Author:	H. G. Wells
Copyright:	1898
Date Reviewed:
Rating:	8.5

Synopsis: Just before the turn of the 20th Century, the Martians launch an attack on Earth. Over a ten-day period, huge cylinders are shot out of a giant gun on Mars to land around London. The novel is written by a first hand observer who sees a cylinder land near his home. He sees the Martians, moving slug-like creatures, emerge from the cylinder and with incredible machines kill several spectators. Before the army can mount an effective attack, the Martians leave the pits created when the cylinders landed. They travel in 100 foot mobile structures with huge heads and three longs legs. With Heat-Ray guns and Black Smoke they set about to kill and demoralize humanity.

Our observer, after delivering his wife safely to a cousin, returns to his home, now in a desolate neighborhood. While pillaging a nearby house for food with a curate, the fifth cylinder crashes into the house destroying most of it. For two weeks he and the curate are trapped and while they have a unique opportunity to observe the Martians, they also begin to starve. Finally the curate goes insane and is killed by a Martian. Just before he starves, the Martians leave and he makes his escape. He makes his way to London to find that the Martians have all died of bacterial infections.

Review: "War of the Worlds" is the 40th book I've read this year and the third in a row that had a movie based on it (for a total of seven this year). The movie is not based too closely on the book since it occurs in a different time period; thus it wasn't too predictable. At first I liked the way it was written, almost entirely in the first person. However, eventually this got tedious and the divergence of the story to the observers brother was a welcomed relief. The one thing that just about ruined the book for me was the detailed use of the geography (towns, counties, roads) in and around London. While I wouldn't have minded a few references to these every now and then, I got bored with 5 or 10 references per page. Curiously, the story being told in a different time was much less of a problem (in fact is was enjoyable) than the story told in a different location. Now I can go back to reading less "popular" science fictions.