Signet The War of the Worlds

Bought for my 14 year old son. A book he should be familiar with and I am sure he will enjoy.

The english used in this book is harder than the currently spoken english, and for a brazilian, it was an experience. In summary, the book is incredible and the story is an adventure through the mind of one of the most famous science fiction author.

I loved both movies, yes I am in the camp that watched and loved the movies first. The version with Tom Cruise is one of may all time favorite movies, so I came into reading this novel with the bias of those movies.The timeline of when Wells wrote this book makes it amazing in that sense. Very few novels have stood for so long and impacted entertainment as much as this one. It is a true testament to the writing of Wells for a science fiction novel to stand for so long. A crime or war story or a romance can more easily survive mans evolution in writing far better than science fiction, but this book has done just that so in that sense this book is certainly a classic.However to read it and compare my own personal enjoyment or how much I was drawn into the story its not a good read. I found it hard to read and not because of science terms or outdated scientific beliefs or theories, but just the writing style of Wells. In my opinion he didn't develop the relationships of humans, or of the main character of of the villain sufficiently. Sometimes it was the language differences of my American English in 2000 and British English of 1900. I felt Wells spent more time trying to give me a map of England, but didn't describe it well enough and it would have helped me if I literally had a map of England because the places seemed to be more important than the people or the aliens. I also didn't feel like the reactions of the people were reasonable in time of horror and despair, I dont know, maybe Englanders act different than us Americans but I dont think so when it comes to those emotions.I found myself skipping paragraphs....that is not good for me.

The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells and first published in 1898. The novel tells the story of a Martian invasion of Earth and the attempts of humanity to repel the alien invaders. The book is considered a seminal work of science fiction and is credited with popularizing the "invasion" trope in science fiction. It has been adapted into various forms of media such as films, television, radio, comics and stage productions. This edition is a Signet Classics which is a series of literary works that have been considered significant in their field and have been republished for a new generation of readers.

This isn’t the best book I’ve ever read, but I found it to be a relatively quick read and pretty enjoyable. The pacing is a bit slow in the beginning, but it picks up by the end. Wells develops pretty interesting themes and ideas, especially in the second half of the book.The edition is solid and affordable. I didn’t particularly enjoy the introduction or the afterword. They talked a lot about the historical context of the book and discussed science fiction in general, but I would’ve been more interested to hear about some of the literary qualities of the story. I appreciated the introduction discussing Wells’ characterization and how he was building off a genre of fiction called “invasion fiction.” I would have liked the introduction or afterword to cover more ground like that.This was a good read. I picked it up because you hear so much about War of the Worlds, and I wanted to know if it was any good. Personally, I found it enjoyable and I’m glad I got the chance to read it.