Finally! A five-star novel by H. G. Wells!

I'm not sure if I read this in my childhood or not. I think not. If I didn't, I should have since I read almost every other H. G. Wells novel as a boy. And this is far and above his best. It is the granddaddy of alien invasion stories and still holds up rather well. Wells foresaw a number of science fiction themes in this book, alien invasion, post-apocalyptic, he even toys with the idea of terra-forming. His descriptions of the Martians and their ensuing carnage stays tight and suspenseful. His battle scenes are amazingly good for a man who considered himself a pacifist most of his life. Perhaps the most terrifying point in the book is not in the battles but a dialogue in which a surviving soldier explain how mankind can survive the Martian holocaust and the narrator reacts to his cold and brutal frankness with both repulsion and admiration. This is a tense and excellent novel that is the base of all science-fiction to come.