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Surrey - [alternative] The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells


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The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells

 

Synopsis:

Cylinders land on earth and the invaders, from Mars, with their huge, round bodies and tentacles, start to vaporize the people of Earth. Houses, towns and cities are soon destroyed in a spiral of violence, creating civil panic and mass evacuations before a foul black smoke is released by the aggressive alien force. But the fightback must begin, and it comes from an unexpected quarter. H.G. Wells' classic tale of invasion has stirred our imagination for over a hundred years. Its intense mix of realism and fantasy continues to prick at anyone interested in a great adventure story by a master storyteller.

 

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Edited by chesilbeach
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This is the first book I can tick off the challenge list :boogie: the first that I've not read before that is.

 

Review: My love affair with vintage sci-fi continues :smile: Like Animal Farm this is another book I wish I'd come to with fresh eyes. I've not read it before but I've seen the old 1953 movie (haha .. watch out for the old vacuum cleaner coming through the window :D) and the more recent Spielberg one (better effects but inferior in all other ways imo) and also am a great admirer of Jeff Wayne's musical version so, regardless of how faithful they were, I already knew the basic outline of the story and how it ends etc which takes some of the anticipation away.


Not much though because H.G. Wells' words are just mesmerising and so visual .. I saw it all far more clearly than I did whilst watching the films. That he should have written this in the late 1800's is nothing short of amazing .. what a visionary. It has far more of a ring of truth about it than most of the alien films I've seen (the ones where they invade and we kick their butts ) .. the truth is we would probably underestimate them and pay the consequences .. though hopefully we will never know I know the area fairly well around Woking so that helped with the visuals and made it extra creepy. He is fairly descriptive but not a word is wasted (though one or two may have been repeated a tad too often .. see below) consequently I could see it all as clear as day .. the martians especially and I'm not good with alien creatures usually.

The only little niggle I had .. and it is very tiny .. was his slight overuse of the words 'tumult' and 'tumultuous' .. 'tumult' especially and though they are very good words and probably ones that best sum up the situation I do think he might have used others occasionally to give them a rest For instance he doesn't once use 'commotion', 'agitation' or 'uproar' and there is only one 'disturbance' and one 'confusion'. It felt a bit like it was his new favourite word .. however I'm far from suggesting I know better than him (God forbid .. I can't even punctuate :blush2:) and he did only use it 12 times .. once my mind had fixed on it though I kept looking out for it :blush2:

It's a fantastic read and I love the conclusion .. a very clever and believable way of resolving the matter with just a hint of problems yet to come (which the musical gives full vent to). 5/5

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