Having trouble concentrating while reading physical books lately

I swear that I read this when I was younger, but when I went to add this to Goodreads as a re-read (it was the January selection for my Completist Book Club), I did not find it in my list. And, because this is one of those books that has a plot people tend to know because of movies and/or its general pop culture relevance, it is difficult for me to know which parts of my memories of this are from the book and which are from other places. But, re-read or not, I am glad I read it in January 2022.

This is classic sci fi. It is easy to see how many parts of this led to the tropes we see in literary and cinematic sci-fi today. And it is pretty amazing the creativity Wells had for coming up with such vivid and scientifically based alien technology and biology. This book was way ahead of its time!

While the setting is late 1800s England (horse carriages, telegrams, etc.), it is not hard to picture this in a modern setting. Wells did a great job making the story timeless. Often when I read books set in this era, they may be good, but they can also feel dated – not a bad thing, it is just that time moves on. But, with this one, society may have advanced, but it did not feel like time had moved on.

If you love the classics and/or love sci-fi and you have not read this book, I feel like it is a must for you to get it on your list right away. I was leaning toward 4 stars on this book, but the classic status and the effect it has had on sci fi over the years push that up to 5 stars!

*May contain spoilers*

“Before the cylinder fell there was a general persuasion that through all the deep of space no life existed beyond the petty surface of our minute sphere. Now we see further.”

The War of the Worlds is many things. It’s an action-packed, fast-paced science fiction tale of aliens and spaceships. Martians land in Woking, just south of London, and wreak havoc and destruction while a narrator observes and reports on how he survived.

It’s a reflection on possible human responses to the end of our known world. I found this aspect of the story fascinating. At first, people wanted to help the “visitors,” but gradually altruism gave way to self-preservation and fear. Those who survived the war had to decide what they were going to do now, and their approaches varied. Some folks struggled to discover the fate of their loved-ones. One military man devised an elaborate scheme to re-start the human race. Our narrator surprised himself at one point, at his willingness to merely be focused on the rules of a new card game he played with a fellow-survivor.

The work is also an allegory. In this story the aliens are Martians, but some (including Isaac Asimov who wrote an Afterword to my edition) think Wells was making a larger point. After all, history shows plenty of conquest and subjugation practiced by humans on other humans.

“I felt as a rabbit might feel returning to his burrow and suddenly confronted by the work of a dozen busy navvies digging the foundations of a house. I felt the first inkling of a thing that presently grew quite clear in my mind, that oppressed me for many days, a sense of dethronement, a persuasion that I was no longer a master, but an animal among the animals, under the Martian heel.”

Note: I enjoyed reading along with this version on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySM1R...

3,5/5

“For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive.”

WOW. I loved re-reading War Of The Worlds. Well, the audiobook was absolutely amazing from start to finish. But that counts... right? Anyway, the pacing was perfect. My jaw dropped multiple times throughout the book and I can't help but admire the fact that War of the Worlds is an all-time classic. It's amazing!

Five stars.

you've heard of The Book Was Better, now get ready for The Old-Timey Radio Adaptation Was Better

this was very impressive for its time, but...

hard to live up to a radio show so immersive and captivatingly realistic it tricked a bunch of dweebs from the past into thinking we were being invaded by aliens.

2.5 stars

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tbr review

one of the better first dates of my life involved going to look at a special moon event while listening to the radio adaptation of this book.

the person it was with turned out to be the worst so i'm going to read this and override the memory

Desde que terminé de leer los libros de la saga “Trilogía Victoriana” de Félix J. Palma, con H.G. Wells y sus libros como protagonistas absolutos, me quedó la espinita de leerme algo de Wells.
La historia es archiconocida pero me ha encantado leerla de la mano de su creador.

Me ha gustado el tono de caos y desolación que presenta la historia y el hecho de que no sepamos el nombre del narrador me parece un acierto total. La explicación final de que los marcianos mueren debido a los virus y bacterias de la tierra me ha parecido magistral. Siento que es un libro que nunca va a pasar de moda.

Mención aparte merecen las estupendas ilustraciones de Alvim Correa que me han acompañado en la lectura. Son una maravilla. Por favor, si es que le ha puesto ojitos a los trípodes marcianos ¿puede haber algo más cuco? XD

"As if hell was built for rabbits!"

The book counts no more than 180 pages in my edition, but I read it over a whole month. It was entirely intentional. I didn't want to be done with it.

The War of the Worlds is amazing and innovative and incredibly modern in so many respects, but I just want to point out here Wells's incredible (literally--as in, it defies description and you can't really understand what I mean until you experience it) skill in dynamic descriptions. He plays with the characters' visual perspective in ways that I thought had become available to literary fiction only with the advent of cinema. Like a consummate landscape painter, he manipulates light effects (he has a preference for backlit scenes and intermittent light that allows to see only details of the whole and only at intervals) and impediments to vision with astonishing self-awareness, but adds to this mastery of visual composition the ability to put these effects at the service of the dynamism of narrative. Very few, or possibly nobody, had tried before to describe alien forms of life in the extremely realistic way Wells does here in The War of the Worlds, which meant he had to invent from scraps the language and techniques to do it. And the result is breathtaking beyond comprehension.

Chapter 17 is emblematic in this respect. The narrator's brother sees the Martians wading into the water towards the ship where he's embarked; a warship called Thunder Child engages them in battle. The character sees the Martians from a distance, meaning that the description is hazy, but also all the more terrifying because of this. While he is absorbed in morbidly admiring the advancing Martians, the ship tosses and he falls. When he looks up again, the warship has just surpassed his ship, so that he sees the immense warship from very up close, which means (again) that he has poor and not at all clear sight of it, but (again) the lack of detail makes the whole sequence very evocative. The character is then blinded by the water and foam that the warship has sprayed up; when he can see again, the warship and the Martians are already engaged in combat.

I am well aware that I wasn't able at all to render the magnificence of the passage, but believe me if I say it's one of the most visually stunning, controlled and at once emotionally charged pieces of prose I have ever encountered. And such mastery of prose and narrative vision is just the tip of the iceberg of Wells's genius, too vast for me to explore here. I can't but passionately urge you to pick up The War of the Worlds and experience this absolute delight for yourself.

The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke

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. — H. G. Wells (1898), The War of the Worlds.

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialized in 1897. The War of the Worlds was one of the first and greatest works of science fiction ever to be written. Even long before man had learned to fly, H.G. Wells wrote this story of the Martian attack on England.

The plot has been related to invasion literature of the time. The novel has been variously interpreted as a commentary on evolutionary theory, British imperialism, and generally Victorian superstitions, fears, and prejudices.

Wells said that the plot arose from a discussion with his brother Frank, about the catastrophic impact of the British, on indigenous Tasmanians. What would happen, he wondered, if Martians did to Britain what the British had done to the Tasmanians? The Tasmanians however lacked the lethal pathogens to defeat their invaders. ...

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «ج‍ن‍گ‌ ج‍ه‍ان‌ه‍ا»؛ «جنگ دنیاها»؛ نویسنده: جرج هربرت (اچ‌.ج‍ی) ول‍ز‏‫؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: سال 1999میلادی

عنوان: ج‍ن‍گ‌ ج‍ه‍ان‌ه‍ا؛ نویسنده: اچ‌. ج‍ی ول‍ز‏‫؛ مت‍رج‍م: ع‍ل‍ی‌ ف‍اطم‍ی‍ان‌؛ ت‍ه‍ران‌ وزارت فرهنگ و ارشاد اسلامی، سازمان چاپ وانتشارات، نشر چشم انداز، سال1377؛ در 254ص؛ مصور، شابک 9644220749؛ خلاصه شده از نسخه اصلی؛ چاپ دیگر 1379؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده ی 19م

عنوان: جنگ دنیاها؛ نویسنده: اچ.‌جی ولز؛ مترجم گروه ترجمه انتشارات آریانگار؛ تهران آریانگار، ‏‫1389؛ ‬در 64ص، رنگی؛ شابک9786009214389؛

عنوان: جنگ دنیاها؛ نویسنده: جرج هربرت ولز؛ مترجم: سیدرضا مرتضوی؛ تهران آفرینگان‏‫، 1394؛ در 64ص؛ شابک9786006753935؛

عنوان: جنگ دنیاها؛ نویسنده: اچ.جی. ولز؛ مترجم میرپویا حسینی‌اصل‌اسکویی؛ تهران انتشارات قافیه‏‫، ‏‫1397؛ در 64ص؛ شابک9786226605496؛

جنگ دنیاها عنوان رمانی علمی-تخیلی است، که «اچ.جی ولز» نویسنده ی «انگلیس»، در سال1898میلادی نگاشته و منتشر کرده اند؛ این رمان شرح تجربیات یک راوی گمنام است، که در حومه ی شهر «ل��دن»، شاهد هجوم موجودات بیگانه‌ ای از «مریخ» می‌شود؛ «جنگ دنیاها»، یکی از نخستین رمان‌هایی است، که ستیز بین نژاد بشر، و موجودات ماورایی را، با واژه هایش به تصویر می‌کشد؛ با الهام از این رمان، کتابهای مصور، مجموعه‌ های تلویزیونی، و فیلم‌های سینمایی بسیاری ساخته شده اند؛ «استیون اسپیلبرگ» نیز، در سال2005میلادی، با اقتباس از این کتاب، فیلمی با شرکت «تام کروز» را کارگردانی کردند؛

لندن، سالهای پایانی سده ی نوزدهم میلادی: مدتی است برجستگیها و انفجارهایی در سطح سیاره‌‌ ی «مریخ»، به چشم می‌خورد؛ چند دانشمند در رصدخانه های گوناگون، متوجه این پدیده ‌ی شگفت انگیز شده اند؛ آیا روی این سیاره، موجودات هوشمندی زندگی می‌کنند؟ کسی پاسخی برای این پرسش ندارد، تا اینکه شیئی به زمین اصابت می‌کند؛ نخست به نظر می‌رسد، این شیء شهاب سنگ باشد، اما شهاب سنگی در کار نیست....؛

جنگ دنیاها، نوشته‌ ی «هربرت جورج ولز»، یکی از نخستین آثاری است، که ستیز انسان و موجودات فضایی را بازگو میکند؛ این اثر خواندنی و هیجان انگیز از آن روز انتشار الهامبخش نویسندگان بسیاری بوده است؛ موجودات مریخی به سبب استفاده ی بسیار از هوش خود، تنها مغزی بزرگ و دهانی از آنان باقی مانده است، و با آشامیدن خون انسان نیرو میگیرند؛ در مقابل اما دستاوردهای فنون و آلات جنگی آنان چندین برابر بزرگ‌تر از ماشین جنگی «انگلستان» است؛ و مردم در برابر آن زبون و هراسان هستند، و جز تن دادن به مرگ راه چاره‌ ی دیگری ندارند؛

اندیشه ی نوشتن رمان جنگ جهان‌ها زمانی برای نویسنده پدید آمد، که استعمارگران اروپائی، با حمله به جزیره «تاسمانی» در نزدیکی «استرالیا»، مردم بیگناه و بومی آن جزیره را میکشتند؛ نویسنده با برادرش «فرانک»، درباره ی این جنگ گفتگو میکرد، که برادرش گفت: «فرض کن که موجودات سیاره‌ ای دیگر از آسمان فرود آیند و سراسر انگلستان را به تسخیر خود درآورند!»؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/10/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 11/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I’m quite disappointed with this book, I am sure when it was written it was thrilling but the second half did nothing to warrant any fear from me and the first even less so. I had to laugh at the quote “the Martians understood doors!”, Simply because it’s hilarious to think they’ve invaded an entire planet only to struggle with a little latch. Another I really enjoyed but for other reasons goes as follows “the fear and empire of man had passed away”.

I found this story to be riveting. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I found the reaction from mankind to aliens invading in the late 1800s to be very well thought out by Wells. This idea had never been formed into a novel before, and I think all of the right notes were hit.

I really liked the main character, and I found him rather easy to route for. He went unnamed throughout the story, and I liked to picture that he was HG Wells, being that he was an author living outside of London. I loved his thought process and his survival instincts were wonderfully constructed. The internal struggles of these characters, and how that reflected to the outside world was masterfully done.

However, I kind of hated the middle. The narration takes a shift, and I understand why Wells did it, but I found it wholly unnecessary. There could have been better ways to go about it, if for example we followed his wife instead. That would have been far more interesting.

Le récit d'invasion extraterrestre classique. C'est intéressant de voir ce qu'en a fait Orson Welles, qui a fait souffler un vent de psychose en Amérique du Nord en 1938 avec son émission radio The War of the Worlds.