La guerra de los mundos

Martian cylinders crash onto Horsell Common near Woking in southern England, and from them emerge tripod fighting machines that use heat-rays and black smoke to destroy everything in their path. An unnamed narrator watches the invasion unfold, loses his brother in London's panicked evacuation, shelters with a curate who goes mad, and wanders through a silent, ruined country. H.G. Wells wrote it in 1897 as a reversal of imperial conquest, ending with a twist about microbes.

Science fiction readers should encounter it at least once, since nearly every alien-invasion story descends from it. It is short and surprisingly fast.

Outward-looking and escapist; a moderate read.

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