Yes!! Two down, seven more to go! This is about the only good thing I can say after reading this book. Yes I know it is a popular science fiction novel that is well studied for good reason, but I just didn’t enjoy it.
I love the idea of Martians invading Earth and abolishing us like purses at a Macy’s sale, put the execution was very dry. For a good portion of the book, people star at a cylinder that lands from outerspace and ignorantly wonder its significance. Once the Martians appear in their tripod fighting-machines, people either run away or get burned for the rest of the book. Only in the last few chapters do we actually see a Martian but with no human confrontation, only loads of description. We do not fully (or even half) experience the war of the Martians for the person’s perspective we see it through conveniently sails off into the sea. WTF?!?! Way to anti-climax a book titled The War of the Worlds.
However the ideas presented are notably unique for the time written and I can appreciate Wells’ philosophical views of man-kind. However, I much prefered The Time Machine by him. Probably because the setting was constantly depressing which evidently dampened my mood once I put the book down. But if you are into Martians, dislike the British or like reading about hopeless situations, then this is your book. As for me, I am going to stick with watching Tom Cruise run around in the movie adaption from now on.
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