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War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches
500 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 10, 2021
20 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
About the author
H.G. Wells
5,353 books11.1k followersHerbert George Wells was born to a working class family in Kent, England. Young Wells received a spotty education, interrupted by several illnesses and family difficulties, and became a draper's apprentice as a teenager. The headmaster of Midhurst Grammar School, where he had spent a year, arranged for him to return as an "usher," or student teacher. Wells earned a government scholarship in 1884, to study biology under Thomas Henry Huxley at the Normal School of Science. Wells earned his bachelor of science and doctor of science degrees at the University of London. After marrying his cousin, Isabel, Wells began to supplement his teaching salary with short stories and freelance articles, then books, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
Wells created a mild scandal when he divorced his cousin to marry one of his best students, Amy Catherine Robbins. Although his second marriage was lasting and produced two sons, Wells was an unabashed advocate of free (as opposed to "indiscriminate") love. He continued to openly have extra-marital liaisons, most famously with Margaret Sanger, and a ten-year relationship with the author Rebecca West, who had one of his two out-of-wedlock children. A one-time member of the Fabian Society, Wells sought active change. His 100 books included many novels, as well as nonfiction, such as A Modern Utopia (1905), The Outline of History (1920), A Short History of the World (1922), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), and The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind (1932). One of his booklets was Crux Ansata, An Indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Wells toyed briefly with the idea of a "divine will" in his book, God the Invisible King (1917), it was a temporary aberration. Wells used his international fame to promote his favorite causes, including the prevention of war, and was received by government officials around the world. He is best-remembered as an early writer of science fiction and futurism.
He was also an outspoken socialist. Wells and Jules Verne are each sometimes referred to as "The Fathers of Science Fiction". D. 1946.
More: http://philosopedia.org/index.php/H._...
http://www.online-literature.com/well...
http://www.hgwellsusa.50megs.com/
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 3, 2025
I loved the premise of this book—create stories of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and depict the Martian invasion from the viewpoints of famous people of the time. Editor Kevin J. Anderson gathered stories from many impressive authors. This promised to be a fun anthology.
The reality didn’t quite live up to the promise for me. When you depict the same aliens, the same tripod fighting machines doing the same thing to different cities all over the world, the stories tend to run together. Moreover, many aren’t stories at all, lacking the typical try-fail cycles of the story form, and leaving the major plot problem unresolved at the end. They become vignettes, or, as the book’s title suggests, dispatches, with no more dramatic form than a newspaper article.
However, some stories stood out by providing unique takes. Mike Resnick’s story featuring Teddy Roosevelt starts the anthology with a bully story of convincing rough riders. Gregory Benford’s and David Brin’s story with Jules Verne gives us a funny interaction with the Eiffel Tower told with Verne’s characteristic style. Daniel Keys Moran’s and Jodi Moran’s story with Mark Twain provided a realistic take involving not only Twain’s humor but his penchant for get-rich-quick schemes. Dave Wolverton’s tale of Jack London’s ordeal with the Martians in the far north gave a fascinating perspective on how the aliens might have fared in a colder climate, dealing with the hardy humans in those areas.
I’ll throw in some bonus points for Connie Willis’ story involving Emily Dickinson. Considering that the poet died a dozen years before the fictional invasion, the concept of the story stretches even normal fiction boundaries. That Willis succeeded at all is due to the unrelenting hilarity of the story itself, with references that are funny on many levels, probably some that only a scholar of Dickinson would get.
I do recommend the book, but only for fans of early science fiction, lovers of the late Victorian age.
The reality didn’t quite live up to the promise for me. When you depict the same aliens, the same tripod fighting machines doing the same thing to different cities all over the world, the stories tend to run together. Moreover, many aren’t stories at all, lacking the typical try-fail cycles of the story form, and leaving the major plot problem unresolved at the end. They become vignettes, or, as the book’s title suggests, dispatches, with no more dramatic form than a newspaper article.
However, some stories stood out by providing unique takes. Mike Resnick’s story featuring Teddy Roosevelt starts the anthology with a bully story of convincing rough riders. Gregory Benford’s and David Brin’s story with Jules Verne gives us a funny interaction with the Eiffel Tower told with Verne’s characteristic style. Daniel Keys Moran’s and Jodi Moran’s story with Mark Twain provided a realistic take involving not only Twain’s humor but his penchant for get-rich-quick schemes. Dave Wolverton’s tale of Jack London’s ordeal with the Martians in the far north gave a fascinating perspective on how the aliens might have fared in a colder climate, dealing with the hardy humans in those areas.
I’ll throw in some bonus points for Connie Willis’ story involving Emily Dickinson. Considering that the poet died a dozen years before the fictional invasion, the concept of the story stretches even normal fiction boundaries. That Willis succeeded at all is due to the unrelenting hilarity of the story itself, with references that are funny on many levels, probably some that only a scholar of Dickinson would get.
I do recommend the book, but only for fans of early science fiction, lovers of the late Victorian age.
Displaying 1 of 1 review