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Home > Books > Fiction > Science Fiction Books > T Science Fiction Books > The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

User Reviews

for The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

Rating Summary based on 8 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		6
  • 4 Stars
    		1
  • 3 Stars
    		0
  • 2 Stars
    		1
  • 1 Star
    		0

Detailed rating

  • Characters
  • How does it compare to other works by the same author?
  • How does it compare to similar books?
  • Readability
  • Story
  		• 3.4
  		• 3.6
  		• 4.3
  		• 4.1
  		• 4.3
Previous page Next page Page 1 of 1 | 1 to 8 out of 8 Review(s)
  • 51 of 51 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of tyger

    tyger

    5 Stars Subverting Suburbia & Sacking So. Kensington 04/07/2001
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Gripping Plot, Classic Story

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Some dated writing

    This review is about the book; I haven't seen the new Steven Spielberg film version. I understand the location has changed and some characters have been added. So, be warned, this might contain a spoiler or it might not. I honestly have no idea! H. G. Wells was not in a good mood when he wrote this classic science fiction novel. 'I completely sack and wreck Woking - killing my neighbours in painful and eccentric ways - then proceed via Kingston and Richmond to London, selecting South Kensington for feats of peculiar atrocity,' he wrote to a friend as a description of his work in progress. His ... more
  • 54 of 54 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of babajane32

    babajane32

    5 Stars A brave new world...... Review with images 04/04/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Classic,style,content

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none

    War of the worlds........ H.G Wells created this fantastic work of genius that was responsible for the only recorded full scale alien invasion panic ever recorded, such was it's unparalleled story line and it's conversion to radio play format. Many of you will have heard or be more familiar with the modern day audio transcript of this epic classic, let me assure you that despite being minus the teriffic sound tracks, this is equally inspiring to the imagination and has you so absorbed that you find yourself quaking in fear at the same timely moments. Those of you unfamiliar with one of Well's ... more
  • 13 of 13 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of GlasgowWho

    GlasgowWho

    5 Stars The Granddaddy of the Daleks 24/06/2009
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Beautifully written, exciting plot twists, a remarkable feeling of realness

    Disadvantages Disadvantages The plot may be too slow for some, the history is quite distant now

    For those who are only aware of Jeff Wayne or Steven Spielberg, this slim but eerie volume of late Victorian prose may come as a surprise. Just over 200 pages long (and originally serialised in "Pearons Magazine" in 1897), 1898's "The War of the Worlds" by HG Wells is effectively the great-granddaddy of every alien invasion story. And it reads like Thomas Hardy. The unrelenting reality strikes the reader from the very beginning, with that portentuous and famous "no one would have believed ... " first chapter. "War of the Worlds" was a novel written for various reasons, but perhaps most ... more
  • 28 of 28 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of Paradis

    Paradis

    4 Stars War of the Worlds 02/09/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages An absorbing read.

    Disadvantages Disadvantages You won't be able to put it down.

    War of the Worlds, written by H G Wells in 1898, was a post Apocalyptic tale of a Martian invasion. Now more than a hundred years old, this masterpiece about the possible extinction of the human race, deals with a theme that humans have been wondering for many years. Is there life on other planets? Well, in this book, there are, and they are technologically advanced, and they have landed on Earth. The Martians are evacuating their own planet because its resources are depleted, they no choice but to find another planet to live on, and they arrive in England, just outside London to be more ... more
  • 5 of 5 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of thegoldencat

    thegoldencat

    2 Stars The rubbish martians are coming! 19/11/2008
    User doesn't recommend the product

    Advantages Advantages Its quite short.

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Not short enough.

    Overview War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel written ithe late 19th century. Generally regarded as a classic, it is noticable as being a very early and pioneering work of SF and one of the first ever depictions of an alien invasion of Earth. General Opinion I didn't like War of the Worlds. Classic novels have a rather odd position in which they are impervious to criticism. They stand aloft, their status assured. All this makes it difficult to write a critique of one. But that's no reason why I shouldn't try. Justification of dislike I understand War of the worlds. Its significance ... more
  • 32 of 32 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of jankperegrine

    jankperegrine

    5 Stars H.G. Wells' Martians In England! 19/08/2005
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages fantastic story!

    Disadvantages Disadvantages nothing to speak of

    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… So begins H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. I first read this 1898 sci-fi novel before Steven Spielberg's recent remake of the 1953 cinematic version of War of the Worlds, then after reading many reviews of the remake I reread the novel rather than watching the 2005 movie. The novel is (novelly for its time) set slightly in Wells' future, the early twentieth century, and was first serialized in Pearson's ... more
  • 12 of 12 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of robin_best

    robin_best

    5 Stars War of the Worlds 05/04/2001
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Fantastic reading

    Disadvantages Disadvantages There are none

    This is generally one of the best Sci-fi books, forget the Star Trek books, this is Wells at his best, I bought this book after hearing the musical version and i can safely say that i have never regretted buying this book, I cannot stop reading it, I will read it, read another book and then start WOTW again. This book is an eyewitness account of the war between the Martians and England, that’s right no Americans to win the day like a certain film independence day. The narrator goes through his feelings and sightings with some depth; he also gets accounts from other people who he sees ... more
  • 7 of 8 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of JSpencer

    JSpencer

    5 Stars The War of the Worlds 27/02/2001
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Must be the greatest Sci-Fi novel, amazingly good.

    Disadvantages Disadvantages None

    H.G. Wells is reckoned by Arthur C. Clarke as the greatest of all authors in the genre (apart from being an acclaimed writer of other works) and I've been wanting to read this most famous of the genre's books for many years to see if the acclaim is justified. It is. Wells writes with a fierce, almost arrogant intelligence especially in the areas of science and its effect on society and for a novel written in the 19th century it has a modern, almost cinematic quality in it's vision and imagery. I can honestly say this is one hell of a page turner! If you've heard the rock opera version or seen ... more
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