Not exactly what I expected (not much of a war). But, I respect the retelling Anderson has done to make it his own while paying an homage of sorts to Wells and his work. ( )

This book is something of an homage to H. G. Wells. We meet him in school in 1884 with his professor T.H. Huxley who we learn is about to retire. They spend an evening on a cold London rooftop to watch a Leonid meteor shower. With Mars in the sky Wells speculates with his professor about life arising there. Herbert is living on the edge, nutritionally, and wears paper thin clothes not suitable for the event and comes down with a nasty fever. In his fever dreams is born the images and some ideas of "War of the Worlds".

I had very modest, if any(!), expectations for this book and it really surprised me how readable and enjoyable it was. It is a mix of reality and a lot of fiction to not give us an historical fiction of how Wells created "War of the Worlds", but a very mashed-up imagined idea of maybe the way that it should have happened. What we find is that Wells stories of the Martians and Dr. Moreau, cavorite and other things may have not been entirely products of his imagination.

This book was very enjoyable and a lot of fun. Sometimes I need to suspend my disbelief and let imagination run. Written in something of a Victorian style, some people will probably hate this book but as a 60 year old teenager I found this alternative history extremely entertaining.

The author's name, Gabriel Mesta, is a pseudonym for Kevin J. Anderson. This 2005 novel has recently been reissued under the author's actual name. ( )

A thrilling eyewitness account of the recent alien invasion as reported by Mr. H. G. Wells. Written by Kevin J. Anderson under one of his pseudonyms. This is an advance review copy in plain blue wraps.

This was an awesome take on how H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds" story came to be. ( )

Is this the pinnacle of great literature? Not really. Is it a fun, quick read? Definitely. An interesting take on "what if" science fiction, Anderson takes H.G. Wells and some of his more familiar characters and contemporaries and drops them right into their own stories with a romp through a possible Martian invasion. Of course, one must realize that the science in this is complete bunk, but a simple suspension of belief solves that problem instantly. Alternating voices between the action of Wells and the journal of Dr. Moreau gives the book a nice duality and provides a unique pace, voice, and viewpoint to the narrative. The only complaint is that some of the characters and races, namely the Selenites, could have used more fleshing out, but this does not detract from the overall feel and readability of the work. ( )