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Ebook239 pages3 hours
The War of the Worlds
By H.G. Wells
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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About this ebook
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of H. G. Wells's famous novel about a Martian invasion. To celebrate, we are reissuing our adaptation of this sci-fi classic with brand-new cover art.
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Author
H.G. Wells
H.G. Wells is considered by many to be the father of science fiction. He was the author of numerous classics such as The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The War of the Worlds, and many more.
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Reviews for The War of the Worlds
Rating: 3.766520330536913 out of 5 stars
4/5
3,874 ratings146 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There isn't much use for the Humilation game in my regard, there are always blind spots and blank areas. I read this one today over three hours, pausing to admire its technique. It is a prescient novel, much as critical opinion concurs, one I find so haunting in its reach.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Published in 1898, three years after his famed debut The Time Machine, Wells presents a first-person account of a Martian invasion. By today's standards, the narrative feels detached. But the characterisation and concept shine. You meet a brave woman, an overwhelmed curate, a weak soldier. These very human interactions are just as welcome as descriptions of aliens and a London falling to pieces. A strong and thoughtful ending. Recommended.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5“the Martians are coming!”And they have Heat-Rays and Black Smoke to kick some English tushies! And they do!But as exciting as this all sounds, this book is rather boring. It's mostly about running and hiding and being frightened out of one's mind. No "war" to speak of. But lots of histrionics. Lots. I really wish I could have smacked the narrator's face. Lots. Also, the localities are very casually mentioned, and as I'm not familiar with those places, it made no impact on me whatsoever. In fact, the listing of places became a big part of my boredom. Where is he running? Then where? Ah, who gives a damn. In fact, I rooted for the Martians! Dang.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed this as an audiobook. I saw the Tom Cruise movie and so I was comparing this to the movie. I don't think I would have wanted aliens invading Earth back in the time when there was horse and buggy and no cell phones and the weaponry wasn't as sophisticated as it is now. very entertaining for a long car ride.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I liked this quite a bit. Familiar with the story, of course, thanks to various other dramatizations, so it was nice to finally read this. The second half is quite eerie.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Arresting cover design, illustration 'a scene from George Pal's Paramount Technicolor production War of the Worlds, designed by Al Nozaki'...Green Martian invaders on garish yellow and red background.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed this quick, classic novel. I knew the story already from the many adaptations in popular culture, but this book was interesting enough, and suspenseful enough, to keep me interested and turning pages. It is always fun to read the original story as well to compare it to the movies I have seen dealing with it. The Tom Cruise movie I enjoyed very much, and it did keep with the general themes and plots of the book. A good read I would recommend to any fans of science fiction.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
While I've listened to the radio play, and watched the old black and white movie based on Mr. Wells' novel, this is the first time I've actually read it. I very much enjoyed it.
Victorian novels in general seem to strive for verisimilitude. This one does as well, and succeeds. It's very believable.
The movie and, especially, the radio plays also had a strong quality of verisimilitude. They're both set in the US, with slightly different specific actions, but the changes are there to suit the different mediums.
Like [book:Time Machine], War of the Worlds touches on some very large issues of both the nature of humanity, and where humanity could go. Much to my surprise, neither novel is too heavy handed about it. It really is a natural out-welling of the story. I can't tell if the philosophy or the plot came first.
Now I'm craving both the movie and the radio play :) - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spannende klassieker, zonder meer. Ondanks zijn mythische status zeker geen topper.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5It's been a while since I've seen the Tom Cruise movie adaptation, which was good when reading the book. I enjoyed the story about Martians invading earth. Very descriptive and felt very anxious while our main character fled and escaped barely from the aliens. The thing I didn't like were the notes explaining to me where all the places where by London or near London. I really didn't need a geography lesson nor did I care. Besides that irritation, it is a good read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A great,exciting,awesome, book!!! :D
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells may have inspired the movie but they are two completely different thing. The book takes place in 1800s England where something horrific happens. The Martians home planet of Mars is dying. So they pack up and go to the closest habitable planet... Earth. The un-named narrator probably has the worst luck and your just around for the wild ride that would suck to be in.In the time period that the story takes place in people never even had the idea of extraterrestrial life until it sat on their front steps. Wells did an excellent job of showing the death and fear that had a very strong presence through the whole ordeal. Since it takes place in the 1800s the narrator talks like he is from the 1800s so some of it can be hard to follow.The only things that I would criticize is the way that Wells would almost seem to choose a word and then use it a ridiculous amount of times. Such as in the beginning he use the word scarcely a lot and some variation go the word fancy. And the other thing is the repetition of events. The same thing would happen over and over just different places with different circumstances. Otherwise the book was better than other books that I have read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A landmark of literature that still holds up. It is an extremely impressive bit of prognostication.Book one especially, reads like a newspaper report of the Martian invasion. Sixteen years before the beginning of the first world war, Wells describes gas attacks, mechanized warfare and the Blitzkrieg. He also describes a bit of Martian evolution, draws parallels between the invaders and the impact of the British empire on the inhabitants of the lands they conquered.The invasion is described in minute detail. I can imagine how gleeful Wells must have been as he described the destruction of locations he already knew in such detail. And I can only imagine the terror readers at the time felt reading about the effortless conquering of what was the capitol of the mightiest power on Earth. The Martians aren't interested in communication or negotiation. They show up and knock the defenses aside without concern.However, for me there just wasn't enough connection to our unnamed narrator. The ideas in the story were spectacularly impressive. But I wish there was more... humanness. The narrator is trying to get back to his wife, but even he admits he isn't trying particularly hard.In the second book, the narrator spends some time locked up in a collapsed house with an increasingly unbalanced individual. This is directly beside a Martian landing site.This section of the book, while still detailing the Martian invasion adds some suspense and real connection with the narrator. I wish some of that feeling were sprinkled through the rest of the book.My complaint was, for me, a serious one. It impacted me as I read through the book. Nonetheless, the book should be ready by all. It's impact on literature is massive.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51950's martians invade earth. I suppose for the 1950's this was a great sci-fi book. The writing is lovely and descriptive, even though the plot advances slowly. I feel that many of the sub-plots are never developed. I read the free Kindle-version from Amazon and at about the 70% mark pages were out of order, repeated, etc, for about 7-10 pages.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I liked this one a lot more than The Time Machine by Mr. Wells. I'll always remember this one, rather unfortunately, for events having nothing to do with it. I finished 5 or 10 minutes before some explosions at the plant I work on and wound up locked in the building for about 6 hours. Kind of funny now in retrospect.But otherwise I enjoyed it. I liked the fast pace and the surprising ending. He had kind of alluded to it throughout the book but the sudden feeling was well done. I also really liked the ending with his family, I didn't expect that. For the length it was really good. Definitely recommend if you're going to be reading some SF classics.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Another of Wells's short, pithy, disturbing novels, in which the narrator does not dissemble his fear and terror at the catastrophes that befall him. All the action occurs in and around London. To a resident, or one more familiar with London and its environs, the descriptions of the destruction wrought in these well-to-do suburbs and right into the center of London, could have been quite disturbing. Wells is a little too obtrusive in his likening of the invaded English people to various animals, ants, sheep, etc. I got his point well before he gave it up.It may seem a bit Anglo-centric to have the Martians invade England so exclusively, but at that time England was _the_ dominant power, so it wasn't such a bad tactic.Wells' description of a desperate population in flight are excellent, and even though his prose and allowed subjects are Victorian, deeply ominous.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It took me over a hundred years but I finally got around to reading this novel.
Wells certainly had an incredible imagination and this novel is a fine example of that. At times I found it hard to believe this was written so long ago. Seemed a lot less dated than most books from that era.
I enjoyed the story and I am sorry it took me so long to read it. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It has been a few years since i first read this and I was struck at how skillfully the story was told without ever mentioning a name - I think by doing this Wells made it far more relatable (you put yourself into the role of the protagonist and his brother). Also I can see now how strongly he was pushing evolution as a scientific theme - It is hard to imagine exactly how far we have come in our understanding of science in such a short time until you read something like this.
Wells predicted things that were unimaginable at the time: A conflict involving the whole world, chemical warfare (black gas), Flying machines, mechanical devices capable of almost animal movement (something we are still getting to) and the suggestion of interstellar flight.
The way Wells imagined some of these things were accomplished (even I, with my limited knowledge of science) know would not be possible - such as a cannon firing the martian rockets at earth and all of them landing in such small area - are easy to criticise but the fact is he extrapolated his story from the cutting edge of science in his day.
Two world wars have brought many of the not so nice things that he imagined to life and we didn't even need martians to do it. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Excellent story. Kind of outdated its writing style but enjoyable read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Maybe it's just these Trumpian times but this novel struck a chord with me. Really enjoyed it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The fact that this was written in 1890's is simply astonishing!! Have seen both versions of movie of course and while they were good; I like the original story better (with the exception of the whole London being the best city in the world thang); all sci fi fans should read this
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5its a classic story, interesting to read it after the album, and the film and film.... it was hard work in places, but i enjoyed it.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Obviously a classic, but the novel has been bettered by future adaptations (radio, film, etc.). The book has some dull moments, and the ending (which some adaptations have made into an amazing twist) is squandered in the book. Having your protagonist wonder "perhaps X will save humanity" makes it much less interesting when, yes, in the end, X saves humanity.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spannende klassieker, zonder meer. Ondanks zijn mythische status zeker geen topper.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The classic tale that is now legendary for causing a panic as a radio play many years later. Wells was fascinated by the "canals" on Mars, and that shows in his story of Martians attacking the world. One place where this story has an edge on so many of the genre is the way Wells manages to use an obvious scientific fact as a resolution to the story. So often science fiction contains much more fiction than science.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A brilliant science fiction novel that captures well the tension in Europe of the time. With our current scientific knowledge it is relatively easy to pick holes in the plot but provided you can suspend your disbelief you are in for an enjoyable read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loved this book. Bit slow and lengthy at times but a great plot and great theme to it. Hardcore sci fi right here. :)
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great story!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reading this book gave me the same impression that watching Casablanca did for the first time. Everything felt clichéd, until I realized that this is the source of the clichés. Once I put this in the context it deserves, I realized what an impressive work it really is. At first, I thought it was an interesting choice to put the aliens in ground-based ships, like flying saucers with spidery tripod legs, and then having them actively work on the technology to make a flying machine. But then I realized that this was first published in 1897. That's six years before the Wright brothers' first flight. How’s that for context? This was before the horrors of the Blitz, before the use of chemical weapons, and before heat weapons. That's pretty amazing. However, there's not much outside the plot-driven action in this story. The only characters that even receive names are two women (and one's husband, who never appears) that the narrator's brother encounters. There's no background on the characters or much about them as people at all. Yet locations in and around London are all mentioned by name. My guess is that this allowed contemporary readers—likely predominately educated people in London who subscribed to the Pearson’s Magazine—to more easily slip into the world, making the story even more dramatic. For today’s readers, this isn't as effective because the language, manners, and style are already pretty foreign to us. The version of this I "read" was narrated on CD, and that made the language a lot easier to get through. I would also recommend reading the Wikipedia page on this, which provides a lot of good information, although it's a bit spoiler-y if you don’t know how the story ends.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What an imaginaton! Love all his books.