The War of the Worlds (Modern Library) (Paperback)

This is not to say that it isn't science-fiction--for it most certainly is, and moreover it is science-fiction well grounded in the scientific thinking of its day: intelligent life on Mars was believed to be entirely possible, and Wells forecasts the machinery and weapons that would soon become all too real in World War I. Set in England about the beginning of the 20th Century, the story finds a strange meteor landing near the narrator's home--and from it emerge Martians, who promptly construct gigantic and powerful killing machines and set about wiping the human population of England off the face of the earth. The Martians and their machines are exceptionally well imagined, the story moves at a fast clip, and the writing is strong, concise, and powerful. And to say the book has had tremendous influence is an understatement: we have been deluged with tales of alien invaders (although not necessarily from Mars) ever since.

But there is a great deal more going on here than just an entertaining story. Both the England and Europe of 1898 were imperialistic powers, beating less technologically advanced cultures into submission, colonizing them, and then draining them of their resources. With THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, Wells turns the tables, and imperialistic England finds itself facing the same sort of social, economic, and cultural extermination it has repeatedly visited on others.

The upshot of the whole thing is that Wells ultimately paints the English Empire's habit of forced colonization as akin to an invasion by horrific blood-sucking monsters from outer space--and even goes so far as to suggest that if the present trend continues we ourselves may follow an evolutionary path that will bring us to the same level as the Martians: ugly, sluggish creatures that rely on machines and simply drain off what they need from others without any great concern for the consequences. If we find the idea of such creatures horrific, he warns, we'd best look to our own habits. For these monsters are more like us than we may first suppose.

And this, really, is why the novel has survived even in the face of advancing scientific knowledge that renders the idea of an invasion from Mars more than a little foolish. THE WAR OF THE WORLDS is a mirror, and even more than a century later the Martians reflect our own nature to a truly uncomfortable degree. A memorable novel, and strongly recommended--at least to those who have the sense to understand the parable it offers.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

This book is *the* textbook on how to write science fiction... Wells starts with just one outrageous idea - that of alien invasion - and then makes sure it never gets out control. The locations are real, the panic feels real, and the battles are superbly described. Humanity even gets the odd one back against the Martians - one fighting machine is blown to rags by a lucky artillery hit; another is rammed and "sunk" by a brilliantly-handled destroyer when it rashly wades into the Channel. If you asked 100 people to name a work of sc-fi, how many would remember this book for its brilliantly snappy title alone?

It's not just a melodrama, of course. The fragility of civilisation is what really interested Wells, here and elsewhere, and you get a chilling feel for how rapidly the conquered here are ready to line up and work for the victors in the War of the Worlds. Despite this, there is poignance as well in the way the story ends. I first read this book when I was about twelve and I still have a mental picture of a hundred-foot Martian in Regent's Park, howling its distress as it dies of some unimagined terrestrial disease.

Spectacular!