#bookreview: The War of the Worlds (WoW) by #hgwells
I had read some of Wells' novels many years ago, before I learned about his reputation as a very famous #eugenicist (very common at the end of the 19th Century) and misanthrope.
I got a very similar vibe with all the Wells' novels I have read, this one included: very well and gracefully written, but also very dark and somewhat forgettable. The "main" characters are cardboard figures just marching through the story. Wells never even gave us a name for the main character / narrator of WoW, as a matter of fact I am remembering now most people met along the way in the story do not get names either.
Decades later, now I can put my finger on what is wrong with Wells writing: he is actually not a novelist at all. He is a pure #propagandist. He has decided in advance the talking points he wants to make (that humans are actually just animals, etc.) and he uses the text of the book to drive those points home, over and over again, reworded in a dozen different ways. The story is just a vehicle, and the every-man characters in the story, beyond their utility as educational tools, are literally unimportant and disposable in the eyes of the writer.
Great read if you want to study at the feet of a master propagandist. Otherwise, I would say don't bother.
#review #sf #sciencefiction