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The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells
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The War of the Worlds (1898)

by H. G. Wells

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: The Prospero's War (1)

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English (137)  French (4)  Spanish (3)  Danish (3)  Dutch (2)  Italian (1)  All languages (150)
Showing 1-5 of 137 (next | show all)
Got it in a book sale one summer when I was quite young -- nine or so, I think -- and scared myself silly with it. Never quite got up the courage to revisit, since then. I remember liking it a lot, but I also remember the nightmares about alien invasions. ( )
  shanaqui | Apr 9, 2013 |
Reading another H.G. Wells novel I first read decades ago was like reading it for the first time. All the film versions, the Orson Welles radio theater, and the derivatives, do not detract from Wells's story. He manages the trick of describing an alien invasion, an event of worldwide importance, from the point of view of an anonymous observer who happens to witness the first landing. The science is out-dated--no radios or computers, for example, but the story left me with a sense Wells himself must have had of the fragility and promise of human life. ( )
  nmele | Apr 6, 2013 |
I liked this much more than Well's The Time Machine! Interesting that this too has a first person narration in which the narrator is never named. ( )
  leslie.98 | Apr 3, 2013 |
Give me a Victorian era setting, give me creepy aliens and I'm HOOKED. (no, really, I didn't expect that at all, hence all the bad reviews I've seen)

I especially loved one scene were a man envisioned human life and resistence after the earth's takeover by the aliens (I wonder why any of the Young Adult authors haven't made a dystopian novel out of that yet)

He depicts an "upstairs" human class fattened and sometimes even petted by the aliens and a rebellious "downstairs" class living underground in hiding.

"'Well, it's like this,' he said. 'What have we to do? We have to invent a sort of life where men can live and breed, and be sufficiently secure to bring the children up. Yes-- wait a bit, and I'll make it clearer what I think ought to be done.
The tame ones will go like all tame beastes; in a few generations they'll be big, beautiful, rich-blooded, stupid-- rubbish!
The risk is that we who keep wild will go savage-- degenarate into a sort of big, savage rat....
You see, how I mean to live is underground. I've been thinking about the drains.
Of course those who don't know drains think horrible things; but under this London are miles and miles-- hundreds of miles--
and a few days'rain and London empty will leave them sweet and clean.
The main drains are big enough and airy enough for anyone.
Then there's cellars, vaults, stores, from which bolting passages may be made to the drains.
And the railway tunnels and subways. Eh? You begin to see?
And we form a band-able-bodied, clean-minded men.'"
( )
  RaphusCucullatus | Apr 3, 2013 |
Note that Cindy has created a Google map of this book, which is laudably loony. I am SO impressed with that.

Wells just doesn't strike out for me: every one of the four books I've read of his so far has its own feel and succeeds in its own way. Here the story is much smaller than I'd thought it would be - okay fine, I saw that lame Tom Cruise movie a while back - which is a good choice. Wells focuses mainly - almost obsessively - on the reactions of various humans to an invasion that's generally only seen from a distance, and rarely understood by anyone. Some tropes that are now familiar make what might be their first appearance here: the blase attitude of complacent humanity, a la Shawn of the Dead.

Wicked good stuff. ( )
  AlCracka | Apr 2, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 137 (next | show all)
Mr. Wells's dramatic power is of the strongest, and through "The War of the Worlds" deals with death, destruction, and ruin, he has known how to manage a terrible topic in a clever and ingenuous way.
 

» Add other authors (112 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Wells, H. G.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Aldiss, Brian W.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Asimov, IsaacAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Barrett, SeanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Card, Orson ScottIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fredrik, JohanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gemme, Francis R.Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Goble, WarwickIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gorey, EdwardIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gunn, JamesAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hurt, ChristopherNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Θωμόπουλος… Γιάννης Γ.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Parrinder, PatrickEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Santos, DomingoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sawyer, AndyEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Spencer, AlexanderNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Is contained in

The War of the Worlds & A Dream of Armageddon & The Land Ironclads. Heron Collected Works of Wells by H. G. Wells

The time machine ; The war of the worlds ; The island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

The War of the Worlds & The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

The Collector's Book of Science Fiction by H. G. Wells by H. G. Wells

Complete Science Fiction Treasury of H. G. Wells by H. G. Wells

The Time Machine / The Island of Dr Moreau / The Invisible Man / The First Men in the Moon / The Food of the Gods / In the Days of the Comet / The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

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Dedication
TO
MY BROTHER
FRANK WELLS
THIS RENDERING
OF HIS IDEA
First words
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
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This is the main work for The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Please do not combine with any abridgements, adaptations, annotated editions, etc.
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Wikipedia in English (4)

Book description
Night after night, the bright lights can be seen dropping from the sky.
Traveling thousands of miles through space, the Martians are landing on Earth!
The strange, ugly creatures have three spindly legs and large metallic bodies. They have already destroyed London.
Who or what can stop them from taking over the entire world?
Haiku summary

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0375759239, Paperback)

This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's..."

Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. --Craig E. Engler

(retrieved from Amazon Sun, 12 Sep 2010 22:01:51 -0400)

(see all 7 descriptions)

H.G. Wells' original masterpiece now includes a newly established text, a full biographical essay on the author, a list of further reading, and detailed notes. Famous for the mistaken panic that ensued from Orson Welles' 1938 radio dramatization, "The War of the Worlds" remains one of the most influential of all science fiction works.… (more)

» see all 23 descriptions

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Audible.com

22 editions of this book were published by Audible.com.

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Penguin Australia

Four editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141441038, 0451530659, 0141045418, 0141199040

NYRB Classics

An edition of this book was published by NYRB Classics.

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