The War of the Worlds (Modern Library Classics)
by H. G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke
List Price:
Our Price: $3.11
You Save: $3.89 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Arthur C. Clarke, H. G. WellsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-12
ISBN: 0375759239
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Modern Library
Book Reviews of The War of the Worlds (Modern Library Classics)
Book Review: The War of the Worlds
Summary: 5 Stars
Mars has long since sparked our imagination. For centuries, mankind has wondered whether this cold, dark, and barren planet has ever supported intelligent life. When an observer in the English conutryside, whose name is never mentioned, notices gas flumes coming from the surface of the alien world, he becomes intrigued, especially when, ten days later, a green star impacts a near-by farm. However, curiousity changes to terror,when a cylinder rises from above the wreckage and shoots out and invisble heat ray that kills everyone around but himself. Confused, bewildered, and overwhelmed, he grabs his wife and heads to the town of Leatherhead, where he leaves his wife behind to look back at the wreckage. Over the course of the novel, he discovers more and more about these machines of terror in secret. However, he learns that even the great English army is no match for these weapons, as the army is quickly devastated. The Martian cylinders continue to come and transform into menacing tripods that spray a poisonous black smoke, silencing England and eventually, London. However, when the main character walks through a deserted street, he notices that several Martians have died. With the death toll of one billion people, humanity had survived the invasion, thanks simple microbes, which were not present in the Martians' own environment. Thus, the Martians were brought to their demise when they first invaded. As the main character walks on, he sees his wife, alive, and a new life ahead. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells, is an excellent science-fiction novel for its suspense, its action, and its revolutionary science-fiction.
H.G. Wells wrote a great suspense novel when he wrote War of the Worlds. When the main character notices a shooting green star fall across the sky, he becomes curious. The reader is wondering what will happen next, until the alien machine lets out all fury on the crowd before it. The reader is then thrown into amazement as the machines of terror devastate the English countryside. When the machines arrive at a small port town, the masses trying to evacuate panic, the army tries to take them down, and so the war of the worlds begins.
Action is also prominent in the War of the Worlds. When the tripods first impact the port town, there are mass sequences of explosions, in which the Royal Army does manage to shoot down one of the tripods. But the only problem is that there are several more left standing, advancing with great speed. The tripods shoot their heat rays into the water, causing it to be boiling-hot, literally frying the fleeing people who used the water as a refuge. The main character is almost crushed by one of the feet of the machine, and is almost boiled to death by the sheer heat of the water. This signifies how much action this novel contains.
H.G. Wells revolutionizes the word "science-fiction" in writing the War of the Worlds. Written at the turn of the nineteenth century, Wells wrote of intelligent life on Mars, in fact, more intelligent than us. He imagines a cold Martian world that is getting colder and less inhabitable, which is why the Martians invade, to find a warm planet to thrive in. He invents the alien cylinders and the tripods, 100 feet tall weapons with tentacle-like arms and an invisible heat ray that turns anything to flames. H.G. Wells also created the Martians themselves, creatures crushed under the weight of Earth's gravity and creatures that have no resemblance to mankind what-so-ever.
The War of the Worlds tells a story of the Martian invasion and an Englishman's attempt to survive in the process. It's best trait, however, is the fact that it has been a classic for nearly a century. Children, teens, and adults alike still find fascination in his works. The results are in the sales: his books have sold millions of copies. Besides this, the War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells, is a an excellent science-fiction novel for its thrills, its climatic battles, and for its futuristic appeal. I rate this novel five stars out of five.
A. Chappell
Summary of The War of the Worlds (Modern Library Classics)
Introduction by Arthur C. ClarkeCommentary by Jules Verne and an anonymous reviewer from The Critic
?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.? Thus begins one of the most terrifying and morally prescient science fiction novels ever penned. Beginning with a series of strange flashes in the distant night sky, the Martian attack initially causes little concern on Earth. Then the destruction erupts?ten massive aliens roam England and destroy with heat rays everything in their path. Very soon humankind finds itself on the brink of extinction. H. G. Wells raises questions of mortality, man?s place in nature, and the evil lurking in the technological future?questions that remain urgently relevant in the twenty-first century.
Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide
This is the granddaddy of all alien invasion stories, first published by H.G. Wells in 1898. The novel begins ominously, as the lone voice of a narrator tells readers that "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..."
Things then progress from a series of seemingly mundane reports about odd atmospheric disturbances taking place on Mars to the arrival of Martians just outside of London. At first the Martians seem laughable, hardly able to move in Earth's comparatively heavy gravity even enough to raise themselves out of the pit created when their spaceship landed. But soon the Martians reveal their true nature as death machines 100-feet tall rise up from the pit and begin laying waste to the surrounding land. Wells quickly moves the story from the countryside to the evacuation of London itself and the loss of all hope as England's military suffers defeat after defeat. With horror his narrator describes how the Martians suck the blood from living humans for sustenance, and how it's clear that man is not being conquered so much a corralled. --Craig E. Engler
Classics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Classics Books
Native sonby Richard Wright
Perennial Library; Published: 1987; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.75
Native Son: And How Bigger Was Bornby Richard Wright
Perennial; Published: 1993-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $60.00
Raphael and the Noble Taskby Catherine Salton
Harper; Published: 2000-10-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Island (Perennial Classics)by Aldous Huxley
Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Published: 2002-07-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Tree Grows in Brooklynby Betty Smith
Harper; Published: 2001-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.17
Price in other shops:
The Great Divorce CDby C. S. Lewis
HarperAudio; Published: 2003-11-25; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.22
Price in other shops:
Great Expectationsby Charles Dickens
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1979-06; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
This Side of Paradiseby Fitzgerald
Scribner Paper Fiction; Published: 1988-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.95
Price in other shops:
Black Coffee (Poirot)by Agatha Christie
Harper Collins Pb; Published: 2002-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $68.32
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1960s)by Joan Didion
Flamingo; Published: 2001-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $22.25
Similar Books and other products
Frankenstein (Dover Thrift Editions)by Mary Shelley
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1994-10-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Treasure Island (Dover Thrift Editions)by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dover Publications; Dover Publications; Published: 1993-04-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.75
Price in other shops:
Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus: The 1818 Text (Oxford World's Classics)by Mary Shelley
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.40
Price in other shops:
The Invisible Man (Dover Thrift Editions)by H. G. Wells
Dover Publications; Published: 1992-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
20,000 Leagues Under the Seaby Jules Verne
Bantam Classics; Published: 1985-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
The Invisible Man (Signet Classics)by H.G. Wells
Signet Classics; Published: 2010-10-05; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.81
Price in other shops:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dover Thrift Editions)by Robert Louis Stevenson
Dover Publications; Published: 1991-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Dover Thrift Editions)by Jules Verne
Dover Publications; Published: 2005-03-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.87
Price in other shops:
The Island of Dr. Moreau (Dover Thrift Editions)by H. G. Wells
Dover Publications; Published: 1996-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
The Time Machine (Dover Thrift Editions)by H. G. Wells
Dover Publications; Published: 1995-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.52
Price in other shops: