Book Review_War of the Worlds

War of The Worlds

By H.G.Wells

Review by Chen HuangYan

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by H.G.Wells. It describes the experiences of an unnamed narrator who travels through the suburbs of London as the Earth is invaded by Martians. It is one of the earliest stories that details a conflict between mankind and an alien race.

The War of the Worlds is split into two parts, Book one: The Coming of the Martians, and Book two: The Earth under the Martians. The novel is narrated by a writer of philosophical articles who throughout the narrative struggles to reunite with his wife, while witnessing the Martians rampaging through the southern English counties. Part one also features the tale of his brother, who accompanies two women to the coast in the hope of escaping England as it is invaded.

The narrator is at an observatory in Ottershaw when explosions are witnessed on Mars, causing interest among the scientific community. Later a meteor lands on Horsell Common, southwest of London, close to the narrator's home in Woking. He is among the first to discover that the object is a space-going artificial cylinder.

When the cylinder opens, the Martians — bulky, octopus like creatures the size of a bear — briefly emerge, show difficulty in coping with the Earth's atmosphere, and rapidly retreat into the cylinder. A human deputation moves towards the cylinder, but the Martians incinerate them with a heat- ray weapon, before beginning the construction of alien machinery.

The narrator incredibly escapes the terrible ordeals while the weak dies under the martians feet.

I liked the part where the aliens from Mars, armed with heat rays and black gas, begin exterminating humankind and the narrator goes through terrible ordeals and remained unscathed, except for some slight burns and scars. It was definitely a thrilling and scary adventure.