The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds is a very well known HG Wells novel. It's been talked about recently since there must have been a Hollywood blockbuster about it, which I did not see... but I've heard about it through the stuff you missed in history class podcast, which aired a podcast about Orson Wells' rendition of the War of the Worlds on radio and the mass panic it has caused back in 1938. And since I've just finished two great novels by HG Wells, I was decided to go on with this one.

In a nutshell, capsules come from the sky, with aliens inside. Aliens then fabricate huge walking machines and start spreading death and destruction through their heat-rays. The story is told by an unnamed narrator who slowly reconstructs it through his own experience and what he has learned afterwards, from the capsule falling from the sky to the abrupt end of the invaders.

I do not know if that's because we are now too used to stories of aliens invading Earth, but I find the story boring and lacking in rhythm. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that it was plenty crazy and innovative back at the end of the nineteenth century, but I've been disappointed by this one, I think mostly because of the narrative process. I think it illustrates rather well the idea I've got that even if you have a great story, you can ruin it if you don't tell it the right way...

Anyway, I have this other book by H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau, I hope I can enjoy the story as well as the The Invisible Man and The Time Machine...