The War of the Worlds...random thoughts

Last week during my at-home mini-vacation, I did manage to finish up a few books. Not nearly as many as I should have, I suppose, but such is the life of an extremely slow reader. The one drawback to having finished these books is that I now have to review them. Well, I guess I don't actually "have" to...there's no gun to my head or anything...but as three of the four of them are for challenges, it does seem the right thing to do. They're quite a varied lot, and I thoroughly adored three of them. As for the fourth, well, I'll try to explain my feelings when I talk about it.

First up...The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells. Though I've wanted to read this book for a while, it was really Carl's Sci-Fi Experience that urged me to pick it up at this particular time. Oh, and am I glad it did...so thank you, Carl! I can't tell you how much I loved this book...in fact, it's my favorite read of the year so far. (O.K., O.K., I know I haven't really knocked that many out so far this year, but still.)

I honestly didn't know what to expect from this book. I, of course, did know the general idea...Martians invading Earth. But beyond that, no clue. And as I've never read anything by H.G. Wells, I didn't know what to expect from his writing. I'm willing to admit that I tend to be slightly "afraid" of classics sometimes, that I sometimes don't have the level of appreciation that I probably should. But I needn't have worried here. The War of the Worlds was exceedingly readable. And fun. And suspenseful. And quite simply a great story.

I'm certainly no science fiction aficionado (one of the reasons Carl's Sci-Fi Experience appealed to me so much was the opportunity to expand my horizons a bit), but this book definitely contains some of my stereotypical visions for the genre. Ah, but the way Wells wrote about them was just wonderful...

We've got Martians:

"I think everyone expected to see a man emerge--possibly something a little unlike us terrestrial men, but in all essentials a man. I know I did. But, looking, I presently saw something stirring within the shadow: greyish billowy movements, one above another, and then two luminous disks--like eyes. Then something resembling a little grey snake, about the thickness of a walking stick, coiled up out of the writhing middle, and wriggled in the air toward me--and then another."

We've got heat rays:

"However it is done, it is certain that a beam of heat is the essence of the matter. Heat, and invisible, instead of visible, light. Whatever is combustible flashes into flame at its touch, lead runs like water, it softens iron, cracks and melts glass, and when it falls upon water, incontinently that explodes into steam.

That night nearly forty people lay under the starlight about the pit, charred and distorted beyond recognition, and all night long the common from Horsell to Maybury was deserted and brightly ablaze."

We've got giant metal "monsters":

"And this Thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in its career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash, and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer."

As I said this book is quite suspenseful. Frightening. I can only imagine how much more so it must have been back when it was first published. I think one of the ways Wells managed to keep me so involved was through his first person narrative. Unless I missed something somewhere, we never even learn the man's name. And while the story takes place over just a few short weeks, we witness this man going through a life-time's worth of emotions.

I have enjoyed the Sci-Fi Experience so much that I'm going to attempt to squeeze in one last book before its official end. With all the wonderful things I've read about Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, how can I possibly resist any longer? I know Chris will be proud of me.

Anyway, in addition to the Sci-Fi Experience, this book will fill the "W title" slot in Joy's A-Z Challenge, the 1890s slot in 3M's Decades Challenge (though this wasn't one of my original choices), and fulfill another requirement in Ariel's Unread Authors Challenge. Four for the price of one...can't beat that, huh?




Hmmm...I'd originally planned to post all of my reviews in one post, but I think that might just be too long, huh? Guess I'll be back later with another.