WAR OF THE WORLD (ISBN: 9781954525498)

H. G. Wells’ classic alien invasion tale, The War of the Worlds, is one of science fiction’s most important novels.

Humans are unprepared when an armada of warring Martians land in southeast England in gigantic cylinders and wreak havoc as they close in on London. The Martians use huge three-legged fighting machines armed with deadly heat rays, which Wells describes as “this flaming death, this invisible, inevitable sword of heat.” Humans eventually mount a jumbled defense against what appears to be an implacable and unbeatable enemy. The story reads almost like dispatches from a war zone told by ordinary, frightened humans whose fate is determined by a freak turn of events.

Wells’ wild, harrowing story can be appreciated as much for its prescience and inventiveness as for its astute social commentary. This Warbler Classics edition includes a detailed biographical timeline.

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) was an English writer of novels, short stories, history, social criticism, and biography. With Jules Verne, he is considered the “father of science fiction” and thought by many to be the most distinct mythmaker of his time. He envisioned such things as time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, biological engineering, and cosmic threats long before they existed or were conceived of by others. In addition to enjoying popular success, Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. He died in London, England, on August 13, 1946, at the age of seventy-nine.