My, that is a pretty cover. Alright, The War of the Worlds! I read the majority of this book while eating french fries in a lodge on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Since this is kind of an apocalyptic book, I spent a lot of my time wondering what I would do if there was to be some sort of alien invasion right then and there. Would I stay on top of the mountain? Climb down? Steal all the french fries?
I didn't really know what to expect going into this book. I, like pretty much everyone of my generation, have seen the Tom Cruise version of this story and been kind of traumatized by it, but this didn't feel quite as scary. Probably all the quaint old-timey British language and sheer politeness of the narrator. Instead of, "Oh, god, those aliens just totally massacred a bunch of people and there's bodies everywhere HOLY SHIT," it was kind of like, "Oh, dear, the aliens seem to be causing quite a lot of destruction and I do feel most concerned about it."
What was also confusing about this book was the fact that my new university's library only had the critical edition with commentary by some kind of crazy philosophy dude, who kept inserting really long footnotes deconstructing the dichotomy of the everday-ism with the relative socialistic outcome of the alien invasion and just hating on the narrator all over the place for wanting things like a cup of tea and his wife. Kind of made reading distracting, mostly because I didn't give two hoots about apparently the deep social commentary on the futility of our pretense of civilization. I hate when they take books and rattle them around so thoroughly that the whole original story falls through. Yes, I'm sure Wells was trying to make some sort of commentary about how much we take for granted and how civilized we think we are, and I am positive he was making a not-so-subtle commentary about colonialism, but it's still a story about Martians invading earth with giant stilt machines. I don't think we should lose sight of that bit, because that's pretty awesome.
Overall, I was pretty impressed by the scientific knowledge Wells showed throughout the book, given that it was written hundreds of years ago, and I thought that above-mentioned colonialism themes were really well done and thoughtful- especially when the narrator was putting himself in the Martian's shoes and realizing that they probably weren't being intentionally cruel, they just didn't even consider that the beings they were destroying were intelligent in their own way and perhaps wanted to keep on living. I kind of saw the ending coming due the Tom Cruise movie, but despite Snooty Footnoter saying that it was a "terribly weak ending", I think it's realistic. I mean, it's sci-fi. At least he got his science right.
In summary: A really entertaining little story that is guaranteed to scar the children, with some strong underlying messages. Just don't get the critical commentary.
