A brand new world

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A brand new world by Ray Cummings is a science fiction novel written in the early 20th century. It follows the discovery of a new planet, Xenephrene, whose arrival upends Earth’s climate and social order while a young reporter, his astronomer father, an inventor friend, and a Puerto Rican family encounter a white‑haired visitor named Zetta as a hostile invasion looms.

The opening of the novel traces the “new star” from first sightings to its naming as Xenephrene and the dawning realization—led by the narrator’s father—that its gravity is tipping Earth’s axis, plunging the northern hemisphere toward months of darkness and deadly cold. Society reels: New York is snowbound, refugees flee south, and the government relocates to Miami while broadcasters plead for calm. In Puerto Rico, Dan Cain and Hulda discover a silver sphere and a nearly weightless, leaping girl, Zetta, who proves gentle and begins to learn their language. Meanwhile, reports arrive of hostile landings near New York; an inventor’s small heat‑projector is examined, and a reconnaissance flight broadcasts stark tel‑vision images of a frozen, deserted Manhattan and a distant crimson glow accompanied by an eerie, rising whine—the invaders’ advancing weapon.