Pete
Junior Member
Posts: 41
|
Post by Pete on Apr 21, 2005 10:59:20 GMT
I heard there was a sequel to WOTW but I also heard it was a bit rubbish  . Is this true? Also, is there more than one sequel and if so, which is the best? |
|
MikeH
Full Member
Posts: 80
|
Post by MikeH on Apr 21, 2005 11:27:47 GMT
Only one I've heard of is the Second War of the Worlds, but it's not by HG Wells. I heard it's not very good, so I gave up trying to find it.
I think there are other spin offs and variations of the story, there are probably people more knowledgable than me here who can tell you that.
|
|
|
|
Post by mctoddridesagain on Apr 21, 2005 11:31:00 GMT
There are all sorts of sequels and spin-offs. Sequelwise, the one you may be thinking of is: The Second War of the Worlds - George Smith Cover: drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/other/2nd_wotw.jpgVerdict: Potboiler. There is also this obscure novel: W G Grace's Last Case - William Rushton Cover: drzeus.best.vwh.net/wotw/other/rushton.jpgVerdict: Enjoyable comedy, brimming with daft ideas, witty writing and Rushton's inimitable spiky drawings. Scarlet Traces - Ian Edginton (writer) & D'Israeli (artist) Cover and review: www.hillcity-comics.com/graphic_novels/new_graphic_novel2083.htmVerdict: Cracking graphic novel. And, of course, there are all sort of spinoffs such as Christopher Priest's The Space Machine; Manly Wade Wellman's Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds; Global Dispatches; the list goes on, and I'm sure others will chip in with stuff I've forgotten about or not heard of. |
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 21, 2005 11:54:19 GMT
So far as I know, the only direct "sequel" which was done was the unauthorized Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss, serialized in an American newspaper in 1898. I don't know anyone who has anything good to say about this. I've not read it, but based on what others have said, its lapse into obscurity is well deserved.
There are other books which expand on the setting of War of the Worlds. Perhaps best known is Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds by Manly W. Wellman & Wade Wellman, which features not only the famous detective (and his nemesis Moriarity) but another Conan Doyle character, Professor Challenger. Several on this board think that's very good. I myself, being a Sherlock Holmes fan and having read the two canonical Professor Challenger stories, remember enjoying it the first time around, but when I revisited it I was not that impressed. In the first place they take liberties with the details of Wells' novel-- in an epilogue, the authors have the termerity to have Watson taking Wells to task for "getting some of the details wrong"! And despite Challenger's determination to Do Something, somehow the characters never get around to it. But maybe that's just me.
I will recommend Chrisopher Priest's The Space Machine, which in part visits and explores the Mars of Wells' Martians. A fun read and I found it quite imaginative.
War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches ed. by Kevin J. Anderson is an anthology by various writers which postulates the Martians invaded not only England but other parts of the world. It's a mixed bag as most anthologies are, with wildly different interpretations of the Martians and their technology. I do recommend it; at least a couple of the stories are very enjoyable.
I also thoroughly enjoyed George O. Smith's [correction: George H. Smith's] The Second War of the Worlds, altho that's more of a sequel to his The Island Snatchers, and is rather inexplicable unless you read the earlier novel first. It's set in an alternate world where both magic and technology work, and the Martians-- having failed to invade our Earth-- try going "sideways" into another world.
Forthcoming is Kevin J. Anderson's The Martian War, which is advertised as a pastiche not only of WotW but also Wells' The First Men in the Moon and perhaps other Wells stories, I forget just which ones. You can read the blurb at Amazon.com. Based on the liberties Anderson took in Captain Nemo -- which is said to be based on the movie "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" more than the book, and not only ignores the portrayal of Nemo in The Mysterious Island, but actually ignores the fact that the name "Nemo" is clearly a pseudonym (meaning "no man") -- I doubt I would like that. I think if you are going to set your story in someone else's world, you should respect what they wrote. But that's just me.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 21, 2005 12:00:47 GMT
Oh, there's also Volume 2 of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a graphic novel which like Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds is concerned mainly with the activities of others during the Martian invasion. This manages to shoehorn the setting of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom (Mars) novels into the story too! Altho I found Vol. I of the LXG to be the best graphic novel I've ever read, I found the sequel to be... well, as good as most sequels are. And again it takes liberties with Wells' book which irk me. But I know several in this forum have praised it, so again maybe that's just me.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 21, 2005 12:30:48 GMT
Goodness, two other replies while I was composing mine! Ah yes, I've heard of this but never read it. Looking online just now I see it is a true sequel to WotW, and it has very good reviews. I'll see if I can pick up this graphic novel myself. |
|
|
|
Post by jeffwaynefan on Apr 21, 2005 12:35:36 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by Bayne on Apr 23, 2005 1:09:30 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]I found LOEG VII to be very good indeed, sure it took some liberties but it still treated WotW with as much respect as it did many of the other books... after all, look at what happened to a certain optimistic-no-matter-what book character in Vol 1!
[/glow]
|
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 23, 2005 2:02:09 GMT
Yes, she was gosh-darn positive about her experiences! ;D
|
|
|
|
Post by CrazyIan on Apr 23, 2005 2:11:46 GMT
Early in one of Well's other books: "When The Sleeper Wakes", Grahams cousin refers to the fact that during his sleep, Graham missed the war.
Interesting little tie in,
|
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 23, 2005 2:15:09 GMT
My hat's off to anyone who made it all the way thru When the Sleeper Wakes. I found it quite boring and very heavy going. That was a long time ago, and mercifully I've forgotten virtually all of it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Luperis on Apr 23, 2005 20:39:40 GMT
I've read global dispatches, and found it quite interesting...
I had not heard of "The Second War of the Worlds" by George Smith though - I'll have to try and find it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lensman on Apr 24, 2005 6:50:33 GMT
I had not heard of "The Second War of the Worlds" by George Smith though - I'll have to try and find it. Oops! My bad. It's by George H. Smith, not George O. Smith. DAW books, 1976. Dunno if it was ever reprinted. |
|
|
|
Post by Bayne on Apr 26, 2005 1:11:01 GMT
[glow=red,2,300]When the sleeper Wakes has some great ideas in amongst, but was easilly the hardest bit of Wells to plod through I've read.
[/glow]
|
|
keltiksylk
Junior Member
www.KelticSylk.com
Posts: 28
|
Post by keltiksylk on Apr 29, 2005 15:23:14 GMT
I never noticed the reference to the Martians in "When The Sleeper Awakes"...
"And there's been the War," said Isbister.
"From beginning to end."
"And these Martians."
Apparently the Martians were still around at the time...Kinda humorous...
There are also two versions of the story. If you check on the Project Gutenberg site you'll see the original "When the Sleeper Awakes" and the revised version "The Sleeper Awakes" which contains a commentary by Wells on why he changed it.
It is a tough read, but as you said it does have wonderful ideas. I especially like the way the Salvation Army evolves into a slave organization...Dark humor there!
Those wire slide things were a little weird as a mode of transportation...don't know what he was thinking at that point. Still it is quite different from anything else I've ever read.
|
|
|
|
Post by timeship2 on May 3, 2005 22:51:43 GMT
I wonder if the hard science fiction author Stephen Baxter ever plans on writing a sequel to War of the Worlds. He did so for the Time Machine with his novel 'The Time Ships' which is highly rated. It also reads just like Wells had written it himself apart from the fact that is a far more complex book of course. At the time Wells wrote the Time Machine he did not have the knowledge of Quantum Physics like we do today and thus this book is written accordingly. When Wells character went back the future it was assumed that it would be the same as the last time he went. We now believe that you could never go back to the same 'future' twice. In the novel when he goes back to the time of the Morlocks they are very different from the ones he had just left. A great book if you are into hard science fiction.
|
|
. Is this true?
