Jan 6, 2010

The War of the Worlds | Literary Precedents

Like The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds is a seminal work — it sets precedents. It is the first "alien invasion" novel; all subsequent "alien invasion" novels owe something to Wells's novel, which set standards for the genre that are still in force. The battle of wits between overmatched human beings and merciless invaders, exotic alien war-machines, and heat rays all date back to The War of the Worlds. Wells's insistence on the accuracy of the novel's background details — from a scientific explanation of the astronomical relation between Earth and Mars to place names in the...