The prose was abysmal, and the characters were so insipid that they might as well have been Martians themselves. The underlying message was painfully apparent, the science was silly, and the narrative crawled at an agonizingly sluggish pace with a wooden post for a protagonist. Even after ten chapters, the story had yet to find its footing. The only reason this is deemed a classic is that it had some novelty factor over a century ago. ( )

Truly a classic from one of the grandfathers of science fiction, but one which hasn't aged entirely well. It is an exciting premise delivered with a frankness (death and destruction) I usually associate with more contemporary writing. However the non-stop mentioning of place names---towns, roads, hills, forests, intersections, suburbs---ad nauseam eventually grates, as does the very long passages describing the narrator's wanderings. The visuals of a blasted landscape ring clear though, and the sometimes dry philosophizing occasionally hits a nerve as when a disillusioned soldier envisions a glorious future for mankind in which dog eats dog and only the fittest survive. I'm glad I read the source material but I think I'll stick to the movies. ( )

Story of a Martian attack on Britain, told from the perspective of a survivor who is documenting the ordeal. Wells did a good job of conveying the narrator's emotions as he grapples with both the aliens & his fellow humans. The Martians' technology is fascinating, especially since this book was written before the twentieth century. Ending was extremely anticlimactic. But overall a fun read, & a quick one too ( )

A re-read triggered by seeing the BBC 2019 three-part mini-series, which, at least initially, promised to be much closer to the book than the 1953 Gene Barry version or the 2005 Tom Cruise version. I read for all the bits I didn't remember. That turned out to be substantial. The red weed, the flotilla attempting to escape London, the chapters with the curate and how he dies, other set pieces, how the Martians built those huge machines -- hint: they didn't bring them from Mars. I'd forgotten how often the nameless narrator makes brief but clear reference to how the invasion ends. I found the chapter with artilleryman and his plans for the new role of humanity as pests under the Martian foot, with the possibility of eventual rebellion, especially interesting. It felt like Wells was critiquing in advance plots for invasion stories from future writers.

The Popular Library edition I read is interesting for having a Richard Powers' cover that is fairly literal but also inaccurate, since it shows four legs.

Recommended, of course, but that was a given. ( )

A classic ( )