The whole idea of it is that Mars sends troops of aliens in giant tripedal war machines to pretty much conquer the earth. They spend the first part of the invasion very efficiently killing people and destroying human infrastructure. It's terrifying no matter what century it happens in, but I was particularly surprised to see this famous story taking place in the 1800's.
The imagination of H. G. Wells always blows my mind. He saw giant, alien, walking battle tanks roaming around and killing people long before we even had television. It's no wonder that it was made into a blockbuster movie with Ton Cruise in 2005, proving that the story, even in the modern day, entirely works.
Now the book isn't perfect. Much of the story is told from the first person perspective of one man who sadly spends most of his time nowhere near the actual action. He has to relate most of it from second hand information, but a good deal of the story, he is alone and going mad as the world crumbles around him. I kept wanting to see what was going on around the world with the invasion, but sadly I had to endure just this one person's limited perspective.
The latter complaint does not in any way ruin the book or the story. It's a great book and I'll already shoot a recommendation for it right now, but you need to know that this is mainly the singular perspective of one man which does, to its credit, include exciting second hand accounts of others. It's not just a simple narrative of everything that happened that shows all the details of the invasion. If you really want that, you might see the movies which goes into the perspectives of not only the civilians but also the military.
But I do want to again point out how amazing this book is to be set in the 19th century where people were still using horse and cart. Simply amazing that the book itself exists at all. Read it.
This blog was written on June 25, 2023.
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Not only was it insightful of him to envision fighting machines, but they are tripods. They look like creatures but not of this world. The Martians have clusters of tentacles for hands and this is reflected in their technology. Their machines pick up weapons and use them as if giant infantry. The heat ray, for example, was not built into the machine. It was picked up and used like a gun.
ReplyDeleteHow did this book even exist in the 10th century?
DeleteIt was ahead of its time. Many classics such as V: the Miniseries and Independence Day were inspired by it.
DeleteI saw the original 1953 movie when I was very young and it gave me nightmares haha. I finally got up the nerve to read the book when I was older and enjoyed it, though I agree the perspective is limited. The imagination of H.G. Wells was amazing, the fact he imagined all this without any real real life comparison is a testament to that.
ReplyDeleteThat original movie is surprisingly good for not really capturing the aliens from the book. I guess it's more about what's happening then the looks of everything.
DeleteHis perspective is amazing, and the story is immersive. You can envision what would happen, and it is frightening. In spite of our technology, the aliens would pose a real threat.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that it was written at all was the best part of it, but the perspective was not as good as I would want it to be.
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