The War of the World by H.G. Wells

Typical, Imaginative, Perplexed

Fiction based on the 19th century London, Britain, invaded by Martians.

Genre Science Fiction


Plot Preview

 When I planned to read "The War of the Worlds," it was my first time to encounter typical type of alien invading story. Since I had seen "Tom Cruise" starred movie originated from this novel, I could expect what would happen, and assume the plot summaries. However, when I flipped the first chapter of the book, the confidence turned to astonishment that most major events I believed to be the truth were totally different from the movie. The unnamed protagonist does not evacuate with his children, and he was an astronomer detecting Mars. Even more surprising fact was that there are several parts contributing the epic of protagonist's brother. The book contains a lot of interesting stories that were not revealed in a movie; therefore, I say, people who have seen the movie should read this imaginative book to know more specific details, and reversing episodes.

 My personal comment on this book is both critical and optimistic. First of all, this book is a typical type of SF fantasies. Thus, it contains materials that can be considered as boring repetitions by readers. To prevent being called a cliche, I thought the book needs to contain originality about items associated with aliens. Except the boring development of the plot, other aspects of the book were fine. The descriptions leading imaginative illustrations were enough to incur my curiosity. Furthermore, implied meanings to criticize materialsm of people in that era were giving a good lesson to people that nothing can be replaced with life.


3.5/5