H. G. Wells Books

I've played many minis games in my life (Warhammer, 40k, LotR, etc...) and I have to say this original of H.G.Wells is still one of the best rule systems out there! It's easy to understand, easy to use, and easy to get immersed into. No dice, no ambiguosness, just straight forward fun. You can play a day long battle royale of many armys, or a quick 20 min skirmish between to friends. It's also a fun look at history as the pictures of grown men, in full suits and straw hats, laying on the grass playing from the turn of the century are priceless!

Wells is the man! Thank you Skirmisher for putting this classic into my hands. It's a great family game - not too complicated, but not inane. Great game to play after a particularly rough loss of your favorite football team - you get instant revenge on the enemy!

It is immensely appropriate that I review `Little Wars' by H. G. Wells on the day Stephen Spielberg's remake of a film version of Wells' `War of the Worlds' opens in theatres around the country. I have known of Wells' little book for at least 45 years, when I first became interested in wargames and searched out titles on the subject which, in 1960, seemed to be few and far between.

The early sixtys were the heydey of Avalon-Hill's tabletop sized board games with little cardboard counters representing everything from a single sargeant to an army corp. These games grew out of the minatures rules which would later contribute, along with the popularity of the `Lord of the Rings' novel to the creation of `Dungeons and Dragons' roleplaying games. Both Avalon-Hill styled and Dungeon and Dragons styled boardgames have been partially superceded by computerized versions of these simulations and, while I still fondly fondle my chit representing the 82nd airborne division as it participates in the Normandy invasion, I get much more satisfaction out of a good computerized version of the same campaign.

And yet, Wells' simplified minatures rules with no more than a few dozen pieces per side and firing success being determined by real live aiming, physics of ballistics, and the effect of wind deliver the same kind of charm evoked by that old Robert Lewis Stevenson poem of the young boy with his toy soldiers navigating the hills formed by his blankets lying over his outstretched legs.

I am not intimately familiar with minatures rules, but what I do know tells me that they are quite complicated with lots of tables based on the role of dice. Wells' rules are much simpler. And, he is not deeply involved in realistic landscapes which are so interesting to minatures hobbyists. Not a word is said here about cleaning and painting raw lead or tin soldiers. All our troops here are fully clothed straight out of the box. All the landscapes are created by nothing more complicated than the kind of plain wooden building blocks I so coveted when I was a kid. These are embellished with the outsides of houses painted or drawn on the plain side of wallpaper which is then folded and glued around the blocks. There is not interest with any ability to hide inside any of these houses, as this would simply slow things down and make the rules more complicated. The only other concern is that if rivers are part of the landscape that there are enough fording and bridged points to not funnel things too much into a single choke point.

The rules only deal with three kinds of troops, infantry, cavalry, and artillery. As this book was written in 1913, and Europe had largely been at peace for almost a hundred years since the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, it is not surprising that the strategies evolving from these three types of troops are strongly similar to Napoleonic battles. As this was the period of muskets, long range infantry fire was remarkably ineffective compared to the destruction caused by Napoleonic era artillery. To a person versed in 20th century wars, it is strange to see the lineup of forces at, for example, the Battle of Waterloo, where the guns were in front of the main lines of infantry rather than far to the rear. This was before the age of indirect artillery fire, which just began in the American Civil War and it's great mortars.

So, the only way our small forces can inflict damage at a distance is by little cannons which fire real live wooden projectiles and, a soldier is killed only if you actually succeed in knocking the little fellow down with the wooden pellet.

A similar combat simulation which existed in parallel with Wells' and other minatures' rules is the kind of wargame simulations invented by the German General Staff with the very German name of `Kriegspiel' or War Play. An expert in English Kriegspiel practice compares this professional exercize with Wells' game and finds the latter far more fun, as the Sandhurst (English Army Military Acadamy) version is weighed down with rulings from referees and the kind of tables of outcomes so familiar to modern manual wargame rules.

Remembering that this book was written in 1912-1913, it is chilling to read Wells' final assessment of the lack of proficiency of professional military men at this little game. The most chillingly Strangelovean statement is that `You have only to play at Little Wars three or four times to realize what a blundering thing Great War must be'. This was written in 1913!!!

One may be discouraged from reading this book by the prospect of reading 120 pages of game rules. This is not what this book is about. All the details of the rules are compressed into the last six pages. Everything which goes before is the stuff which is written to bring out the little boy in us all. And, the author knows nothing of politically correct gender washing, as he is firmly committed to the idea that this is an activity for little boys, and maybe girls who think like little boys.

A minor classic worthy of it's famous author.

This is really worth picking up. A great book and a good time.

I've been an avid wargamer for 15 years. I'd heard of the rules set down by Wells but hadn't gotten around to reading them. I am glad I did. It took me back to the days of playing with toy soldiers in the back yard. It was neat to see how move, fire, and cover rules came to be. Unit integrity, hand to hand...its all there in its infancy. Its funny how Wells and his sons tackled the same issues that current game designers have to face. The book is a piece of wargaming history and any self respecting Grognard should have a copy of this on their shelf. It would be fun to read and share with children as well.

This book is, quite simply, the best collection of 19th and early-20th century short fiction of the dark variety in existence. First published in the 1940s, this single (albeit fat) volume is a goldmine of the roots of modern horror, a great way to see where today's horror heavyweights got their inspiration and influence.

Some authors whose stories appear within: Bierce, Blackwood, Dickens, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Hemingway, James (both Henry & M.R.), Kipling, Lovecraft, Machen, Poe, Wells, and many more, a good mixture of horror genre regulars and more conventional or 'literary' authors to whom dark fiction was a departure from the norm. If many of those above names are unfamiliar to you and you consider yourself a fan of dark fiction, you owe it to yourself to read this book.

[Sidenote: The book also contains two of my all-time favorite short stories from two slightly lesser-known authors: Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game," and W.W. Jacob's "The Monkey's Paw." As far as I know, this is the only single volume that includes both. The latter story is, in my humble opinion, THE most perfect scary story of all time.]

Once again: Wagner & Wise's collection is the best thing of its kind.

If you're looking for a little fear on your pallet, this book will dish it out in buckets. The authors are old world craftsmen who wrote these stories on dark and stormy nights. As you read, the wind will howl, dead children will laugh, and the scurry of rats will make you look around your room. Drink a glass of wine, eat dark chocolate, and curl up to this one in bed. Dead men do write good tales.

This is yet another one of the books that was required for my Arts & Humanities class "The Horror Story"...I must say that I'm quite glad that I was introduced to this novel.

This book houses some of the greatest horror stories since the genre came into existence. I have a new appreciation for Edgar Allen Poe. Algernon Blackwood is an AMAZING writer, quite possibly my new favorite. There is even a story written by O. Henry!

This book could easily be considered a bible among those who are horror-genre fans. I can't say much else about this book other than IN MY OPINION it is worth the money you will spend on it and the time you will spend reading it.

They quickly notified me when they were shipping it and it showed up fast. The book arrived in excellent shape. I am very pleased with the level of service provided.

There's little to add to what earlier commenters have written. But I do want to note that not only are the stories themselves awesome, but the collection as a whole serves as a broad and useful introduction to spooky stories. Many representative authors of the 'old school' are included, like Sheridan Le Fanu, M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Benson, and the much neglected Oliver Onions. Lovecraft is, of course, there, too. The editor couldn't have chosen better examples to inspire readers to seek out more of the represented authors' works.

It was fun reading the original, after seeing both movies. Lots of details, inner thoughts not possible otherwise. Very thought provoking. Loved the Gory illustrations.

Ellie Lezak
October 9, 2007

This book was no doubt the best science fiction book I have ever read. H.G. Wells does a amazing job recreating a book that has been done by many authors, into the type of story that has you on the edge of your seat, never wanting to put the book down because you just have to know what comes next. In this book, the main character who stays anonymous by name is a normal simple man, not any really any different from any of the other people in this time, but there is one difference, this man happens to know, how to survive. What to look for and what to stay away from, who to trust and who has to go. And how to rebuild something that was destroyed, so that there was nothing left. One normal night but one twist, what seems to be smoke in space coming from mars? For ten days, at the same time every night, the same smoke appears. And exactly 10 days after he 1st say the smoke a green light heading right for earth not to far from his house. Days. The day after the asteroid land no one really pays attention to it but it is mainly the noises inside that attract them. Even if they new what the future had in store for them. There would probably be no preventing fate from doing what was going to be done. Battling the fate of everyone around him this man manages to live, and start over again just like everyone else.

In H.G. Wells's writing, he does a amazing job to capture the seen, and make it so the reader can actually imagine what the situation would be like. And put them self's in the moment. There were only 2 things that I did not like about this book. At some points it would just go on, about the same thing, just a list of different things, and than it would happen again. And the only other thing that I didn't like was the ending. I've always thought that the ending of a book should be fun and exiting, and wrap up the whole story. But the ending to this book wasn't the best it explained a few things and than there was one food scene and it ended. But over all I would rate this book 4 stars out of five and I defiantly recommend it for all ages.

First thing I have to say is what great scientific imagination for a book written in the late 1800's. I mean they didnt even have cars yet and Mr. Wells is writing about partical beams and biological warfare. 2nd is I was actually surprised at how much the recent movie used from the book. I didnt care for the movie as much as I did the original version but it was much more faithful to the book than I'd ever imagined. If you your a fan of either of the two movies or just want a very good sci fi book to read I highly recommend this book. The language at times is dated being written at the turn of the century but it's still a quick and easy read.

I read this book because I was curious how close or incredibly far the movie had stuck to it. I was quite surprised to discover, that while the movie's main character couldn't be more different, the plot is almost identical in spirit. Spielberg didn't create all those different modes of suspense, he just channelled them from Wells. First we have the discovery, then the initial panic, then the mob mentality, then hydrophobic, claustrophobic, and xenophobic situations that are chilling. Granted all these circumstances are updated into the 21st century. I was impressed by how many details were included (the redweed particularly).

The book is better than the movie in two aspects. First off, the scene in the cellar with the main character and curate. I've talked to a lot of people who felt that the execution of Tim Robbin's character in the movie was not just and unnecesary. The book handles this much better-"with one last touch of humanity"

The ending of the movie is absurd. You don't care that the son is still alive because he annoyed us so much with his whining. Then you are let down when there is no true reconciliation between the broken family. In the book (PLEASE STOP HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT YET) you barely meet the wife, and deep down, you are just sure she is still alive, but their reunion does not seem fabricated, it seems somehow eerie and almost gives you chills.

I liked this book mainly because it's science fiction. I liked the martions and the detail the writer used. I liked the interesting words used by the writer. It was illustrated well.

Maybe it's not the first of the civ building type games, but it's the first rule set for those games. Played between H.G. Wells' kids, with him as moderator, this nation versus nation in combat and comerce game is still fun to play. It's very family oriented and a good way to bond with parents and kids. Since everything is physical there is no ambiguous rules to be misinterpreted, this helps belay blow ups between siblings. A fun fun game for all!

Loved the book and the game! Thanks Skirmisher for bringing HG Wells back to the masses!

I am long-time gamer and also a great fan of H. G. Wells. When this reprint came out, I knew I just had to have it. It is really neat. Thanks to Skirmisher Publishing for making it available again!

If you haven't read H. G. Wells's "Floor Games" (and the later but better known "Little Wars") you owe it to yourself to check them out. They're funny, creative, insightful, and elegantly written--a century-old testament to Wells's genius. Kudos to Varhola and Skirmisher Publishing for rescuing these classics from obscurity.

I must admit I had not heard of "Floor Wars" prior to reading "Little Wars". The book predates "Little Wars" but is often considered a companion to the other book. It focuses more on the collecting and building of settings than actual wargaming. The books compliment each other well. "Floor Wars" sparked my imagination even more...taking me back to the little countries and armies that I used to think up in my youth. It was amusing listening to Wells go on about how good figures for certain periods and ranges were not available. I guess nothing really changes after all!

After finding this book in a local library and checking it out, I soon realized that I had to have my very own copy. So, I jumped onto Amazon and thankfully found one! For those who love classic War of the Worlds, this book is a huge slice of wonderful. I was thrilled with the CD that came with the book, too. This is a great resource and it would make a fine product for a Sci-Fi literature and / or media class.

Martians everywhere! The Invasion comes to you in the book and in the sounds. Worth the price!

i bought this book as a gift for a war of the worlds fan and he liked it a lot. The CD was good and the book contained both the script and original HG Wels novel. So all in all the book was a good purchase that contained everything that you have ever wanted to know about the beginning of War of the Worlds saga.

I ordered this book after hearing the 1940 radio interview where both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles appeared together. That was an amazing program as both men discussed the war that was looming in Europe--and that they felt would soon envelope the United States. Orson even mentioned that he was working on a movie called Citizen Kane.

Unfortunately, only about two minutes of that hour-long interview is contained on the CD. The same is true for Orson Welles' press conference where he answered some of the controversy about his broadcast--the CD only has a couple of minutes of it. This was a major disappointment, because both recordings are fascinating and I was left wondering why we only get to hear short soundbites from them rather than the entire thing. Seriously, why bother at all?

The book is much more comprehensive and worthwhile.

With Spielberg's new film adaptation of WAR OF THE WORLDS in theatres, more attention is being paid to both the original Wells novel, and the infamous 1938 Welles radio broadcast. If you're interested in both, why not treat yourself to the best presentation of either version available today?

THE COMPLETE WAR OF THE WORLDS is an excellent book. It reprint the complete, unedited novel; prints the entire script to the radio play; and comes with a CD containing the entire radio play broadcast, plus archival materials such as the only interview Wells and Welles did together on the topic. [The recording sound quality is the best I've ever discovered for this play, BTW.] In addition, the book has lots of great historical and biographical material, including articles looking at the lives of both Wells and Welles; the story of the radio broadcast and the panic it caused; and a survey of the many incarnations of WotW in literature, film, and television.

If you have any curiosity about the book or the radio play, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It's worth it!

This book is incredible. I got it for my birthday 5 years ago and I still love reading it today. It holds everything about war of the worlds you could want. it has the original story with all the pictures, it has the writing of the terrifying 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast, (as well as peoples reactions to it), biographies of orson welles and H.G. wells and much more observing every movie, book, musical you could imagine. it also includes and audio CD where you can hear: orson welles horrifying radio bradcast, the only meeting between orson welles and H.G. wells, the press conference the day after the broacast with orson, another radio bradcast by a different station 30 years later, and much more. when i got it, it cost 40 dollars. you should buy it from amazon cuz its a lot cheaper. its a really excellent book that any fan of anything war of the worlds would love for many years. buy it today, you wont regret it!

Note: I made some Mormon reader angry over my negative reviews of books written by Mormons out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated. Thanks. It took some effort to type up the following wonderful lines from this story about an invasion from Mars. I hope you enjoy them.

"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; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most, terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. 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. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment."

Don't miss the other great novels by H.G. Wells--"The Time Machine" and "The Invisible Man." The wonderful opening lines of "War of the Worlds" are worth repeat readings--note the phrase "across the gulf of space."

We are in 1898 England. Yep we see something happening on the surface of Mars. Later what looks like a meteor comes to earth. Once we realize the significant of the situation (or think we do) Different people approach the situation in different ways. The true story is how the different people meet the situation.
Many people want to equate this story with real potential invasions others as the bad guys vs. the good guys. However from the very first we see that they are the greater (more evolved) intelligence and we are the equivalent of vermin or the ants that are being held under the magnifying glass. From our point of view they seem like cruel creatures, from theirs is indifference. Their way of consuming nourishment is appalling yet look at what and how we eat.
The writing its self is of the time in which Wells lived so the descriptions of our world may seem a little alien to today's younger readers. However the suspense is still there and the story will hold their attention.
Do not miss the 1953 movie. Even thought it adds more religious overtones it is still pretty much the same story with similar characters. Of course this one names the narrator and adds a love interest.

H.G. Wells is best known for his science fiction novels ("War of the Worlds," "The Island of Dr. Moreau," "The Time Machine," "The War in the Air," etc.) but also has an extensive background in the sciences and a keen interest in political philosophy. Specifically, Wells subscribes to Darwin's theory of evolution and believes that the people of the earth should unite under one world government that promotes universal education and a world economy. From this background and these interests, Wells writes his best-known work, "The War of the Worlds."

This novel follows the exploits of an unnamed narrator during a month-long Martian invasion. The inhabitants of Mars--a highly evolved, intellectually superior race of octopus-like brains--find that their planet is cooling to the point of being unable to sustain life. For purposes of survival, the Martians build a giant cannon and shoot "manned" projectiles to Earth as the first wave of a Martian invasion. These projectiles (ten in all) land in the greater-London area and are at first met with curiosity. However, once it becomes known that he Martians are bent on violence and conquest, the inhabitants of England's anxiety rises to a fevered pitch. The British army is useless against the Martians' highly advanced weaponry; the civilians panic and stampede into the countryside; those who remain in London succumb to a variety of mental delusions and insanities because of the hopelessness of the situation and widespread slaughter of humanity.

This reader found "The War of the Worlds" a very enjoyable read. The contrast between technologies (England of 1900 which relies on livestock and railroads versus Martian heat-rays, battle tripods, and black poisonous gas) a highly interesting part of the book. The literary technique of the narrator-protagonist successfully advanced the rising action, climax, and falling action. Finally, Wells' imagination is captivating--Martians (and the antiquated nineteenth-century way in which he describes them and their technology), the variety of human reactions, descriptions of Martian plant-life and physiology, the plans of man, etc., were all engaging and ingenious. This book is highly recommended.

Published in 1898 and set in and around turn of the century London, the story evokes the latest that was known at the time in astronomy, mechanics, and biology. Man had not yet flown and rockets were basically for fireworks. The story has been portrayed on radio, on the movie screen, and I believe even on television. Every telling requires some updating of the story so that modern audiences can get the effect of Wells' tale from more than a century ago.

Mars was thought to have canals and that would imply a civilization. Suddenly there are huge artillery blasts. Gargantuan enough to be seen from earth. These blasts continue for several days and shortly afterward a cylinder crashes into suburban London. It is too hot to touch and nothing more is aroused than curiosity. Finally, the end of the cylinder is screwed off from the inside and exit and begin working on something unseen. The sounds of hammering and machinery tell the people something is being built, but what they do not suspect or understand. Then the craft arises and the heat ray begins laying waste to the people, buildings, and anything in their path.

There are a couple things in the story that are different from most presentations. The creatures fire a canister of a black mist that seems to be a forerunner of the chemical agents of World War I. And the creatures are powerful, but not invulnerable. The people take a couple of them out along the way, but the creatures learn and become tougher in their attacks. More canisters arrive and more machines are built as the attack grows.

The life of the citizens in late Victorian society is also so different that modern life that the details of the story are also often changed, but you can read these differences for yourself. They make for interesting reading as a window on the past. Remember, the story was quite modern when written. And the violence and destruction was quite hyper-real for its audience, but seems tame by modern standards. Have we gained or lost?

Another fact that is often lost on modern audiences is that London was the capital of an empire that spanned the entire globe and controlled 40% of the world's land mass and a similar proportion of its population. The Martians were subjugated the greatest nation on earth as if they were, well, impotent natives out in the reaches of the British Empire. This aspect was not lost on its first audience.

It is still a powerful story and reads better than most of the adaptations show. The narrator is always merely an observer and escapes with the most fortunate of circumstances, but the story lets us meet more people than we get in a movie, and all the adaptations have to leave holes where some of the problems that time has forced into the story because of modern advances make the story implausible.

Still, the Martians end up the same way in every telling and for the same reasons. It is am important plot point, but knowing what we know now, probably quite faulty for an advanced civilization deciding to come and conquer Earth. Our own knowledge of bacteria and viruses would allow us to largely protect ourselves from such things as took the Martians and I doubt we would be so foolish as to enter another world so unprepared for this issue. But the people of the story were quite happy that the Martians were so foolish.

Read this book and you will be able to better judge the adaptations.

An extraordinary tale, War of the Worlds (the first epic tale about martians and man) tells of the great conflict which engulfs humanity when engaged against a power that greatly surpasses her own. Slowly informed of the alien lifeforms Wells soon bombards the reader with imagery of the future of warfare. Aliens terrorize as lasers vaporize, gas mystifies, while man remains helpless against this unslaught of futuristic intellegince. Drizen from house to streets to dens the narrator (one out of millions who flee before the martians, for what else can one do?) is eventually forced to observe the creatures that never rest, horrified by what he sees. After page upon page of war an eary silence suddenly echoes throughout the land, and the narrator ventures to find the world he knew a desert place as both martians and man are devasted and destroyed by the war which engulfs both worlds.

One of HG Wells most enduring novels it has the characteristics which would combine to define science fiction. Origenal and thought provoking it shocks and entertains the reader throughout the 200 paged tale. However, like all of his novels the revolutionary ideas and not the litary magnifisence of the text makes this one of the premere science fiction tales of all time. I recommend reading this piece of literature if you are in high school or above so as to truly apreciate and understand the intricate brillance of the War of the Worlds.

In my opinion this is an excellant book. I should know I've read it eight times in the past four months. It's a must read book. It discusses the effect of the World when Martians invade. It evolves around one character and his determination to return to his wife in Leatherhead, England. The Martians that have invaded use these wicked weapons such as the heat-ray and poisen gas. You should read it, it's rather enjoyable to the science fiction fan and to fans of H.G. Wells also.

It is ironic and yet totally appropriate that the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories remains the most realistic of them all in that humanity is saved because the Martians have no immunity against our diseases. While that simply explanation may or may not explain what happened to the dinosaurs we do know that the arrival of Europeans in the New World introduced small pox and other diseases which decimated the Native American populations, primarily in the eastern part of the continent. However biological truth only gets in the way of good science fiction so that alien encounters in the worlds of "Star Trek" and "Farscape" rarely worry about speaking the local language or breathing the local air, let alone falling prey to the local diseases.

Written by H.G. Wells in 1898, "The War of the Worlds" also has arguably the most famous opening line in science fiction history, although I am sure most of us always hear the voice of Orson Welles intoning the words, "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" (my second choice would probably be "Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time" as long as we are on that topic). The other major contribution to the alien invasion genre Wells provides is the idea that these strange visitors from another planet come because it is Earth that has something special that they need; in this case it is the delicacy of human blood, sucked from living beings (which begs the question, did the Martians know we were such tasty treats or did they just luck out by traveling to their closest neighbor in the solar system?).

Isaac Asimov argued that "The War of the Worlds" could be read as an argument against British colonialism as the empire expanded to the point where the sun never set upon it. By the end of the 19th-century the British Empire covered a quarter of the land area and the population of the world, and while this is an intriguing parallel it does not strike me as being particularly profitable since the analogy is rather subtle and I would think most of his British readers would have entirely missed the point. Given the omnipresent idea of futurism in Wells' writing it is more worthwhile to look at the issues of mortality, humanity's place in the natural order, and the potential evils of technology.

While rereading "The War of the Worlds" to consider it for a Science Fiction class completely devoted to novels about the Red Planet, I was rather surprised to rediscover that it is a good yarn. The fact that his stories hold up, not just as escapist fantasies or scientific romances but as stories that continue to be relevant critiques of both the time in which he wrote and the times in which we live, only serves to confirm the place of H.G. Wells as not just one of the greatest names in science fiction, but also as a social critics and visionary futurist.

The Book That Began Sci-Fi
This is a book way ahead of its time. It chronicles the invasion of Earth by the inhabitants of neighbouring Mars, from the point of view of the anonymous protagonist. Some of the ideas may seem somewhat inane upon reading the book presently, but bear in mind that it was written over a hundred years ago, where the concept of interaction with extra-terrestrial beings was thoroughly infantile.
The book is seemingly written as a documentary with the hard-hitting authenticity of a late-night news bulletin as opposed to a fantastical yarn spattered with conspicuously impracticable fairytale imagery. This therefore creates a tangible sense of realism that causes the reader to wonder how they might have fared were they thrust into the same situation.
Wells manages to keep the suspense mounting throughout, exploring the reaction of tense and fearful pre-WW1 humanity to the physical embodiment and culmination of their apprehensions, and the novel concludes in a way rather pleasingly unexpected, and that could almost serve to be the twisted moral of this paranoid parable.
If you are looking for a book in which you can examine character developments and interactions, then The War Of The Worlds is at best inappropriate. However, it is a valuable contrivance insofar as instigating speculation as to mankind's position in the universe, and indeed the position of those civilizations and cultures traditionally or habitually thought of as subservient to one's own.
The casual reader might have some difficulty with Wells' linguistic manner, and indeed may have only come across some of the vocabulary used through listening to MatronsApron, yet Wells still manages to explain events thoroughly and concisely.
To conclude, then, The War Of The Worlds is a literary landmark that unquestionably invented the entire science fiction genre, and should appeal to fans of action, fans of adventure, fans of science fiction, and conspiracy theorists alike. With this book, H.G. Wells has proven to be a social commentator, sublime documentarian, sci-fi pioneer, and a splendid storyteller.

Science fiction plays two roles for the reader. The more familiar one is to provide a perspective on the future implications of technology and to raise new issues and choices. The less familiar is in providing a context for evaluating what we now see from the wrong perspective.

All science fiction inevitably becomes dated in the first dimension. The truly great science fiction retains its strength in the second sense. I have rated The War of the Worlds with five stars solely for that second value.

Regardless of its currently creaky scientific perspective, Wells did an astonishing good job of extending upon the knowledge available to him in the late 18th century. Manned flight had not yet occurred, and he was providing plausible concepts of interplanetary travel. The discussions of the impact of a planet's distance from the sun on the timing of the evolution of life, distance on the timing of life's destruction, and on how gravity will affect space travelers are superb.

Let me mention that I had the great good fortune to hear this book read in an audio cassette editon by Alexander Spencer, and that reading greatly added to my enjoyment of the book. Mr. Spencer was able to capture the emotional ups and downs of the novel very well, and that makes it much more immediate. If you have not heard this novel read aloud, I strongly urge you to do so.

The story line of the novel is exceptionally well developed around the theme of what it really means to be human. The war with the Martians becomes a source of stress that allows us to look behind the social mask of civilization to consider the moral state that people have arrived at. In many ways, he also uses the Martians as a counterpoint for considering what we might become. This is masterfully done. He adds to the metaphor by continuingly referring to various bacteria, insects, and animals as our counterparts, our superiors, and our victims. The comparisons are worthy of Socrates.

I was fascinated to see the eloquent plea for realizing our symbiotic relationship to nature. This is turned into a very powerful argument for environmental restraint just at the end of the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and demonstrates remarkable prescience.

Wells also looks at humans from the perspective of our minds, our bodies, and our spirits. He has the greatest faith for our minds in this regard. Science, for him, is the great hope.

The story is well plotted, as well. Those who enjoy a good sack of the city along the lines of Godzilla or King Kong will find the War of the Worlds rewarding. I particularly appreciated Wells' skill in keeping the narrator and his brother near the center of the action.

To enjoy this book as an adventure tale the most, you will have to ignore the implausible parts of the story and the unending lists of place names in England. I didn't find that to be too much of a price to pay. After a while the places started to seem familiar. Perhaps looking them up on a map would help.

After you have finished reading this story, I think you will find it helpful to speculate how the 21st century human population would probably react to alien visitors to the Earth. I found that my own reaction was to reflect on how much progress we have made in moving away from thinking of humans as the life center of the universe in the last 100 years. But we have a long way to go. Perhaps we can only truly make significant progress when we first find extraterrestrial life superior to our own.

Another useful line of thinking is to imagine that we will meet superior extraterrestrial life in the future. What should we be working on now?

Think ahead to gain the most!

This was one of the first books I read as a child, and it is still one of my favorite bed time stories. Wells wrote his famous chronicle of the Martian invasion of Victorian Britain at the turn of the century, and the world has since gradually chipped at the book's scientific authenticity. The book, however, still stands tall even today as a dramatic vision of the collapse of civilization. Well's vivid description of the destruction, the terror, and the agonies of humankind's slow death at the hands of the Martians chills the blood. It has never been truly matched. Wells also created one of the great books of all time representing themes ( genocide, the possible extinction of humanity, the dominance of science over humanity, the yearning to explore the universe and spread the seeds of life to other worlds) which would haunt the next century. Events like the holocaust, the splitting of the atom and the cold war, and Kennedy's dream to send man to the moon make "War of the Worlds" seem prophetic. Even the book's conclusion appears today like an eerie warning of the dangers in harvesting the potential of biological weapons. While other science fiction has become outdated and forgotten, Well's book, even after more than 100 years, continues to present a contemporary message for society.

First, before anything else, he links us to a character, a man named Bert Smallways, who we will follow and this allows us to see what is happening from the view of a normal man within the book. The first few chapters in fact deal only with Bert, pushing much of the major events into the background, suggested by news headlines that nobody seems to notice.
But when wars come it comes with a bam. The Earth's weapons seem to be bomb carrying airships and gun carrying airplanes.
The airships seem to be the major weapon, becoming the terrors of the sky, huge monster craft that carry death to the cities of Earth.
Why airships? The book was published in 1907. While airplanes were just being invented and designs played with, blimps and dirigibles were already flying about in good numbers. By the time World War One cames about, German airships are bombing London. Airplanes started off during the Great War totally unarmed, used for scouting out enemy movements and checking out the landscape. So, for him to suggest that airships would become the wave of the future in combat is not a great leap of logic.
One scene has German airplanes and airships destroying an American fleet of warships, a chilling vision of things to come.
As each nation designs and builds it own aircraft things get out of hand. While the air fleets can bomb the cities, they can't TAKE them (not being able to carry any troops) and they can't DEFEND them (as they carry many bombs, but few weapons to fight other aircraft), so soon the world is nothing but burnt out buildings and thousands of airships attacking anything on the ground that even LOOKS dangerous.
Will Bert survive? Will he get back to England? Will mankind ever learn to live together?

"The War of the Worlds" wasn't the only masterpiece that H.G. Wells wrote with the words "The War" in the title. "The War in the Air," which came out 10 years later, in 1908, is surely a lesser-known title by this great author, but most certainly, in my humble opinion, a masterpiece nonetheless. In this prophetic book, Wells not only predicts World War I--which wouldn't start for another six years--but also prophesies how the advent of navigable balloons and heavier-than-air flying craft would make that war inevitable. Mind you, this book was written in 1907, only four years after the Wright Brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, and two years BEFORE their airplane design was sold to the U.S. Army for military purposes. In "The War in the Air," Wells also foresees air battles, as well as engagements between naval and aerial armadas. His gift of peering into the future is at times uncanny.
We see this worldwide war through the eyes of Bert Smallways, a not terribly bright Cockney Everyman who is accidentally whisked away in a balloon and lands in Germany right on the eve of that country's departure for war. Bert is brought on board one of the German airships, and so personally witnesses a titanic battle in the North Atlantic; the Battle of New York (in which the length of Broadway is destroyed and many buildings near downtown City Hall Park are levelled, looooong before 9/11); and the huge fight between the German and Asiatic forces over Niagara Falls. And these are just the start of Smallways' adventures. Wells throws quite a bit into this wonderful tale, and the detail, pace and characterizations are all marvelous. But this isn't just an entertaining piece of futuristic fiction; it's a highly moral one as well. The author, in several beautifully written passages, tells us of the terrible waste of war, and the horrors that it always entails. In this aspect, it would seem to be a more important work of fiction than even "The War of the Worlds." While that earlier work might be more seminal, this latter tale certainly raises more pressing issues. And those issues are just as worrisome today as they were nearly a century ago. In his preface to the 1941 edition of this book, Wells wrote: "I told you so. You damned fools..." As well he might! And it would seem that we STILL haven't learned the lessons that Wells tried to teach us so many years ago.
Perhaps, at this point, I should mention that readers of this novel will be faced with many geographical, historical and vocabulary/slang terms that they may not be familiar with. If those readers are like me, they will take the time to research all those obscure terms; it will make for a richer reading experience, as always.
I said before that this novel is a masterpiece, and yet, at the same time, it is not perfect. Wells does make some small booboos in prediction, for example. Zeppelins were not more important than airplanes in war; civilization did not collapse after World War I. He tells us that the distance from Union Square to City Hall Park is under a mile, whereas any New Yorker could tell you that it's more like two. Wells mentions that the Biddle Stairs (which were built in 1827, led from Goat Island to the base of Niagara Falls, and were demolished in 1927) were made of wood, while in fact they were made of metal and encased in a wooden shaft. But these are quibbles, and in no way detract from the quality of the work. Indeed, this is a novel that should be mandatory reading for all politicians, not to mention all thinking adults.

H.G. Wells-what a genius. He foresaw the future better than any supposed "psychic." This novel, little known but available again, is the proof.

In the early 20th century, the invention of aerial vehicles precipitates the outbreak of a worldwide war that had brewed for hundreds of years. The aircrafts' ability to wreck unlimited destruction lays waste to civilization, reducing it to pre-Industrial revolution levels. That is the basis of this incredible piece of political and scientific prophesy. Wells unleashes his full understanding of human "progress" and the fraility of political systems, and with every page hits truths about war and technology even more applicable today than during World War I, the combat that Wells envisioned here. He even saw 9/11 and the Iraq War, pegging Western European complaceny so accurately that I felt my jaw drop to the floor on a few occasions.

Honestly, this H. G. guy was one in a billion. He was utterly, incalculably brilliant. He was also a helluva writer, expressing ideas with flashes of humor, irony, and passion. Wells uses a countryside Englishman as witness to the fall of civilization, and manages to effortlessly switch between the epic canvas of war and the cameo portrait of a normal man seeing everything he ever understood about the world fray apart before his eyes.

In a terrific last stroke, Wells writes the final chapter that sums up the possibility that "progess" may be an illusion. This novel deserves to be considered amongst Wells finest, and this new edition with Duncan's insightful introduction, may be the firest step in getting it the wide audience it deserves.

Written in 1908, Wells predicted warfare as we know it now. He foresaw pushbutton wars, "cold-blooded slaughters ... in which men who were neither excited nor ... in any danger, poured death and destruction on homes and crowds..." Paradoxically, Wells also predicted it to be "a universal guerilla war, a war involving civilians and homes and all the apparatus of social life." He predicted weapons "ineffectual for any large expedition or conclusive attack, [but] horribly convenient for guerilla warfare, rapidly and cheaply made, easily used, easily hidden." Specifics of the story needed to be credible to Wells's 1908 reader, but major points could have been drawn from today's headlines.

Wells's war encircled the globe, years before WWI showed how widespread a war could become. Rather than narrate global destruction, though, Wells told his story through the viewpoint of Bert Smallways, an everyman of modest means, achievement, and intellect. In fact, Bert's only real skill was a knack for being in the wrong place when world-shattering events came to pass. Starting from his bicycle shop in England, Bert's involuntary travels made him witness to the destruction of whole blocks and rows of blocks in New York City, then to the rise of Eastern armies that over-ran the Western world. Then, somehow, he made it back to his sleepy village to settle into a post-war agrarian life without technology - easy enough, since the village had slept through the technology of the time anyway.

Despite the zeppelins used as warcraft, Wells's forecasts hit the bullseye of many targets. He predicted the worldwide caches of hidden weaponry, not too far from what we saw in the Cold War. He also predicted the bafflement of the common civilian, who really just wanted to settle down with a spouse, a house, and food on the table. Headlines aside, that's still the case today.

-- wiredweird

Bert Smallways is a rather backward sort, trying (but not too hard) to make a living in England, and watching the advance of technology. But, technology is moving on in directions that he might never have guessed. With the advent of the airship, a secret arms race has broken out among the world's powers, and a new type of war is about to break out.

When Bert is accidentally scooped up by a German fleet, on its way to launch a surprise attack on the United states, he finds himself with a front row seat to the greatest war that has ever been - the war in the air! This new war is to be a different sort of war than all the wars that came before it, unprecedented in its ferocity and destructiveness. When everything can be smashed, what will be left? A good deal less than you might hope.

This now largely forgotten work was written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in 1907, and is a masterpiece of forward thinking. While Wells missed the true course of the development of military aviation, his grasp of what a major war, involving fleets of aircraft, would mean was spot on. In fact, this book is quite spooky in its prediction of the destruction of cities and modern infrastructure, and in its portrayal of fleets of warships destroyed from the air! As a prediction of the future, this book is nothing short of amazing.

Well, if the book is so good, why is it now forgotten? In fact, while Wells' portrayal of aerial warfare is right on target, the book, as a novel, is not as good as it should be. The story starts out quite slowly, wasting too much time on the development of the character of Bert Smallways. And, there are many places throughout the narrative where the book could have benefited from some pruning and tightening of the narrative.

So, if you are a fan of H.G. Wells, or are interested in how correct a man of 1907 could have been about modern warfare, then this is the book for you. However, if you are looking for a good science-fiction story, you might be disappointed. Overall, I found this to be an interesting story, one that I am glad that I read. It's almost frightening how close to reality Mr. Wells was. I just wish that he had had a better editor.

Firstly, even though the author is H.G. Wells you should not harbor any notion that this is a work of science fiction.

It is however a rather interesting story of the dual coming of age of a woman and a society in a time of dramatic social change. This book provides the missing link between Jane Austen's era where the notion of an independent woman encompassed little more than a woman who did not automatically marry the first man of means who proposed to her and our modern era where we fully accept the notion of a "man-equal" female character like Heinlein's Friday. And the transformation is a most interesting, exciting, and at times enlightening one. As Ann Veronica wanders through the political and social landscape of Victorian England we are exposed to the rather startling sentiments of the time and the rather harrowing and bold adventures she undertakes in her journey to freedom, as well as to a panoply of interesting characters (like the man hating Mrs. Miniver and the absolute cad Mr. Ramage).

This book is not for everyone, but it is a very worthwhile and entertaining read if you can get into it.

My daughter's name is Veronica Anne, and I ran into the Project Gutenberg edition of this text on a routine websearch. I'm halfway through the book, and loving it! I hope my Veronica grows up to be as independent and spirited as Ann Veronica. :)

"Ann Veronica" is one of the best coming-of-age stories I've ever read. It's a compassionate, funny, and knowing tale of a girl discovering her feminist freedom and her heart's desire. Though it was written in 1906, it still resonates with what young women -like me- go through today. Read it!

This is the best book I ever read. I own 2 copies of it, one so I always have it in the house if I want to reread it (which I have many times) and another so I can let friends borrow it! "Ann Veronica" is a woman after my own heart, she lives life in her own way and doesn't listen to what anyone else wants her to do. She follows her dreams and her ambitions and lives a wonderful life. Every woman should read this book!

By some measures, H.G. Wells is not a great writer. Certainly, his characters are for the most part, shallow and - outside of a particular few - rather unmemorable and his plots are often of secondary consideration. At times, he could be preachy. He was less interested in good storytelling than in ideas. But what makes Wells stand out is less his writing style than what he wrote; he is, in a way the Father of Science Fiction. Sure, there were others who wrote science fiction before him, but I feel he was the man who really made it a distinct genre.

This omnibus edition contains Wells's greatest novels along with a couple of others that are of lesser significance but are still definitely science fiction. First off is The Time Machine, probably his most famous novel. An unnamed inventor develops a time machine and relates to his friends about his trip to the future. Most of his visit is spend several hundred thousand years from now, when mankind has divided into two distinct races: the gentle but frail and ignorant Eloi and the savage but clever Morlocks.

Evolution also plays a part in The Island of Dr. Moreau, wherein the title character tries to force it upon various animals, trying to make humans out of beasts. This touches on one of the most prevalent of all science fiction themes, namely that when scientists try to play God, bad things usually happen (or put another way, there are some things that man is not meant to know). At least Frankenstein had lofty goals; Moreau merely does his often sadistic acts to gain greater knowledge for its own sake.

Griffin, the title character in The Invisible Man, also goes too far in his pursuit of knowledge, but at least he is his own victim. Invisibility, he quickly learns, has its fair share of inconveniences, and, in addition, he begins to develop a sense of megalomania. This novel has more than its fair share of humor.

War of the Worlds, however, is more serious. An early alien invasion story, it is also Wells's condemnation of imperialism, with the British on the wrong end of a conquest. The ending of this story is well-known but if you're unfamiliar with it, I won't spoil it; suffice it to say, it was one of the great, ironic conclusions in literature.

The First Men in the Moon is another satire, this one having two characters using a special gravity-repellent material to devise a spaceship that takes them to the Moon. There, they find things much more habitable than science would later show, complete with atmosphere and an intelligent race called Selenites. The Selenites live underground in vast caverns, so the humans are indeed the first men IN the Moon, not merely ON it.

The last two novels are less well-known. Food of the Gods is passably good satire about a substance that causes animals and plants to grow to incredible sizes. Once again, scientists play God with disastrous results, as the Food of the Gods spreads beyond all control. Giant rats and wasps are bad enough, but eventually giant children (the Food only affects immature life) grow into giant adults, threatening their smaller but far more numerous fellow people. In the Days of the Comet is the weakest in the set, a story about a comet that imbues Earth in a strange green mist that removes violent impulses and creates a Socialist paradise; it is Wells at his preachiest and many may disagree with the supposed perfection of his utopia. Ironically, the narrator in this story is one of Wells's most well-developed characters, a young man who is driven by jealousy into an almost murderous rage.

It is hard to judge these novels strictly by today's standards, just as it isn't fair to be critical of old movies if their special effects are inferior to those of the present. Certainly, the style of these stories is a bit dry and slow-moving to a modern reader. Nonetheless, these novels have a value beyond mere literary quality; for a fan of science fiction, this is well worth the read as it provided the foundation for much of the sci-fi out there today.

This fascinating book is a collection of seven of H.G. Wells' (1866-1946) works of science fiction. Originally published in 1934, this book contains a preface by the great H.G. himself. After that, the book goes right into the stories, all of which are thought-provoking and quite interesting to read. Mr. Wells did not simply write stories to entertain; instead, each one uses the scientific angle to teach a lesson.

So, if you are a fan of great literature, or great science fiction, then this book is for you. I highly recommend it. By the way, the seven stories in this book are:

The Time Machine - 1895 - A dinner party is disrupted when the host arrives all disheveled, and telling what he found when he ventured into the far future.

The Island of Dr. Moreau - 1896 - A castaway finds himself on an island inhabited by unnatural seeming people and ruled by a mad scientist.

The Invisible Man - 1897 - When a strange, bandaged man moves into town, tongues begin to wag. But, when strange things begin to happen, the town soon finds itself facing a nightmare in the form of an invisible man.

The War of the Worlds - 1898 - The Martians have exhausted the resources of their planet, and decide to take the Earth as their new home. Can man, with his most advanced technology hope to stop the Martians with their much more advanced technology?

The First Men in the Moon - 1901 - When an adventurous young man and an eccentric inventor use a fantastic invention to travel to the Moon, they find more than they bargained for.

The Food of the Gods - 1904 - A newly discovered food has a strange effect, it makes those that consume it grow to monstrous proportions. And, when it gets accidentally released, a new breed of humans is born. But, in the socially constricted world of the time, where do they fit in?

In the Days of the Comet - 1906 - As the creaking world of the old order begins to come apart at the seams, a comet is pointed right towards the Earth - it is a wake up call for the entire human race.

While this is by no means a complete collection of Wells' science fiction, it does consist of his most famous seven novels: The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The War of the Worlds, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, and In the Days of the Comet. Bonus features include a short preface written by the author and several original illustrations from each book's initial publication. The typeface is a little unusual in that the text is presented in two columns per page, but this format does hark back to the old style of book and magazine publication. The novels are arranged in chronological order, but Wells suggests in his preface that those not yet familiar with any of his work may be better served by first reading The Invisible Man or War of the Worlds. While I have reviewed the novels included here individually, I thought it important to at least make clear exactly what this collection consists of. If you can find this book it is an excellent buy, particularly so for those just discovering H.G. Wells.

Normally, I do not like Well's work. But, these were some of his best. I have not been able to find a better place to find these books. They are a great read to even people who have never heard of him. I recomend buying this book, I know I liked it.