Book Review: War of the Worlds

Getting back to some of the things I did over vacation, I took, my friend, Rob's advice and read the wonderful book, "WAR OF THE WORLDS" by H.G. Wells.

Considering that this book was written in the late 1800's, the man was certainly a visionary. His concepts and depictions of the invasion of Earth by belligerent Martians was nothing short of astounding. He told the story. He gave enough description without bogging the story with too much.

There were so many reasons why I loved this book:

• The words jump off the page and dare you to put the book down, but you can't. It's too well written. You just want to keep reading to see what happens next.

• He used known technology to the breaking point. No one in those days had any idea how space travel could be possible. His concept of some giant launcher firing canisters of Martians and their various machines across the expanse of space was brilliant. The Martians had to build and assemble their machinery once they made it to this planet. The idea was shocking to me, but I found it compelling. It's reasonable that dismantled machines will take up less space in those canisters and allow for more "stuff" to be stowed for the invasion.

• The Martian's machines were NOT invulnerable. Through the pages of the book three or four Martian Fighting Machines (that's the name, not War Machines) were destroyed even with the UK's relatively crude fighting power.

The story is shocking, compelling, exciting, and addictive. If you love a truly great sci-fi story, you absolutely must read this book. You won't be sorry.