War of the Worlds - Softcover

Wells, H. G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590101129 ISBN 13: 9780590101127

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1976

Synopsis

An English astronomer, in company with an artilleryman, a country curate, and others struggle to survive the invasion of Earth by Martians in 1894

About this title

Review

This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that "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..."

Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. --Craig E. Engler

From the Publisher

This book is a standard print version using a minimum of 10 point type in a 6 by 9 inch size and perfect bound - a paperback. As with all Quiet Vision print books, it use a high grade, acid free paper for long life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1976
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590101129
• ISBN 13: 9780590101127
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 285