Saturday, November 2, 2013

The War of the Worlds


By H.G. Wells

Something has just landed in the country fields, and unidentifiable object that causes quite a stir. When it begins to move, the people, curious as ever wait with baited breath to see who could be inside. What ensues is a terrifying account of a Martian invasion told in the perspective of a man who saw it all from beginning to end.

 
Oh H.G. Wells, I’m sure this book was the height of science fiction in its day, but I was so bored. It was so over-worded and long winded that I felt it could’ve been made into a sufficient short story vs. a full bred novel. More than half of the book was spent running around the English countryside staring at the giant metal Martians burning things with its laser vision and spent in exposition about trivial things. Honestly, I can tell you precisely what happens in 3 sentences without feeling like I’ve left anything of importance out. I really do feel like this is a period-piece rather than a long-standing piece. It was hard to muddle through, but I was determined to do it. The end had more punch to it and was more exciting, but about 75-100 pages in the middle were just painful to get through because of the sheer wordage.

 
I give this a 2.5 out of 5

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