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grayduck's review
Reviewed 4/21/2005
Annotation:
Life on Mars has become difficult for the Martians. Having sucked their planet dry, they’ve focused on the lush, undefended nineteenth-century Earth as their next home in the galaxy. Humanity is completely unprepared for an alien invasion – no mass communication, no disaster plans, nothing. The people of Earth watch in confusion and horror as strange metallic cylinders fall from the heavens. Mechanical monsters kill indiscriminately and swarm over the countryside. The reader follows one man’s struggle to stay alive as the world collapses around him. Will the human race be able to defend itself against the Martians superior technologies such as the heat ray and poisonous clouds, or are they doomed to be enslaved by the marauding invaders? H.G. Wells introduced the world to such a scenario with War of the Worlds, creating a genre and a vision of life in the universe that impacts science and entertainment even today.
Real Review:
I did enjoy War of the Worlds. I had a hard time wrapping some parts of it around my mind – for example, an alien invasion in a world without mass communication. Nobody knew what was going on. People were crawling up to the spacecraft and kicking it, people were living normal lives just outside the reach of the heat rays. If this were to happen nowadays…well, you know what would happen. Skyfox 9 and Captain Bobby Ratliff would be circling the area, the Powers That Be would be analyzing what the economic and financial effects of the invasion would be – or perhaps the world would just dissolve into a haze of frenzied panic and we’d all freak out and look to our leaders for guidance – and then we'd have a Dr. Strangelove scene.
Now I’m just ranting. But you know what I mean? Something that happens on a global scale without global communication – it’s hard to fathom nowadays. I was impressed by a lot of other things in this book too – but this is the aspect that will stick in my memory.
Annotation:
Life on Mars has become difficult for the Martians. Having sucked their planet dry, they’ve focused on the lush, undefended nineteenth-century Earth as their next home in the galaxy. Humanity is completely unprepared for an alien invasion – no mass communication, no disaster plans, nothing. The people of Earth watch in confusion and horror as strange metallic cylinders fall from the heavens. Mechanical monsters kill indiscriminately and swarm over the countryside. The reader follows one man’s struggle to stay alive as the world collapses around him. Will the human race be able to defend itself against the Martians superior technologies such as the heat ray and poisonous clouds, or are they doomed to be enslaved by the marauding invaders? H.G. Wells introduced the world to such a scenario with War of the Worlds, creating a genre and a vision of life in the universe that impacts science and entertainment even today.
Real Review:
I did enjoy War of the Worlds. I had a hard time wrapping some parts of it around my mind – for example, an alien invasion in a world without mass communication. Nobody knew what was going on. People were crawling up to the spacecraft and kicking it, people were living normal lives just outside the reach of the heat rays. If this were to happen nowadays…well, you know what would happen. Skyfox 9 and Captain Bobby Ratliff would be circling the area, the Powers That Be would be analyzing what the economic and financial effects of the invasion would be – or perhaps the world would just dissolve into a haze of frenzied panic and we’d all freak out and look to our leaders for guidance – and then we'd have a Dr. Strangelove scene.
Now I’m just ranting. But you know what I mean? Something that happens on a global scale without global communication – it’s hard to fathom nowadays. I was impressed by a lot of other things in this book too – but this is the aspect that will stick in my memory.
teelight's review
4.0
This is one of the books that changed the way I looked at literature. I read it the first time in 8th grade and forgot to eat for a whole day while I read and reread it. If you like sci-fi or just flat out great stories I recommend this one.
manxomemia's review
2.0
The issue I had with The War of the Worlds was the same issue I had with 1984: I didn't care about the protagonist. 1984 had the interesting world to make up for this, but I found that the premise of The War of the Worlds was not interesting enough to hold it's own for the entirety of a novel/novella. I enjoyed the first third quite a bit, but after that I realised that I probably would have enjoyed it more as a short story. I can understand why this is such a well-known book, given when it was written, but in the twenty-first century, I didn't find it all that interesting.
acascadeofbooks's review
3.0
I read this book on my Ipod as it was free on an app. I have seen two films of this novel and I was expecting a really great read as I really enjoyed the movies. Also it is a very short novel so it didn't take very long to read.
The story starts just as Martians invade the Earth. The story follows one man as he tries to survive and come to terms with what is happening to Earth. It is a really great idea for a novel that was written long before sci-fi was a common thing to write about.
The plot was good, it had some really good parts like all the description of the martians which must have taken some imagination to design them so fully. There were some parts that were slow because the story was retold by our main character so it wasn't a very exciting read at times.
Our main character is the narrator who never gives his name. We know some things about him but not a lot, which makes it an interesting story. He retells the character, even all the bad decisions he makes.
Overall this was a good story but it was a lot slower than the more modern novels that I normally read. Overall I rated it 3/5.
The story starts just as Martians invade the Earth. The story follows one man as he tries to survive and come to terms with what is happening to Earth. It is a really great idea for a novel that was written long before sci-fi was a common thing to write about.
The plot was good, it had some really good parts like all the description of the martians which must have taken some imagination to design them so fully. There were some parts that were slow because the story was retold by our main character so it wasn't a very exciting read at times.
Our main character is the narrator who never gives his name. We know some things about him but not a lot, which makes it an interesting story. He retells the character, even all the bad decisions he makes.
Overall this was a good story but it was a lot slower than the more modern novels that I normally read. Overall I rated it 3/5.
valereads2105's review
2.0
This book was ok, I guess. I read it for school so it wasn't something I would usually pick up.
I didn't like how the book ended. The disease just seemed really lazy and abrupt. I was hoping for a battle, or at least the humans intentionally killing the Martians. It would've been better if they had discovered that this disease would kill the Martians and then deliberately planted it to kill them. It seem lazy how he just stumbled upon some dead Martians and that was that.
This book also took me 5 months to read. For context I read David Copperfield (a 900 page book) in the same amount of time.
I didn't like how the book ended.
This book also took me 5 months to read. For context I read David Copperfield (a 900 page book) in the same amount of time.
cliveuk's review
2.0
Thought I would see how much I remembered of this story, but I found much of it to be quite bland and mostly a tale of travelling through places to get somewhere else while all around was getting scorched. Gave up half way through. Much prefer the Jeff Lynne double album version.
alexvb's review
3.0
Once you get past the difficult/old English words, this book is compelling and at times frightening! Very enjoyable read!
darwin8u's review
4.0
Brilliant, tight and prescient. Wells is working about 3 themes right on top of each other. He makes us the rabbits, the ants, the colonized and is able to explore not just themes of technology and evolution, but colonialism and imperialism.
katiemoten's review
3.0
I wanted to read this book before the BBC adaptation airs later this year, and I suspect that the adaptation will make some changes, if not to the basic idea, then to the characters.
The reason I think so is because the characters aren't all that compelling. The unnamed narrator reports his experiences of the Martian occupation, and, while some of what he relates is harrowing, and his reports on the Martians' physiology and ways are interesting, you never have any doubt of his safety and survival. I suspect the previous adapters of this novel have felt pretty much as I do, since they've all, as far as I know, changed the characters around the Martian invasion somewhat. Even the BBC adaptation, I believe, is introducing new characters, and expanding Oglivy's role in the story.
For being called The War of the Worlds it's not a very exciting or expansive book. It should more accurately be called "The Martian Invasion of England", because that's what it is. It's a very anglocentric book, and it's a little infuriating to read about London being the greatest city on Earth. True, at one time, it probably was, but reading that now dates this story in a way which is kind of unfortunate, given that Wells was ahead of his time in so many ways.
Despite my issues, there is something of a criticism of colonialism, or it might just be the narrator's wishful thinking that the British will be kinder and more tolerant, now that they've been subject to invasion by a more sophisticated enemy. He suggests that the war has taught the British pity for those who suffer under their dominion, but I think that might be wishful thinking.
An interesting idea, and new for its time, I think, but not the most exciting story for the subject matter.
The reason I think so is because the characters aren't all that compelling. The unnamed narrator reports his experiences of the Martian occupation, and, while some of what he relates is harrowing, and his reports on the Martians' physiology and ways are interesting, you never have any doubt of his safety and survival. I suspect the previous adapters of this novel have felt pretty much as I do, since they've all, as far as I know, changed the characters around the Martian invasion somewhat. Even the BBC adaptation, I believe, is introducing new characters, and expanding Oglivy's role in the story.
For being called The War of the Worlds it's not a very exciting or expansive book. It should more accurately be called "The Martian Invasion of England", because that's what it is. It's a very anglocentric book, and it's a little infuriating to read about London being the greatest city on Earth. True, at one time, it probably was, but reading that now dates this story in a way which is kind of unfortunate, given that Wells was ahead of his time in so many ways.
Despite my issues, there is something of a criticism of colonialism, or it might just be the narrator's wishful thinking that the British will be kinder and more tolerant, now that they've been subject to invasion by a more sophisticated enemy. He suggests that the war has taught the British pity for those who suffer under their dominion, but I think that might be wishful thinking.
An interesting idea, and new for its time, I think, but not the most exciting story for the subject matter.
kagetsukai's review
3.0
Perhaps this isn't the newest and shinest of sci-fi, but it was amazing nonetheless. The technology described was rather unimpressive; it was the raw emotions of the characters that kept me reading. What a great classic!