I haven't seen War of the Worlds yet but the hype over the movie made me pick from my book shelve the H.G. Wells novel on which it is based. Although not gripping to read, the book holds an important place in both european history and in science fiction.
First published in 1989, War of the Worlds was actually a cleverly disguised commentary on British imperialism and colonialism. At the time, both England and European powers were beating less technologically advanced cultures into submission, colonizing them, and then draining them of their resources. Wells' portrayal of the uncaring attitude with which the Martian invaders viewed humans was his way of showing his fellow English that they were doing the very same thing to those countries that they invaded and conquered.
Wells' "War of the Worlds" represents the beginning of science fiction. As noted by James Gunn, author of the preface of the 1986 TOR edition that I own, Wells didn't call his novels science fiction but rather "extraordinary voyages" or "scientific romances" -- scientific only because they took place in the future and by neccessity dealt with the scientific advances of those times. Not only does Well's "War of the Worlds" represent the start of the sci fi novel; it is also one of the first stories of alien invasion. His was the first in a tradition built upon by Robert A. Heinlein "The Puppet Masters," Edgar Rice Burroughs, "The Moon Maid," and even the modern film "Alien." For these reasons, Gunn notes appropriately at the end of the novel, "When we read Wells' 'War of the Worlds' we are reading, then, not simply a novel but the beginning of a genre."
