The War of the Worlds is the first modern alien invasion novel, and has been massively influential in the genre. And even this description is an understatement.
As with the best science-fiction, the story makes use of the extraordinary events of the novel to explore themes familiar to the reader. Wells was very much interested in social reform and the political landscape of his time, a progressive, and admitted that his story of Martian invasion was, at least in part, a comment on British imperialism. On the self-entitled rape and pillage of foreign lands and people, with only self-interest fuelling the spread of the empire.
Throughout the novel, the narrator reflects upon how humanity might seem nothing more than insects or cattle to Martians with their superior intelligence, and their apparently being more developed on the evolutionary scale. The Martians conquer and take the land seemingly with that same entitlement and self-interest that readers might recognise in the actions of their own imperial nation.
But the novel comments not just on the social, but also on the scientific. As mentioned above, Wells also considers evolution and humanity's place on that slippery scale. As I say, the author compares human beings to other animals, such as rabbits and ants, when he stacks them up against the intelligence and physiology of the Martian invaders.
Again, in this, the author has been able to consider humanity's sense of entitlement in the way that it exploits life on Planet Earth. The narrator considering that his own experience of subjugation has changed the way he sees humanity's treatment of animal life. However, the fact that some of the more highly evolved animals can be affected by the smaller, less evolved creatures is also explored. From the extra-terrestrial armies, to the bacteria of our own world.
The main themes which run throughout the novel are scientific and social, turning a mirror on humanity and our place in the big wide scope of time and space. Asking questions about where we are, where we have been, and where we are going.
There are signs in the novel that Wells was not wholly optimistic about these questions. Some characters come to an end not in the instant death of a Martian heat ray, but under the feet of fellow human beings.
At the time of Wells' writing War of the Worlds, it really was thought possible life might exist on Mars. An idea dismissed as pure fiction today, but in the late nineteenth century, when the planet had only been observed through telescopes, the possibility seemed real, and exciting.
An Italian astronomer, Giovanni Schiapparelli, had observed channels on the surface of Mars in 1878. A geographical detail of the planet which gave rise to ideas about extra-terrestrial life creating canals or irrigation for the movement of water from the planet's poles. Again, an idea that might seem silly today, but space exploration was a thing of fantasy at the time, and what could be observed through telescopes was obviously limited. And so, the minds of nineteenth century earthlings were left to fill in the gaps for themselves. If nothing else, it proved wonderfully fertile ground for H. G. Wells and other science fiction writers of the time. And in turn, a great influence on all those writers of the genre that followed.
At the time Wells wrote The War of the Worlds, the invasion novel was very popular, however these novels depicted human beings invading the lands of other human beings. Pondering the questions of what if this nation invaded that nation? Or, what if war came to Dorking? That sort of thing.
Wells' genius was to write the invasion novel which pitted humanity against a far greater foe, to set his sights beyond this blue and green planet falling through space.
I think Wells had to have his invaders be creatures of superior intelligence and evolution. Something profoundly removed from earthbound cares and concerns. It is an excellent device for dismantling humanity's foibles and cruelties through the eyes of the ultimate outsiders. The novel even opens with the Martians observing humanity as though we were nothing more than specimens of life in a laboratory. No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
I don't think myself a particularly keen science fiction fan, but I do enjoy those authors who use the premise of their fantastic stories to turn their gaze on real issues. And, of course, the genre offers itself effortlessly to asking questions about where we might be heading.
In turn, the science fiction of today can very well become the scientific truth of today. A number of scientists, whose work would lead eventually to the Apollo moon landings, said they were inspired by the descriptions of space travel in the novel.
Wells also predicted darker things, a state of total war in England, for example, in this novel, and later in others, which was considered fantastical when first published. However, when World War II brought destruction to British cities it became all too real. As did the descriptions of Martian weaponry, with their weapons of war including the use of chemicals, much like what would be seen in later, very real wars.
Today, with the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns still very fresh in the public consciousness, the reader might find themselves drawn by the author's consideration of bacterial life and the spread of disease. How life can be brought down by that which we cannot see but with microscopes. And that is probably why the novel has never been out of print and is one of the most influential science fiction stories ever written. It casts its eye upon the world in which it was created, the world of nineteenth century imperial England, but it persists. Still gazing at the world with a relevant comment on the progress of humanity and where we are heading.
For those that might be put off by the age of the novel (it was first published in 1898), I say to you that the novel still feels quite modern and fresh. Yes, there are some antiquated words or phrases, and references that the reader might have to refer to notes to understand, but it is quite readable to the modern reader. There are not so many dated references that the reader will be wading through them like mud. Perhaps because the story is extraordinary anyway, asking the reader to believe in aliens from Mars, it is easier for the reader to immerse themselves into a world separated from them by time too.
I very much recommend this book, to science fiction fans, to fans of classic fiction, and to anyone that likes a good story. And, if nothing else, if you've ever watched a film about aliens or alien invasion, it might be fun for you to see where it all began. Because I can almost guarantee this story has touched many of the space stories that followed it!
You can purchase a copy of The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells here.
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