Monthly Review : The War Of The Worlds

The science fiction novel "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells is a third person story that talks about Martians taking over Earth. There are lots of fighting and bloodshed making this story kind of bad and violent. I suggest that if you don't like a killing story this isn't a story for you. However this book is very interest because it paints a picture of how life MIGHT turn out if a thing like this were to happen.

1. What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

To me, I think that the purpose of writing this book is to introduce to the audience that there might be Martians outside of the world we live in. This book is to take a step back from what and where you live in in life. Often times people forget about there imagination. "The War of the Worlds" was written in 1898. During this time most of the people living on Earth were discovering new things. Some of these things are like cars and technological things. Well this so happens to be the time where imagination sprung about. People where trying to make invisible objects and they were arguing over existence of mythical creatures.

However above all of those things were Aliens, Martians, and UFOs. This is the time where people argued over it whether they had seen it or what not. H.G. Wells wrote this book to give an over view about the things that might happen IF Martians do exist and IF they would come and invade Earth. I think that Wells did a good job painting out the picture of what it would be like but I think he forgot one thing about the Martians. What if they are really stronger than what he tells? I am sure that the audience that Wells was trying to write to got surprised in thinking what a Martian would be and what it would do. I think that Wells practically made a the first Stereotype about Martians. We don't actually know for sure that Martians do want to invade Earth or if they are plotting it. Heck they can already be on Earth without us knowing. So why haven't they contacted us? They probably might have too. This is where the government comes in. The government might have already made contain with aliens and of course we would be the last ones to know of it.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

This book is recommended for young readers that want to read about science fiction. This book is very interesting and I think that they want would want to read it because of the things that happen outside of the world. Things that they wouldn't imagine happening is probably happening under secret facilities. I can tell that this book is for young children to adult because this story is some what scary if you think about it. Some of thing maybe real and knowing is only part of it. Seeing that Martians and aliens are real is even scarier.

There are some scenes where people die because of Heat-Rays or Black Smoke. There is the violent side to it while Wells adds imagination to it.

An almost noiseless and blinding flash of light, and a man fell headlong and lay still; and as the unseen shaft of heat passed over them, pine burst into fire, and every dry furze bush became with one dull thud a mass of flames.

This quote shows the detailed killing with a Heat Ray from the Martians. To some audience this would be pretty scary, in fact I myself think that this creepy. This is a real eye opener because there might be Martians outside of the world we live in. More than likely they might have the technology to do these kind of things. But then again that is just your imagination going crazy.

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?

I think that this book was pretty good in general however there were a few things that I didn't understand. H.G. Wells's writings are very complicating because it is the writing styles that is written back then. What I mean by complicating is that he uses interesting detail into most of his writings. I think this is my first third person story. I really liked it because there was a lot more talking and description in every event that happened.

Some weakness are getting attention. I don't know why but I had lost my attention reading it. So I don't know why but I felt that there were some very boring parts to the book and that just made me want to skip it. All there was in the some of the events that happen was all detail. Like during the actions scenes where the Martians were either shooting there heat rays or using there black smoke.

In general, I liked the book. There were lots of eye openers to all the things around me. This book in fact made me more interested in things outside of space. Martians are probably the number one thing I want to know if it is real or not. I want to know because if Martians are real then everything we knew about politics and religion is all lies. I say this because we wasted 2000 years fighting each other when in reality we should unite together. Religion is all a lie because there was nothing in the Bible or the Quran that saids anything about aliens and Martians.

We would have to rethink about what we have been doing these past 2000 years and if we had gotten anywhere. Martians could already be on Earth! Cough Cough Area 51! I think that the people that have lied to us the most is not religion or politics but is our own government. They are doing experiments and maybe even have already contacted with aliens or Martians. But then again you can just use your imagination about anything.