Description

Humanity's worst fears come true in this grand science-fiction adventure from H.G. Wells. Through telescopes fixed on faraway planets, scientists begin noticing strange events occurring on the surface of Mars. Soon after, a mysterious object lands in the middle of London. Bizarre creatures emerge from the object and a full-scale invasion begins. Citizens are no match for the bloodthirsty aliens who terrorize the city. As the Martians set up weapons, planning a complete takeover, Londoners flee. What can be done? Is humanity doomed? The wild twists and turns of this famous tale have horrified and inspired readers for over a century, spurring adaptations (including Orson Welles's notorious 1938 radio broadcast) and many other visions of what life outside of Earth might look like, and what its darkest, most terrifying plans for our planet might be.

About the Author

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) began life in a humble British home, as the son of working class people. Early in life, an accident left the young Wells bedridden for a long period of time, and as he recovered, the boy fell in love with reading. Leaving the drudgery of an apprenticeship as a tradesman, Wells decided to become a teacher in 1883. His talents earned him a college scholarship and he received a degree in 1890. Wells did not publish his writings until 1901, when his work Anticipations, full of visions of what the world might look like in 2000, made its debut. The aptly-named Anticipations was the first of the many beloved works that would establish Wells firmly in the science-fiction genre. A free-thinker whose views aligned with some of the most progressive philosophies of his day, Wells's ability to look beyond the here and now and offer vivid tableaux of worlds that might be has inspired fear and fantasy among readers for generations.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

by H. G. Wells [1898]
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and ...