We Win the War

I finished The War of the Worlds last night, and I can't stress enough how big of an experience it was to read.  It would be a fair statement that it is probably the quintessencial science-fiction novel.  Though hundreds of novels, with all their Martians and aliens and extra-terrestrials, lived long before and after this book, it seems to me that H. G. Wells told the Martian story that everyone wanted to hear.  It seems to me that no one has managed to tell a story like this better than him, and so no one has managed to contest him for his place as quintessencial sci-fi story-teller.  Its straight, grim, factual fashion of narrative makes it thrilling and cold to read.  Although it requires a certain mindset to be enjoyed or even properly appreciated, when you read it in the right mindset, it is absorbing and chilling.  It unleashed concepts that are more individual and a wider scale. 

I watched the more recent film adaption, War of the Worlds, this morning, and it was startlingly accurate and intense.  It neglected the whole idea of the Martians' appearance, which was disappointing, because I thought those concept were very neat, but on the whole it really was the most brilliant accompaniment for such a book.  It was very well acted, oh, and, one thing I thought was cool was that it merged the characters of the curate and the artilleryman as one.  The one character in the movie displayed the personality of both of the book characters at the same time, and all the circumstances surrounding them surrounded him.  It was very clever.  Overall, I really enjoyed it.  I think that they are both super-worth-while experiences.