As a young teenager I was fascinated by Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds. I loved the music and the thought of those Martian machines storming the landscape sparked my imagination. This was further fuelled by the BBC's amazing drama The Tripods based on the John Christopher novel which borrowed heavily from Wells.

Let's face it, who hasn't borrowed from Wells? Anyone who can influence Orson Wells gets my vote. Wells was a genius. I detected plenty of influences from earlier novels though like House on the Borderland and it is definitely a book tat joins the dots in terms of literary history.

Unlike much sci-fi of that era, I actually enjoyed it, in particular the opening chapters. Once the Martians had bedded in and the narrator was on his own and meets the Artilleryman though, things got a bit philosophical for me as sci-fi is wont to do in my experience (with the ultimate Martian novel Stranger in a Strange Land being the ultimate example).

A valuable novel and a decent read too. ( )

My very first book - read it in grade school. ( )

i don't like sci fi or wells. i listened to this and couldn't concentrate. it seemed over written and dull. ( )

There is of course only one science fiction audio play that anyone has ever heard of, and that is Orson Welles' 1938 adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. I was delighted to find it downloadable from here. Anyone with the slightest interest in Wells, Welles or audio sf plays needs to hear it. It is only loosely based on the original novel; the brilliant introduction is retained, but then we are into light music interrupted by increasingly desperate news bulletins and horrible events, culminating with Times Square and the rest of New York succumbing to poison gas. That takes us to the 40-minute mark, at which point we are reminded that this is a work of fiction; and then the last third is essentially a post-holocaust survival story, Welles' Martians having been much more thorough in their devastation than Wells' originals. And at the very end, Welles himself steps out of character to remind everyone that it is Halloween. The discerning listener will have had no difficulty working out that it was fictional even if they tuned in after the first two minutes, but of course not every listener has the time to be discerning; my own adopted country was convulsed for days after a deliberate media hoax three years ago, so I can believe both that there was a significant public reaction to Welles' broadcast, and also that it makes an even better story if exaggerated. Anyway, it's essential material for any sf enthusiast. ( )

As a story, this book still holds up as a good read. I particularly liked the descriptions of the martian machines and thought how much more frightening these were then any of the movie versions that have followed. This is a classic in the best since of the word, the story is good and competently told with some very good writing, particularly some great descriptions of the aftermath of a devastating and utterly alien event. ( )