I watched the 2005 War of the Worlds headlined by Tom Cruise 3 times, because I could not wrap my head around how bizarre the movie was to me. I did hear that a radio play of the same title create quite a panic, not realizing that when the play was broadcasted in 1938, it was the year before World War 2 erupted and there could have been quite some tension up in the air then.
I chanced upon this hardcover edition of the original The War of the Worlds and delved into it. The Tom Cruise adaption was quite different from the original alien invasion imagined by H.G. Wells. The original was far more frightening and themes of war, imperialism and social Darwinism more fleshed out and discernable compared to the movie adaption which understandably catered to audience acceptance/fear in the early 2000s.
Written towards the end of the Victorian era, Wells crafted a narrative that is still horrifyingly relevant and fascinating today, yet the physics not far-fetching from what is known today. A brilliant work indeed!
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