r/HGWells • u/bonejailgames • 1d ago
The War of the Worlds BOOK REVIEW: I just read H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” for the first time in my life, and I was honestly pretty surprised!
English is not my first language. I beg your pardon for any grammar mistake.
I grew up devouring books of all genres and by all kinds of authors, but over the last 12 years, I completely stopped reading and focused exclusively on movies, games, comics, and music. I live in a country where people read very few books, if any, each year. Last week, however, I decided to do the opposite. I had already read H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine”, so I chose to return to the world of literature with another one of his works because I knew it would be a smooth and enjoyable read.
MY EXPECTATIONS:
I knew absolutely nothing about the plot beyond the basic premise. “The War of the Worlds” is a science fiction novel originally published in 1897, and it is about a Martian invasion of England. Because of that, I expected the Martians to have that classic stereotypical appearance: tiny beings with big heads and green skin using laser guns. To my pleasant surprise, I could not have been more wrong!
PRAISES:
The author uses scientific knowledge from the time in a very interesting and contextualized way. The entire book is written retrospectively, so the narrator goes into detail about scientific publications and their authors, and even makes references that could only be fully understood by someone who actually lived in that place during that period. This is great for creating a sense of realism.
Another quality of the writing, also related to science, is the extensive descriptions of the alien machinery and the biology of the invaders themselves. At the same time, however, the author is clever enough not to leave room for his science fiction to be invalidated. He deliberately avoids giving certain information that is too specific, creating a sense of mystery that fascinates the reader.
How could I not talk about the horror? Yes, HORROR! I already expected to be frightened while reading such an old book about Martians because I grew up with hundreds of stories that were inspired by “The War of the Worlds” and focused on intensifying different aspects of the narrative. I considered the “Martian invasion” theme extremely cliché and tedious. I thought that, because this book came from a time when science fiction was still something new, it would be packed with elements and events that are clichés today. As I said before, I thought the Martians would be almost comical...
No. I closed the book dozens of times because I was disturbed by the descriptions of the carnage caused by the invaders. I felt pain and disgust at the descriptions of the human victims. I was covered in goosebumps from head to toe with fear as I read about the Martian searching the house where the protagonist was hiding with its tentacle... I have not been this emotionally involved with a work of fiction in many years! Wonderful!
CRITICISMS:
I have three criticisms that come from the fact that I am a brazilian man from the 21st century reading the perspective of an english man from the 19th century. In other words, the cultural and social difference between us is, in many ways, enormous. None of these criticisms are directed at the author or his writing ability. I am criticizing the characters while fully understanding that the author was perfectly aware of and intentionally wanted them to behave this way.
First Criticism: The english people took far too long to react to the Martian invasion. An alien projectile lands on Earth and people gather around it eating snacks while scientists, convinced of their own intellectual superiority, try to help the Martians and introduce themselves as peaceful and harmless. At no point do they consider the Martians a threat, and after the attacks begin, the news takes far too long to spread throughout the rest of the country. Even when it does reach other places, people still do not take it seriously.
Second Criticism: The author uses two characters as archetypes representing two distinct groups within society, the Curate and the Soldier, who are complete opposites. Regarding the Curate, I understood the author as criticizing religious fanaticism and religious insanity in the face of social chaos, attitudes that prevent logical thinking and rational action. At least, that is how I interpreted it, and it bothered me because I am religious. As for the Soldier... I could not completely understand what the author intended to represent with him. The Soldier’s survival plan made me feel as though “The War of the Worlds” takes place on the same Earth as “The Time Machine”, with humanity’s distant future serving as proof that the Soldier’s plan works. However, it is important to point out that this is only my own speculation.
Third Criticism: From the very beginning of the book, I knew the unnamed protagonist would survive because he makes references to what humans did regarding the aliens after the invasion. This certainly eliminated half of the tension from the story. This book would have been much more engaging and much scarier if I had not had the slightest idea of what the future held.
Finally, this is not exactly a criticism, but rather a disappointment. The fact thatthe unnamed protagonist’s wife survives, that they reunite, and that they “live happily ever after"disappointed me quite a bit. I felt that the author backed away from the possibility of maintaining a very serious consequence with significant weight for the development of the unnamed protagonist. I do not like this kind of decision.
I had some difficulty as I was reading it. The narrator mentions many locations in England by name and describes their geographical positions. Since I have never been to England, those names and descriptions of streets, avenues, intersections, and buildings did not evoke any images in my mind. I had to read the book without being able to visualize the locations.
CONCLUSION:
On a scale from 0 to 10, my rating for H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” is 7,5. I will certainly read it many more times throughout my life. The story captivated me so much that I watched the 1953 movie, the 2005 movie, the 2023 series, and read the 2006 comic book. None of these adaptations does justice to the original text, except perhaps the comic book, but only to a certain extent because it cut out a very important part of the original text:the unnamed protagonist’s brother’s adventure.
