has been out of print for so long: it is not great literature. It is, however, part of the "Titanic" legend and therefor deserves to be on every "Titanic" buff's shelf.

My strongest complaint with the 100th Anniversary Edition is the complete absence of editing. Mis-spellings abound and words are obviously omitted. Spell-check doesn't catch syntax errors or word substitutions such as "to" for "two." We've all come to accept and expect this sloppiness in e-mail and on web-sites, but the printed word deserves closer scrutiny and better acuracy.

Do buy the book. Be aware of what it isn't.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK! MORAGON 'S BOOK IS SO GOOD FOR 1898
Review: Whoa!
I screamed when i recived it from amazon.com.
It was scary.Like a bone chiller,or maybe a thriller.
morgan robertson had out done her self.
She has a good book to be written in the 1890's.
this book should be 100.00.It seems to me to be a rare novel.
this book was a prediction.TITAN was related to (TITAN)IC.
GET THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!