Book Review: "The War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells

Forget any movie you may have seen with this title, be it the 1956 or 2005 version.  This book by H.G. Wells was written in 1898 and is set fully in England during that time period.  If you live in England, or have visited, you will have a better time imagining the scenery.

In brief, the Martians, being green and ugly intelligent lifeforms, realize their civilization on Mars is dying and look to Earth, a young, more lively planet, and they want to settle on it.  They invade by sending down meteor like objects, and them arm themselves with impenetrable metal armor, using heat rays and poison gas, they wander the English countryside, and London, and destroy everything in its path.  There is a scene where a human gets eaten, as the Martians also find a plentiful food supply (humans).

The hero of the story, a man unnamed, narrates the entire story, giving his viewpoint, and constantly runs from these Martians, enduring panicking crowds in London, a companion hiding in a watched, abandoned house with a companion who also panics all the time making his life miserable, and afterward, runs into a soldier with plans on how to fight the Martians once they are settled.  He also endures starvation, sleepless days and nights, and all in all, rough survival techniques.

Before you compare this to more recent science fiction, I advise you not to judge this book negatively or call it “dated”.  It was written and released in 1897 and is set in the time period, dealing with the Mars as we then knew of it, compared to what space technology and NASA space probes such as Mariner, Viking, Spirit and Opportunity, and Curiosity has finally revealed to us today.  In reading this book in this day and age, you must suspend your knowledge of what the real Mars is and enjoy the story for what it is.  You will be surprised.

Also remember that H.G. Wells is one of the pioneers of modern Science Fiction, along with other greats such as Jules Verne.  Wells also has written other classics such as “The Time Machine” and “The Invisible Man,” also recommended.  He has also written many non-fiction essays dealing with the world and humanity during his time.

Many of Wells’ editorial beliefs are in this book.  One little known fact is that in the time it was written, Wells’ was making a satirical comment on the British colonization of Africa during the buildup of the British Empire, and how the British colonists were treating the natives of these lands.  To this I should add India, China, Australia (the aborigines), and Ireland.  Read these histories to understand.

In the book, the Martians are technically advanced but unsympathetic, but Wells compares this to a human stepping on an anthill.  Also think about this.  If and when we settle space and finally reach another star system, and we find it had intelligent life, but not as developed as ourselves, how would we treat them?  Would we, in our enlightenment, leave the planet alone and let them develop on their own, or would we take the planet, going as far to exterminate its natives?!  In a sense, we would be the evil Martians that Wells depicted, and I think he was fully aware of this.

Although Mars itself has shown to have no life, this book is not outdated by any means.  It is also a warning to us that as we ourselves venture out into space, we have to know at all times who we are, and what we must not become.

Book Review: How We'll Live on Mars by Stephen L Petranek

This is a brief but informative book, about 77 pages with photographs in the middle of the book.  Brief doesn’t mean bad;  in fact, I think it’s rather good, pertaining to the intelligent person, even if they know little about space development.  In other words, it’s for anyone who is interested in this topic.

The author, Stephen Petranek, takes the Mars of what modern science has revealed to us through it’s probes, from Mariner to Curiosity and what theses probes have analyzed and found.  A brief history of rocketry and the proposals of using them for Mars exploration are also covered, from Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun in the early 20th century all the way down to Elon Musk of SpaceX and the Dutch entrepreneurs, Bas Lansdorp and Arno Wielders, who proposed the Mars One missions, being one way trips to Mars where people would go and live out the rest of their lives on the red planet.

In landing on Mars, Petranek anticipates what may go wrong, such as drilling for water through rock and permafrost and using the wrong drill bits.  Problems such as these are those the average person, and a rocket scientist would not anticipate.  He describes the climate, the thin atmosphere, the gases of which it is composed, and the radiation coming from the Sun and space, and how the first settlers will have to deal with them.  

In the last two chapters, he describes terraforming, making Mars more like Earth where one can live without spacesuits, and why we must go there.  The main reason is simply that we have to.

I agree.  Many people say that Mars is so dead and desolate (it is) that no one will want to go there.  I believe, that with the terraforming, and the minerals it holds that people will want to mine to make money, it will attract the right kind of settlers.  There’s another reason:  Earth is getting overpopulated, and troubles throughout the world, such as war and starvation, are multiplying, and people will want to escape that, going anywhere no matter what.  Any place, rather than staying where they are and suffering.

My own view is that we will, and must, settle and industrialize near Earth space, being the Moon and near Earth asteroids first before venturing on to Mars.  These are in Earth’s neighborhood, and we need to establish state of the art transportation and life support systems, along with bases that will support a trip to Mars before venturing there.  It may take 40 years, or 20, who knows.  

One thing I do like is the Mars One project, sending people on a one way trip where they will learn survival skills and to develop the resources there while we still develop the Moon and asteroids.  Unfortunately, they do not (yet) have the financing.

This book is brief, and the predicted date of first landing here is 2027.  Whether or not we make it on time, this book provides a good vision on how we can handle the challenges.  The Moon and near Earth space is not mentioned here, but that, in this case, is irrelevant.

As I stated, I myself believe in a step by step approach to Mars, going to the near Earth asteroids, the Moon, then Mars, then the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter (where the book ends), and eventually, out to the stars.  But let’s not get ahead of ourselves!