War of the Worlds

by Kevin J. Anderson, Dave John Wolverton, Connie Willis, et al.

Book Overview

In an anthology of tales inspired by Wells's The War of the Worlds, notable science fiction authors--such as Connie Willis, Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg, and Gregory Benford--imagine the Martian invasion seen through the eyes of his contemporaries in other locations throughout the world.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553103539
• ISBN13: 9780553103533
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: Spectra Books
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

War of the Worlds on a global scale!

What if the Martian Invasion had happened all over the world? And what happens if it's witnessed by all the great authors, such as Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Teddy Roosevelt? From China to Cuba, from Paris to New Orleans, from Africa to Canada follow the reports of the alien invasion. Most of the stories are very good but some are old, like 'Night of the Cooters' which is a cool story about Martians against Texas Rangers, and some don't seem to fit with the rest of the stories, like 'Paris Conquers All' in which the aliens and the machines are NOT the same used in the other stories.

Some good stories.

This had "Soul Selects her own Society...." which won a Hugo, & "Foreign Devis" which won a sideways. I found some of the sexual detail in foreign devils irritating, but I love the Chinese flavor. (Fairly knowledgable on China too) Soul... was pretty funny, but perhaps too dry for some. Other standouts were mentioned by the others. Since many great stories come from theme anthologies it's perhaps unwise to make hard & fast rules about them. Some of these stories I read first @ asimov's

Possibly better than the novel that inspired it.

I was absoloutley blown away by the quality of this book. The stories from the viewpoints of Roosevelt, Twain, Joe Pullitzer and the Texas Rangers are just as entertaining (and may even be better) than Wells' original masterpiece. Best read with Jeff Wayne's musical version of War of the Worlds playing in the background, at night.

Wonderful idea, well executed

I had a ball with this book. Essentially, it's a collection of pastiches in the styles of numerous writers and public personalities, depicting either how they experienced the 1898 Martian Invasion or how they were inspired by it later. There are also some third-person accounts where the subject (Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein) isn't really best known as a man of letters. Although all these accounts pretty much stay within H.G. Wells' framework, there's an enormous variety. Henry James wanders through a deserted London. Mark Twain hides in a New Orleans cellar with a bunch of disreputables, including a dwarf and a gypsy. A bunch of Texas Rangers take a no-nonsense and no-prisoners approach to the Martians unlucky enough to land outside Pecos City. A couple of the pieces rise above pastiche into the realm of art. "The Roosevelt Dispatches" perfectly captures Theodore Roosevelt's energy and epistolary style as he describes an encounter with a Martian in the jungles of Cuba (the Martian comes off second best). And the Jack London piece is a seamless imitation of the genuine London style, as well as one of the few pieces in the book to explore interesting thematic territory. There are a couple of duds, but, in all, this should be considered as much literature as science fiction. I hope Kevin Anderson, who put the project together, can do something similar in the future.