Tony Wright (5) (1967–)

This is written as a sequel to H.G. Wells’ classic story of Martian invasion and has the same first person protagonist. The narrative of this book states that Wells wrote the original War of the Worlds, but that the protagonist himself (who here is called John Smith) penned this sequel. It’s a clever way to explain the stylistic differences.
In this story, we are told that the Martians, which we thought all succumbed to earthly bacteria in the original novel, did not. Some survived, and they are still trying to conquer Earth.
The story includes characters, settings, and story elements from Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds and his short story The Crystal Egg, both originally published in 1897. It also presents minor characters from fact and fiction including Winston Churchill, Sherlock Holmes, and H.G. Wells. The prose, for the most part, is reminiscent of Wells’ original and of other books from that time.
Having recently reread some of Wells’ work, the differences between this and the original stood out to me. The Martians present the most obvious one. In Wells’ original story, they are technologically impressive, but physically unsuited for Earth’s stronger gravity. Their machines do all the fighting because they cannot. In this sequel, they are strong and quick, and they engage in hand-to-hand combat with humans. They are more like modern movie aliens than the inscrutable and very, well, alien creatures Wells portrayed.
The main character also varies. In the original, he is educated, thoughtful, well off, and largely a victim and beneficiary of circumstance. In this book, he seems less thoughtful, more aggressive, and his jingoism is more in evidence. In the original book, I found the character likeable, in this one, not so much.
‘Action’ is much more pronounced than in the original novel, and violence is more graphically depicted. Wells tended to relate such things more by implication, lending a certain air of refinement to his work. I tend to think of this as almost a characteristic of reserved British culture of the time, at least for gentlemen. This difference made the sequel feel more like a contemporary action adventure steampunk novel, unfortunately.
The cover art is very good, but the editing is not. I noticed several typos and places where the prose could use a bit of polish, especially regarding choice of words so as not to sound repetitive.
The story is engaging enough that I would recommend it to those who enjoyed the original War of the Worlds novel. It is interesting to see what one writer who is obviously a big Wells fan imagines could have happened next.
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As its title suggests, this is a sequel to H G Wells's great classic. The unnamed narrator in the original (here given what he describes as the pseudonym John Smith) is enticed into co-operating with Government efforts to analyse and duplicate Martian technology (such as sonar and submarines), in order to prepare to combat a second invasion a few years after the first. This second attempt materialises very quickly, using hidden forces left over from the first invasion, who had somehow escaped succumbing to the Earth bacteria that did for their fellows (this is not adequately explained, as the hidden forces also continue to feed on human blood). The plot involves a trip to the Martians' mobile undersea base and a number of rather repetitive battle scenes, that lack Well's touch for vivid imagery. In this parallel world, Lieutenant Winston Churchill leads the human forces in fighting the Martians, having not entered politics. Even Sherlock Holmes makes a brief unnamed but obvious appearance (without Watson, who was killed in the first invasion). Wells's Artilleryman features quite prominently in the story, promoted to Sergeant (and still unnamed; as also is the narrator's poor wife) These interesting touches do not, however, detract from the fact that this is in my view a fairly mundane alien invasion story that dragged rather for me.… (more)