Author: H.G. Wells
Starring: H.G. Wells, H.G.Wells' brother, The Curate, Miss Elphinstone, Martian 551
First Published: 1897
"Nihil Novi Sub Sole" (There is nothing new under the sun) can be applied here. The War of the Worlds will seem, to many of you, as a generic alien invasion book/film/franchise, but it's far from it. In fact, you could say that every over sci-fi thing in the past 116 years has copied it, but that would be stupid as well. War of the Worlds is the first book to ever deal with the possibility of an alien invasion, and with a scientific view.
Our story begins in the town of Woking, which is now a London suburb. I think we can all agree with Douglas Adams when he described Woking as "Going into the kitchen and forgetting what you came in for".
Either way, it's the quintessential turn of the century British town. A local astronomer, Ogilvy (Who also starred in Mr. Wells' short story, The Crystal Egg) detects some form of giant 'gun' on Mars, which is firing capsules into space for ten consecutive days. No-one really cares about this, and nothing happens. A few weeks later, one of the cylinders crashes in Horsell Common, Woking. After three days, the capsule opens and the Martians (who cannot walk in the high gravity of Earth) build their sinister tripods, which allow them to move on the planet. They keep bystanders away by using their Heat-Rays, which burn everything.
Every day more and more capsules arrive for ten days, and the tripods march steadily toward London. The Royal Hussars are useless to fight the tripods, and not even the Artillery with their giant guns can stop more than one of the tripods.
The Martians keep their offence up, and deploy a toxic black gas which suffocates anyone who breathes it in. After a week and a half the Martians have reached London and the city has fallen. Luckily they are thwarted from crossing the channel as the gas diffuses into the water and their heat rays simply make steam from the water. The second Martian is killed by a torpedo ram dreadnought, but England is still in danger.
I won't spoil the rest, but it is one of the best original sci-fi books ever written. Though some of you may think that is is dated and the ending a bit weak, you've got to remember that it was written 116 years ago, so the prose is a bit dated, and that the (SPOLIERS) Martians would die because their immune systems have no defense against Earth germs. (END SPOILERS).Overall, it's a very good read and is the most famous and defining of H.G. Wells' work. I'll be doing a series of his books as he's my favorite writer and his books I reccomend to anyone who can understand English. I especially liked the strange quirks of the Martians' society, like their asexuality, the slave race of other Martians, the fact that they evolved without wheels and that they successfully invaded Venus and presumably occupy all other planets in the Solar System.
Whatever you think of it, I want to visit the giant tripod statue at Horsell Common and sip tea.
Five Stars
by Jon Petre
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