‘Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.’

A chilling account of a devastating alien invasion, The War of the Worlds remains one of the most pioneering contributions to the science fiction genre in literary history.

Published in 1898 to huge commercial and critical success, Wells’s masterpiece transforms a once thriving England into a hellish landscape where the whole of civilisation is under threat. Led by terrifying extra-terrestrial beings with giant, whip-like tentacles and enlarged heads, this extraordinary battle against humankind sees unprecedented chemical weapons, burning rays, black gas – and a thirst to take over the planet no matter the cost. But, as our narrator soon discovers, the forces on Earth are more resilient than they first appear… Utterly gripping and the first novel of its kind, The War of the Worlds is a testament to Wells’s remarkable imagination.

H.G. Wells (1866 – 1946) was a novelist, journalist, sociologist and historian. His work spanned many genres, including horror, science-fiction, social commentary, politics and history. He wrote over fifty novels and dozens of short stories in his lifetime; many of his works remain influential still today.