War of the Worlds
A ChessCentral E-Book
This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G.
Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells
readers that "No one would have believed in the last years of the
nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by
intelligences greater than man's..."
Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd
atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just
outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in
Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the
pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true
nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying
waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the
countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as
England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator
describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and
how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. -Chris Engler |
