Thoughts on The War of the Worlds

By window_verse

Honestly, it’s kind of wild how much impact this book has had. It’s not just “aliens show up,” it’s also this jab at colonial stuff—like the Martians basically come in and destroy everything, and then they end up getting wiped out by diseases that were already part of the world. The comparison they make to what Europeans did to Tasmania/Tasmanians feels really harsh, but it also kind of makes the whole thing land differently. I also can’t stop noticing how often disease shows up in books from this era. It was such a real, constant threat back then. So when the Martians die from something terrestrial, it feels like it’s pointing at this stubborn human resilience—like we fought them as hard as we could and somehow we were still “better” in the end because of what we’d already lived through. It’s an early alien invasion story but it reads super modern in a bunch of ways. My favorite parts were the “the Martians know how to use doors” line, and the whole bit about them not using wheels. And honestly, the biggest weapon humanity has is just a navy warship, which is such a specific choice. I loved the whole giant cylinder thing too—like they have to be unscrewed from the inside, and it almost feels like an early UFO-ish idea. The Martians themselves are fun to picture: big body, tentacles, huge eyes, beaks, and the tripods with the heat rays. The whole destruction sequences are great to visualize, and I was especially thrown by the red plants showing up after the cylinders crash. It reminded me of that “A Quiet Place Year One” movie thing where crashing objects bring some growing fungus that starts taking over. I know it’s not the same setup, but the vibe felt similar. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and I’m glad it’s still recognized as one of the first big alien invasion stories. You can totally see its influence everywhere after that, and it gave me a better perspective on why it caught on so hard.