There is such a thing as a right time for reading a book. Sometimes this can be rationalized: I remember, that i put off reading the LOTR trilogy for almost 2.5 years after reading the Silmallirion. The reason being that i wanted to read it in chronological order, and back in those days the Hobbit was darn difficult to come by.
But with WOTW, it was more a gut feeling; it was never the right time. Disappointment over not being able to buy Volume 1 of the Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth (this book has been eluding me for half a decade now) and the gnawing realization that I haven't indulged in light reading for way too long coupled with the utter lack of anything worthwhile reading at the new expographics joint helped purge the gut feeling and suddenly it was the right time.
Mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's utter Crap. It's too simple to be called raw. There was no empathy at all with the fear factor. The plot is... what plot? It brings out more of the writer at war with himself than anything to do with interplanetary war. And Wells' way of describing, in minute detail, the layout of early 19th century London can get downright annoying.
But curiously, I'm not annoyed. The science fiction theme of humanity getting it's ass wupped was born in this book. You experience the progenitor of the light saber and phaser - the 'Martian Heat Ray'. The book also sets an initial standard for the incorporation of science into fiction; the art of choosing the marginally scientific elements(i.e. Heat Rays, Machine Locomotion, Bacterial Attacks) and not trying to justify it too much.
And there are the flashes of brilliance where Wells equates the human position to that of the lower animals and the position of those civilizations that were destroyed by the british empire; brave of him considering empire was in its heyday. He even explores human nature through the artilleryman and the curate and achieves moderate success. And there was much that I was unable to empathise with.
War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, scientific romance, imaginary war fiction; to me it will always be the father of modern science fiction.
urped by gumz @ 4:46 PM
