H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898) is widely regarded as one of the founding pillars of the science fiction genre. Because it was originally published as a serialized magazine story, the novel is driven by a rapid succession of short chapters. This episodic format heavily dictates the pacing. This results in a methodical, chronological account of an extraterrestrial invasion, which often reads more like a dry historical ledger than a modern thriller.
A chewy style and bone-dry detachment
To be critical, Wells’ prose can be a remarkably tough, chewy read today. Whenever the narrative zooms out to a third-person perspective to summarize the broader conflict, the writing becomes bone-dry. In these objective, encyclopedic overviews of military movements and collapsing infrastructure, the suspense drops to near zero. The novel relays the destruction of Earth with a clinical detachment that leaves the reader completely insulated from the actual danger.
Lack of tension?
The dynamic only shifts when the story grounds itself in a subjective viewpoint. It is only when we are creeping through the blackened, ruined landscape, hiding in the rubble from towering machines, that the real suspense takes hold. In these isolated first-person moments, we can actually feel the heavy, oppressive threat hanging in the air. The abstract reporting finally fades. This is replaced by the terrifying, boots-on-the-ground reality of surviving an overwhelming enemy. Frankly, this is the only place where true tension exists in the book.
Rethinking our planetary neighbors
Where the novel unquestionably succeeds is in its depiction of the invaders from the Red Planet. At the time of publication, it was customary to portray Martians merely as human copies or slightly altered men. Wells threw that out the window, giving them a genuinely unique, horrifying identity. They are bizarre, unsympathetic beings. They are larger than life and entirely disconnected from humanity. This unfathomable alienness is what makes them so deeply intimidating.
A bit of a disappointing ending
Despite the iconic creature design and the atmospheric buildup, the climax is noticeably flawed. After systematically wiping out human civilization with heat rays and black smoke, the Martians simply die en masse. Their defeat comes not from human resilience or strategic brilliance, but from ordinary Earth bacteria to which they have no immunity. While biologically plausible, it serves as a rather lame deus ex machina from a narrative standpoint. It abruptly halts the invasion. Thus we are left with a decidedly anti-climactic finish to an otherwise groundbreaking classic.
Image credit: Henrique Alvim Corrêa (1906).
