H.G. Wells’ novel about the invasion and near defeat of mankind at the hand of the Martians may be the first of its kind, or at least the best known. While mankind is not as helpless in the novel as the 1960’s movie depicts, the human race is overrun in short order by the Martians’ superior technology and creepy red weed. However, in the end, the smallest living organisms, and often man’s antagonist, the bacteria, save the day, destroying the Martians and putting man back on his pedestal.
Review
It never ceases to amaze me of the differences between novels and their movie interpretations. While the weapons of man were not completely impotent against the Martians in Wells book as they were in the 1960’s movie, he has no trouble exposing the quickness at which the technological marvels which man has created are destroyed by a civilization obviously more advanced than we are. The ironic end, which delights me for some reason, is most unlikely in reality, but the territory in which Wells was writing was a brand new frontier, and very few science fiction writers have ever matched Wells in his subtle critique of man’s insistence that our technology is superior above any other power.