The War Of The Worlds
written by H.G. Wells
https://www.ink2quill.com/

“The War Of the Worlds” is a science fiction masterpiece written by the English writer H.G. Wells. It first appeared around 1897 and first appeared in London, in hardcover a year later. Credit to the first person to publish this magnificent work should be given and his name is William Heinemann. It was first classified as `scientific romance´ because the genre `science fiction´ hadn´t been invented yet. This is the first novel to deal with the theme of alien invasion and continues to inspire books, films, blogs and so many other artforms. It has also spawned countless adaptations with 7 famous films, radio programs and TV series. One of the adaptations that became infamous was the 1938 radio broadcast that was narrated by the great American actor, director, writer, producer and thespian, Orson Welles. (In it Orson Welles presented the radio broadcast as a news bulletin and did such a good job that many thought it was real news and that the world was being invaded by martians. Panic insued across America and I heard some people even tragically took their own lives from fear. Orson Welles was that convincing. I heard parts of the broadcast and I understand the public´s outraged considering too that back then the media was like the Oracle of Delphi for the public. The healthy suspicion of media did not start to develop until after the Kennedy assassination in America so you have to keep that in mind.). Anyway, I digress, “The War Of The Worlds” remains one of the most influencial works of science fiction to this day, influencing not only literature but the progress of technology and society today. It is a sci-fi classic for a very good reason.

Barnes&Noble The War Of The Worlds book webpage

Amazon The War Of The Worlds book webpage

Goodreads The War Of The Worlds webpage

itunes The War Of The Worlds webpage

The story is basically of an unnamed character who lives through an alien invasion in Victorian England. So if you Think back to those times they were without cell phones, computers, cars or most other technologies we have today. The army used cannons with cannonballs and not missiles and you still had horse drawn carriages everywhere used by people and army alike. When the invasion comes it is sudden and unexpected. Humanity is not ready for any invasion with this kind of technology and havoc basically breaks loose. The army tries to fend off the attack as best they can but cannonballs and guns are no match for the alien tripods. The main character like the armies of Earth are not able to handle the invasion on a physical and also psychological level.

I also loved the way he described the invading Martians. They had V-shaped mouths, tentacles with skin that glistened like wet leather. They are extremely intelligent and probably telepathic. Here´s an interesting thing though, they had no digestive systems. So they are basically a brain, lungs and limbs. That, according to the author, is the reason why they drink blood because in human blood all of the organic work that went into creating it had already been done in the human body by the human digestive system and the Alien martians´bodies cannot create nutrients because of the lack of a digestive system. So they take it from their food- humans.

What an interesting concept. The martians are so capable and developped technologically and mentally but are woefully inadequate oragnically. Keep in mind that this book was written in 1897 not too long after the Industrial Revolution. Now that´s vision folks.

The idea that the main character is not able to cope with his reality, you could almost say that this masterpiece straddles the horror genre. You could almost say that it has a dab of gothic horror weaved into it. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

“The War Of The Worlds” is a masterpiece that was ahead of its time for decades and probalby even centuries later. The story is the first of its kind, interesting with the most original of endings. You really got the impression that the main character was very much powerless in spite of everything he tried to do.

I highly recommend “The War Of The Worlds” because it´s just that good of a read.

written by John

I2Q Blogs / The Written Medium appius / heinemann / ink2quill / orson / quill / welles / Wells /