H. G. Wells 3 hr 31 min read

A falling star on Horsell Common cracks open to reveal Martians, and their towering tripods and heat-rays begin a merciless campaign to conquer the Earth and feed on humankind.

H. G. Wells's 1898 novel is the foundational classic of alien-invasion fiction. Terrifying, sweeping, immortal. Read it for the book that defined the genre, the Martian tripods marching on London, the heat-ray, the red weed, and humanity brought low, in a masterpiece of cosmic terror and mordant social vision that has never been surpassed.

In its time

Published in 1898, during the 1890s, wells arrives.

Reading it

3 hr 31 min read (a novel-length work, settle in).