The War of the Worlds

213 Pages

Imaginary wars and battles
Life on other planets
Mars (Planet)
Martians
Science fiction
Space warfare
War stories

Summary

The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells is a science fiction novel that explores the conflict between humans and an alien invasion from Mars. Published in 1898, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is narrated by an unnamed protagonist in southern England who details his experiences during the Martian invasion. Featuring themes of existentialism, British imperialism, and human resilience, the story is a seminal work that has influenced many subsequent alien invasion stories and films.

Famous Quotes

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 and yet as mortal as his own. - Narrator

Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. - Narrator

It never was a war, any more than there's war between man and ants. - Narrator

We must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. - Narrator