The War of the Worlds

The War Of The Worlds

H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds is a science fiction classic set in the late 1800’s written to challenge the possibility of alternate and superior life forms in a time of total ignorance among the general public. The book is split into two, how the Martians conquered earth and what happened after London was invaded and how people survived.

In Wells’ vision of a world overthrown by superior being from Mars we follow the story of an unnamed narrator who discovers the threat of the Martians. We follow him throughout the story exploring the surrounding areas of London. This allows for the reader to see the apocalyptic London from a personal perspective. However this is poorly executed due to the lack of emotive language and direct speech.

The book starts in an observatory where our narrator sees what others would view as comets or asteroids, however, he believes that it is a weapon being fired from Mars, although he may appear delusional the story later reveals that he is correct to a certain extent. This is shown in a very obvious way which makes the book feel lazily written as very soon after his hypothesis is made the Martians arrive on earth leaving all but our scientist and some colleagues bewildered. The case that the Martians arrive in is described as pod like; this is a sign of the incomprehensibility of alternate life forms amongst the general public at the time of writing. Once the pods begin to smoke causing death, the crowd surrounding the pods day and night begin to increase. However they are now kept at a safe distance, this is true until the Martians decide to leave the pod and grow to be a mechanical octopus like creature. This is likely to be inspired from a young H.G. Wells visiting Crystal Palace and seeing an octopus or ‘devil fish’ as it was described as by the Times in an advertisement; an octopus was seen as horrifying which is probably the reasoning behind the Martians description. As we learn of the shape of the Martians we also learn of what is later referred to as the ‘black smoke’ a deadly gas expelled from the Martian. This is in addition to the heat ray used to kill several of the crowd and start an arson attack on the town. Despite this the news is not accepted outside of London as it is seen as completely unbelievable. As the story unveils in book one more pods arrive and therefore Martians claim more territory. This leads to mass migration amongst the town’s population, many leave for northern counties and the richer leave for France (accept for our narrator and a hussar left behind).

This is where we start book two where the reader sits through 60 pages of disappointment, and never will a book be so hard to finish. If you choose to read this book and somehow get through book two I commend you. I say this as the book consists of the narrator talking about himself and his situation and nothing else, this is until he is reunited with the hussar from book one. After a brief conversation the hussar declares his intent to kill the Martians. Then suddenly after the narrator leaves the entire Martian population die within two lines. TWO LINES! He then states that he believes that it was due to an allergic reaction or intolerance to something on Earth or in its atmosphere. Although this is a viable explanation it’s not what you would expect from a thrilling Science Fiction novel. He is then reunited with wife and cousins in France and as the saying goes ‘life goes on’.

If you are considering reading this book I would discourage you strongly as it will leave you feeling nothing but let down. There is no ‘Ta-Dah’ moment in this book and there is just no climax. There is no connection or empathy created between the reader and the characters due to a lack of personality or name for that matter.

The War of the Worlds is 192 pages of monotonous literature and in one word is simply boring.

by Alex Nicholas