|
Loading... The War of the Worldsby H.G. Wells
LibraryThing recommendationsMember recommendations
Loading...
won't like
will probably not like
will probably like
will like
will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Sadly, I just couldn't get into The War of the Worlds. It dragged from word one. It was short and didn't take a long time to read, but it seemed like forever. I've been recently coming to appreciate some alien stories, but this one fell flat. The ending struck me as an easy way to end the novel and left me feeling unfulfilled. (  ) JennSicu | Nov 12, 2009 |  A great genre-defining example of the sometimes perilous world of classic science fiction. The Time Machine was much better and much more clearly written. But War of the Worlds is a worthy read. (  ) SendersName | Nov 11, 2009 | 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. (  )1  arukiyomi | Nov 3, 2009 | My very first book - read it in grade school. ( )1 rmond45 | Oct 28, 2009 | i don't like sci fi or wells. i listened to this and couldn't concentrate. it seemed over written and dull. ( ) mahallett | Oct 20, 2009 | 
 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.
Amazon.com (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 Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:09 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia in English (1)
