I'm so SOOOO sorry on the delay, I just ran out of ideas. But anyway here I am. Now for those of you who don't know, I am a voracious reader, did you know my first book was Frankenstein. After that I was hooked, expanding my literate appetite even further, flipping through numerous books and iconic novels, and now this. It opens in late 19th century England with the martian landing and to no surprise things go downhill fast, things really get interesting when I get to see the martians use their heat ray, a toxin called black smoke, the iconic tripods.
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Ahhhh, bliss |
The British army is helpless to fight them off and it ends badly with thousands cut down like what in a field. The narrator wanders through the desolation, running into an artilleryman and curate. His brother thankfully manages to flee the country, others weren't so lucky. As if you thought extermination wasn't bad enough in book 2 (earth under the martians) the extraterrestrials begin rounding up those who weren't lucky enough to be dead, and terraforming the place with umm... red weed? Heck they even crafted their own city near London. However in the end the martians began leaving as soon as they came because they have zero immunity to the pathogens that we have endured for so long, when the narrator found that out, he shouted my favourite line that went something like this: "why bother with guns when all we had to do was just sneeze on them." This isn't just another typical sci-fi work, as it also explores the issues of Social Darwinism, colonial and imperialism, and natural selection.
Quality of writing: you know what to expect from H G Wells
Pacing: Pitch perfect
Plot: Very intriguing in a genre that can be very cliche
Characters: Enjoyed the Narrators adventures
Enjoyability: Very much so
Insightfulness: Very good
Ease of reading: Easy to understand for novel from 1898
Morals: It's from the 19th century, what would you expect?
Just so you know this was done on my 'The Book Lover's Journal: my personal reading record