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War of the Worlds: Battleground Australia
Marauders from Mars
War of the Battleground Australia sheds fresh, Antipodean light on H.G. Wells' original tale in stories that traverse the southern continent.
Home to the planet's longest-surviving mysteries, Australia now plays victim to marauding Martians in this outstanding collection of exciting stories set in the past, present and future. Australian Invasion
It is well-known that Wells found vital inspiration for his 1897 novel in the horrific plight of Tasmanian Aboriginals who, within his lifetime, were virtually wiped out by the warfare and disease brought by foreign invaders.
In Battleground Australia we discover that the war with Mars was not confined to England and did not end with all Martians destroyed by disease. In Australia some of the aliens survived and went underground, to emerge a century or more later. Best Science Fiction
A Collection of Australia's best-selling literary, crime and speculative fiction writers Kerry Greenwood, Jack Dann, Carmel Bird, Jenny Valentish, Janeen Webb, Sean Williams, Kaaron Warren and Angela Meyer with a foreword by film director Alex Proyas ( The Crow ; I, Robot ; Gods of Egypt )
War of the Battleground Australia sheds fresh, Antipodean light on H.G. Wells' original tale in stories that traverse the southern continent.
Home to the planet's longest-surviving mysteries, Australia now plays victim to marauding Martians in this outstanding collection of exciting stories set in the past, present and future. Australian Invasion
It is well-known that Wells found vital inspiration for his 1897 novel in the horrific plight of Tasmanian Aboriginals who, within his lifetime, were virtually wiped out by the warfare and disease brought by foreign invaders.
In Battleground Australia we discover that the war with Mars was not confined to England and did not end with all Martians destroyed by disease. In Australia some of the aliens survived and went underground, to emerge a century or more later. Best Science Fiction
A Collection of Australia's best-selling literary, crime and speculative fiction writers Kerry Greenwood, Jack Dann, Carmel Bird, Jenny Valentish, Janeen Webb, Sean Williams, Kaaron Warren and Angela Meyer with a foreword by film director Alex Proyas ( The Crow ; I, Robot ; Gods of Egypt )
- GenresShort StoriesAnthologies
298 pages, Hardcover
Published June 10, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 23, 2020
Great collection with an Australian flavour that never cheapens itself in the process (ie. it’s NOT Crocodile Dundee vs the Martians).
Not everyone will like every story in an anthology and I was not a fan of some. But there were plenty enough to satisfy.
Pick of the bunch (5 star brilliance): Jason Fischer’s Rising the Snails (God, I hope he writes this as a full novel or novella somehow); Kaaron Warren’s The Sixth Falling Star; Jason Franks’ A Fair Go to Mars; Rick Kennett’s The Enemy of the Enemy; Angela Meyers’ Nothing Missed. These were right up my alley and perfectly pitched.
Not everyone will like every story in an anthology and I was not a fan of some. But there were plenty enough to satisfy.
Pick of the bunch (5 star brilliance): Jason Fischer’s Rising the Snails (God, I hope he writes this as a full novel or novella somehow); Kaaron Warren’s The Sixth Falling Star; Jason Franks’ A Fair Go to Mars; Rick Kennett’s The Enemy of the Enemy; Angela Meyers’ Nothing Missed. These were right up my alley and perfectly pitched.
September 19, 2022
Being an anthology it's unlikely every story will be brilliant so I'll rate each storyand give a sentence or two about them.
Introduction (War of the Worlds: Battleground Australia) by Alex Proyas - a review rather than an introduction.
Foreword: The Martians in Australia by Steve Proposch and Christopher Sequeira and Bryce Stevens - an introduction
In Re: The Strange Fate of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Jack Dann - 2/5 Well written, but pretentious. The inclusion of Samuel Clemens and Herbert Wells as characters detracts rather than enhances the story. The War of the Worlds story being told did not need them.
The Saltwater Battle by Lindy Cameron and Kerry Greenwood - 5/5 Beautifully Australian in language and tone. Adeed some nice details to Wells vision of the Martians and the actions on earth.
Apostles of Mercy by Janeen Webb - 5/5 Excellent inclusion of snippets of the original, and sympathetic depiction of landing . Then gives a Martian perspective, with religious and scientific counterpoints. An all round excellent read.
Banjo's War by Narrelle M Harris -3/5 The need to support the story by the use of historical figures shows a lack of imagination. There is no story. It's an averagely written battle scene.
The Inconvenient Visitors; or, An Unrestful Cure by Lucy Sussex - 2/5 A group of people mostly surviving the Martian invasion. All the characters are a bit flat and lifeless. And very samey. There was a couple of points where I didn't know which character was doing what as I couldn't distinguish between them.
The Enemy of My Enemy by Rick Kennett - 2/5 The Australianisms feel artificial and forced in. The first half is just description with no story. There is eventually a story, but the end is farcical. This had a lot of potential, but just never quite gelled.
A Fair Go to Mars by Jason Franks - 4/5 The language of the side kick character wasn't convincing and ther were some weird point of view shifts, but the story was good. A quasi satirical start to a 2nd Martian invasion.
Speed Bonnie Boat by Carmel Bird - 4/5 The preach soapbox bit at the start detracts from an otherwise beautifully written and structured story. It provides a history of how a Martian survived 100 years from the first invasion to begin a new invasion of the present.
Doctor Were's Son by Dmetri Kakmi - 5/5 This crossbreeds Wells' Martians with the traditional alien hybrid trope in an original and disturbing way. A very good, if perversely creepy, story.
Nothing Missed by Angela Meyer - 0/5 So badly written I regret reading it. Has little to do with any aspect of Wells' original. The anthology would have been better without the inclusion of this.
Cat and Mouse by Bill Congreve - 2/5 Standard horror story of killer vs victim, but the killer has been transposed with a Martian. And that's where it falls down. This cat and mouse plot doesn't work when the cat is also a mouse.
Even Less Than Zero by Jenny Valentish - 2/5 Not really a story. more a day in the life of a Martian porn star. The earlier story by Dmertri does the inter-species sex better.
Riding the Snails by Jason Fischer - 5/5 A tale of resistance to the Martian reich. A richly detailed world nicely extrapolated from a second and successful Martian invasion.
The Sixth Falling Star by Kaaron Warren - 5/5 Set a thousand years after the first invasion where humans have lost to the Martians again. This is very different story to the previous, but equally detailed and imaginative.
The Second Coming of the Martians by Sean Williams - 3/5 Very much and idea story. Unfortunately the great idea is delivered as a conversation between to entities so engagement.
Introduction (War of the Worlds: Battleground Australia) by Alex Proyas - a review rather than an introduction.
Foreword: The Martians in Australia by Steve Proposch and Christopher Sequeira and Bryce Stevens - an introduction
In Re: The Strange Fate of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Jack Dann - 2/5 Well written, but pretentious. The inclusion of Samuel Clemens and Herbert Wells as characters detracts rather than enhances the story. The War of the Worlds story being told did not need them.
The Saltwater Battle by Lindy Cameron and Kerry Greenwood - 5/5 Beautifully Australian in language and tone. Adeed some nice details to Wells vision of the Martians and the actions on earth.
Apostles of Mercy by Janeen Webb - 5/5 Excellent inclusion of snippets of the original, and sympathetic depiction of landing . Then gives a Martian perspective, with religious and scientific counterpoints. An all round excellent read.
Banjo's War by Narrelle M Harris -3/5 The need to support the story by the use of historical figures shows a lack of imagination. There is no story. It's an averagely written battle scene.
The Inconvenient Visitors; or, An Unrestful Cure by Lucy Sussex - 2/5 A group of people mostly surviving the Martian invasion. All the characters are a bit flat and lifeless. And very samey. There was a couple of points where I didn't know which character was doing what as I couldn't distinguish between them.
The Enemy of My Enemy by Rick Kennett - 2/5 The Australianisms feel artificial and forced in. The first half is just description with no story. There is eventually a story, but the end is farcical. This had a lot of potential, but just never quite gelled.
A Fair Go to Mars by Jason Franks - 4/5 The language of the side kick character wasn't convincing and ther were some weird point of view shifts, but the story was good. A quasi satirical start to a 2nd Martian invasion.
Speed Bonnie Boat by Carmel Bird - 4/5 The preach soapbox bit at the start detracts from an otherwise beautifully written and structured story. It provides a history of how a Martian survived 100 years from the first invasion to begin a new invasion of the present.
Doctor Were's Son by Dmetri Kakmi - 5/5 This crossbreeds Wells' Martians with the traditional alien hybrid trope in an original and disturbing way. A very good, if perversely creepy, story.
Nothing Missed by Angela Meyer - 0/5 So badly written I regret reading it. Has little to do with any aspect of Wells' original. The anthology would have been better without the inclusion of this.
Cat and Mouse by Bill Congreve - 2/5 Standard horror story of killer vs victim, but the killer has been transposed with a Martian. And that's where it falls down. This cat and mouse plot doesn't work when the cat is also a mouse.
Even Less Than Zero by Jenny Valentish - 2/5 Not really a story. more a day in the life of a Martian porn star. The earlier story by Dmertri does the inter-species sex better.
Riding the Snails by Jason Fischer - 5/5 A tale of resistance to the Martian reich. A richly detailed world nicely extrapolated from a second and successful Martian invasion.
The Sixth Falling Star by Kaaron Warren - 5/5 Set a thousand years after the first invasion where humans have lost to the Martians again. This is very different story to the previous, but equally detailed and imaginative.
The Second Coming of the Martians by Sean Williams - 3/5 Very much and idea story. Unfortunately the great idea is delivered as a conversation between to entities so engagement.
June 22, 2019
This was an intriguing collection of short stories, each one offering a different take on the Martian invasion from War of the Worlds, all set in Australia. Some I really enjoyed, while others were not quite as entertaining. But they all had me turning the page to find out what happened next.
With stories set during the initial invasion, present day, and in the future, this collection offers a diverse range of plots as the authors reimagine the world as we know it. It was hard to pick a favourite, with three standing out once I had finished the last page - Enemy of my Enemy, A Fair Go to Mars, and The Second Coming of the Martians, with Cat and Mouse also standing out.
With a range of characters both reliable and unreliable, flawed and heroic, and endings that leave you wondering, this collection is sure to delight science fiction fans who are looking for something different and are ready to explore a world of what ifs based on the one main event.
With stories set during the initial invasion, present day, and in the future, this collection offers a diverse range of plots as the authors reimagine the world as we know it. It was hard to pick a favourite, with three standing out once I had finished the last page - Enemy of my Enemy, A Fair Go to Mars, and The Second Coming of the Martians, with Cat and Mouse also standing out.
With a range of characters both reliable and unreliable, flawed and heroic, and endings that leave you wondering, this collection is sure to delight science fiction fans who are looking for something different and are ready to explore a world of what ifs based on the one main event.
August 1, 2019
Who ever thought of this proposition - that The War of the Worlds Martians ended up in Australia - is to be congratulated.
Fifteen fantastic stories by very accomplished Australian authors.
Fifteen fantastic stories by very accomplished Australian authors.
July 12, 2019
Great concept, wide variety of takes on the theme, overall it’s a fantastic read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews