The War of the Worlds

UK First edition hardcover.

The War of the Worlds is a pioneer science fiction novel about Martian invaders coming to Earth to take over the planet for their own colonization. It was published in 1898 and written by H.G. Wells.

Personal

My first knowledge of The War of the Worlds came from the Orson Wells radio drama which I heard played on Halloween as an NPR radio broadcast. I remember my mother telling me how people were tricked into thinking it was real and causing a panic (I later learned that this was mostly an urban legend). I remember seeing movies and remakes of the source material, and, knowing it was an influential story, I decided to actually read it. I was disappointed.

Status

This book is in the public domain. I don't own a physical copy, but have listened to an audio book recording.

Review

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• Wells made creative ideas about futuristic weaponry from the laser-like heat ray to the ominous black smoke.
• The description of some of the Martian technology was interesting like the tripods that are so advanced they look alive.
• The Martians are a formidable foe, and it looks like the Earthlings had a chance when they destroyed one of the tripods, but it was just a clever tease.
• The artillery man describing how the Martians would probably enslave the human race as cattle is a nice mirror to look at how humans view lesser species.
• It's inadvertently funny the way the Earthlings fawn over the Martian's ability to fly, especially considering aircraft would be developed not even two decades after the books publication.

Bad

• In general, I didn't find the book very interesting.
• Wells made a lot of bad guesses when it comes to science. He believed alien life wouldn't need a suit to live on a foreign planet, that bacteria wouldn't necessarily grow where larger complex organisms would, that Martian plants would thrive on Earth soil, that alien life would find human blood nourishing, and so forth.
• Martian space travel is incredibly dangerous and highly primitive utilizing capsules that just smash into the ground rather than utilize retro-rockets!
• The ending is too drawn out and unnecessarily cheerful.

Ugly

• In writing the story in the form of a memoir, most of the tension is removed; obviously, the writer will survive since he had to write this book. The story would have been much better if it were written as the action unfolded.
• The ending is painfully anti-climactic.

Links

     

• librivox.org/war-of-the-worlds-solo-by-h-g-wells - LibriVox.
• librivox.org/the-war-of-the-worlds-version-3-by-h-g-wells - LibriVox.