The War of the Worlds

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Summary: Martians are attacking the Earth!
Review: "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own...." Thus begins The War of the Worlds, written by science-fiction mastermind H. G. Wells, who brought you other incredible novels, such as The Time Machine.

This suspenseful story of Martians invading Earth is full of surprises. The narrator tells of his encounters with the powerful Martians and their stunning technologically advanced weapons and machines, which range from iron-melting heat rays to death serving war machines.

This novel has its ups and downs. One down is that the author sometimes describes the surroundings too much. But, the book does have the eerieness of a suspenseful book, keeping you on the edge of your seat, wondering what will happen next. Will mankind survive? Will the invading Martians take over the Earth? Will the Martians destroy the Earth? Find out when you read the spectacular book, The War of the Worlds.

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Summary: My Review of The War of the Worlds
Review: The War of the Worlds was assigned to me by my teacher. I am 11 years old going into the sixth grade. At first this book was a little hard to understand but once you get down to the basis of this story you will be truly amazed. HG Wells is a great writer who uses a lot of depth and description. I suggest that you read this sci-fi enchantment.

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Summary: Lacks plot!
Review: The author, H. C. Wells, takes one of the most interesting concepts and creates one of the most boring books imaginable. The book is short on worthwhile ideas. Yet, it exhibits an abundance of long, runaway sentences. I found myself hoping that H. C. Wells might, at some point in the story, start to exhibit some of the interesting flare of his later counterpart ... Orson Wells.

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Summary: Golden Oldie
Review: I've never cared for Wells' social/political views, but if read as pure science fiction his books (War of the Worlds, Time Machine, etc.) are outstanding. They have stood the test of time.

A reviewer below alluded to a comment by Isaac Asimov that alien races advanced enough to cross the galaxy would also be more emotionally and morally advanced, and therefore would never think of conquering other worlds. If Asimove said this, it confirms my long-held belief that he was a pompous blowhard. Technological advances = moral advances? Right -- that explains why we are so much more morally developed than the Stone Age people. A much better reason not to fear alien invasion is that, if there are other civilizations out there (read "Rare Earth" if you think that's a given, by the way), many of them would be thousands of years older than ours, and therefore would have found us long before now. If they haven't invaded yet, they probably won't.

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Summary: Sensationalist drivel for the masses
Review: This book was boring and depressing at the same time. A shallow plot that is supposed to bring fear but fails completely. This book might have been good when it first came out decades ago, but it fails to grab attention now. As a plus, it probably broke new ground in science fiction literature at the time, but this matters very little to me personally. I read this book as it was part of the Masterpieces of Science Fiction Collection from Easton Press, and I did not want to throw down $40-$50 on a title I did not enjoy or value thoroughly. Instead, for this genre, I recommend Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game", "Dune", by Frank Herbert, "Stranger in a Strange Land", by Heinlein, or "Flowers for Algernon", by Daniel Keyes.

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Summary: A Great Story
Review: I am not a science fiction fan but this was a good book. The way it is written and were it takes place it is just a good story. Even if you despise science fiction read this book it is good.

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Summary: The First, and Perhaps Still The Best
Review: As has alrady been noted by another reviewer, this was THE VERY FIRST alien invasion book ever published, and one of the first sci-fi books for that matter. And after over a century of faceless and laughable invasion stories, it remains perhaps the best of them all. The only book that I can see that is as good is Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End.

It starts out somewhat slow, but once you get into the story it is very hard to put it down, and believe me you will be glad of the fact.

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Summary: Like you've never read it before
Review: I've always loved the movie version of this book so when our school library obtained a copy I immediately began to read it. I find it a truly wonderful story of a "doomed" Earth trying to fight off a very advanced race of Martians. None of their weapons or means will work. The Martains are unstopable,... or are they?

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Summary: The Attack from Mars
Review: This is a story that i would recomend for almost all sci fi and alien fans. This book is about Martians coming down to earth and laying siege to England. I liked the story and content of the book but in a few places I found it dull and a bit confusing to read. But I think that this was an amazing story for how long ago it was written. There is some very technologicly advanced things in it. Despite the dull parts I really enjoyed this book.

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Summary: A masterpiece
Review: I enjoyed reading book for several reasons. Probably the main one was that it was beautifully written. You could just imagine the martians controlling those monstrous tripods, blasting buildings with their heat ray. When I saw the film, I was kind of disappointed that they set it in the the 50's rather than in the 1890's. The book also reminded me of human fraility and that we are not as invincible as we think.