The Martian War: A Thrilling Eyewitness Account of the Recent Invasion as Reported by Mr. H.G. Wells

by Gabriel Mesta and Kevin J. Anderson

Book Overview

What if the Martian invasion was not entirely the product of H.G. Wells's vivid imagination? What if Wells witnessed something that spurred him to write The War of the Worlds as a warning? From drafty... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743446399
• ISBN13: 9780743446396
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Ties a lot of threads into an interesting package

I was intrigued when I read the hype for this book, War of the Worlds being the first science fiction novel I read (after wearing out the Classics Illustrated version). I have also read several of "Mr. Mesta's" other books under his real name, so I knew it would move smoothly and have a good historical foundation. I was not disappointed on either account. Much like Nicholas Meyer did for H.G. Wells in the movie "Time after Time", Mr. Mesta injects Wells directly into the story along with his ladylove and propels them along a fast moving track from the halcyon days of college under T.H Huxley to the secret labs of Great Britain as war looms, not with the Martians, but with Germany. Here we meet the prototypes of the rest of Well's protagonists, Griffin, the invisible man, Cavour, who was planning to be one of the first men in the moon, fellows hot on the trail of the food of the gods and lastly Dr. Moreau, the man who wants to help evolution along through surgery. He lays proof of a pending invasion of Mars into their laps and through a series of contrivances that aren't terribly irksome starts a ball rolling that ends up sending Wells and company to the moon, Mars and back again while the coldly intelligent Martians draw their plans against us. While not heavy on science or moral lessons, the book is a fun adventure of what might have been had the events happened as Mr. Mesta described and the interaction between real and fictional characters, including Percival Lowell the astronomer, works pretty well. Purists will scoff at the impossibility of the sciences, but Mr. Mesta, (OK, Mr. Anderson) like Wells himself, isn't trying to be Jules Verne. He's trying to entertain and I think he does a pretty good job. Andy Nunez, Editor of Against the Odds Magazine

A master of his craft....

"Gabriel Mesta"(Kevin J Anderson aka) simply tells a fun story that is a romp in every sense of the word. Loads of fun, very visual and a great take off on two of the Wells' stories. Great summer book!!!

What if it was all real?

What if H.G. Wells wrote all his stories based on real people he had met, real events he had lived through and real places he had seen. What if he had met the Grand Lunar while on the Moon, gotten his hands on the journal of Dr Moreau, or worked along such men of science as Dr. Griffin, Dr. Cavor, and even T.H. Huxley? And when he, to his great horror, finds out about the Martians and their plans for Earth, what can he do to stop them? While I truly enjoyed the book and the way Kevin J. Anderson poured all of Mr. Wells's works together to make a grand novel I feel I would have liked more details about the civilizations on both the Moon and Mars. Yet the author was willing to invent and create many parts of the book on his own - I enjoyed the idea that the Heat-Ray was being used for something else besides war - so he did not allow himself to be trapped by what could only be found in the books. I also enjoyed the mixture of real people, such as Mr. Lowell, with fictional characters, such as Professor Redwood and Mr. Bensington.

A wonderful romp

Gabriel Mesta is a pseudonym of Kevin J. Anderson, used so as to distinguish this book from his heavier DUNE and SEVEN SUNS novels. But although this is lighter fare, it's also incredibly inventive, and such a clever core idea that it's a wonder that it took a century for anyone to think of it: imagine if all of H.G. Wells's great novels -- including THE INVISIBLE MAN, THE WAR OF THE WORLD, FIRST MEN IN THE MOON, and THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU -- were all set in one universe, so that before invading Earth, the Martians first went after the Selenites, and so that the sinister Dr. Moreau is the surgeon on hand trying to save a Martian from a crashlanded cylinder, while Wells and his mentor, Darwin's bulldog himself -- T.H. Huxley -- race to Mars in Cavor's sphere. Ingenious, compulsively readable, and just tons of great fun. Five stars.

terrific homage to H.G. Wells

In 1894 at London's Normal School of Science elderly biology Professor T.H. Huxley and his young protégé H.G. Wells observe a meteor shower with plenty of enthusiasm. While watching the heavenly display they discuss life on other worlds specifically arid colder Mars leading Huxley to conclude with a "war of the worlds" comment. Huxley decides that Wells has the needed intelligence and imagination to accept that live Martians are on the red planet. He introduces his student and Wells wife Amy Catherine ("Jane") Robbins to the wonders of the Britain's Imperial Institute, where he meets Dr. Hawley Griffin working on invisibility, Dr. Moreau and astronomer Percival Lowell who have sent a message to Mars. However, Wells, Jane and Huxley are accidentally propelled into space where they meet the Martians and learn how the hive-mind Selenites were enslaved. On Mars, the three earthlings cause a Selenite revolt and unleash disease on the water system of the drying out fourth planet from the sun. Desperate for water, the Martians turn to that plentiful third rock for the War of the Worlds seem eminent. This is a terrific homage to H.G. Wells as well as the late Victorian scientific and technical community whose advances laid much of the foundation of the twentieth century. The story line cleverly blends real historical figures like Huxley, Wells, and Lowell with literary characters like Griffin and Moreau. The tale is fast-paced and action packed yet the key players feel three dimensional especially the Martian leader. Fans will enjoy this strong historical science fiction novel while concluding somehow Gabriel Mesta will contact Orson Welles to simulcast the story over the Internet. Harriet Klausner