The War of the Worlds was written by HG Wells and first published in 1898. This early science fiction story centers around
an unnamed narrator living through various engagements between the British military and superior alien attackers. The narrator describes an
invasion of the British Islands by an advanced civilization from Mars. The story begins with a description of light flashes emanating from the planet Mars. Unknown at the time, these flashes were the result of the launching of an invasion force by Martian inhabitants.
Some time later, what was believed to be a meteor crashes outside London. After some activity inside the resulting crater, a Martian machine rises out of the hole and easily defeats a contingent of defending soldiers. The machine is a three-legged tower, the Tripod, whose primary weapon was a heat ray. The heat ray destroyed everything in its path. While the human defenders were hopelessly outmatched, they were still able to destroy several of the invading tripods. The most success that the defenders had was when the British warship, the HMS Thunder Child destroyed three tripods, before being sunk itself in the engagement.
After some early (although not significant) losses by the Martian invaders, a new and more deadly weapon was used. “Black smoke” was essentially a chemical gas that killed any person that comes in contact with it. After this new deadly weapon was unleashed, any further defense against the invaders was ineffectual. The Martian conquerors made liberal use of these deadly weapons.
The narrator wanders through the ruins of England attempting to escape detection from the
Martians. All organized human resistance to the invaders appears to have ended. Mankind, however, is ultimately saved not through their military forces or technology, but through the bacteria that is present on the planet. Man has long since become immune to the impacts of these bacteria, but the invading Martians have not built up any immunity to minor diseases present on the Earth. The Martians succumb to the effects of microbes which are harmless to humans.
This story has been made into several blockbuster movies. The 1953 version was, at the time a technological marvel and depicts military and scientific attempts to thwart the invasion. The 2005 remake, starring Tom Cruise focuses more on the impacts of the invasion on one family. A 1996 movie, “Independence Day” bears many similarities with the 1953 version of War of the Worlds. Additionally, there was also a 1988 television series based on this story, however, the series was short lived and was not the anywhere near the quality of the movies.
In October 1938, Columbia Broadcasting aired a radio version of War of the Worlds. This broadcast was narrated by Orson Welles. The format of this broadcast was similar to that of a newscast and many listeners actually believed that an alien invasion was happening. Panic ensued and shots were fired by frightened residents.
HG Wells makes several predictions in this work. For example, the book describes flight and space travel well before either became a reality. Additionally, black smoke accurately depicts the effects of chemical warfare which was used extensively more than 16 years later in World War 1. War of the Worlds is widely considered to be one of HG Wells best.
Mark Askeda