The War of the Worlds, written in 1898 by H. G. Wells, is one of the earliest and best-known depictions of an alien invasion of Earth, and has spawned a television series, several films, and a famous radio drama.

It is a book that has far exceeded its expected shelf-life. According to the “World of the Worlds ” official website, the invasion has been re-imagined so many times over the years and exerted such an influence on the genre that it is hard to imagine that science fiction would be quite the same without it. Writers such as Ray Bradbury in The Martian Chronicles have gone to Mars in search of Martians, others have brought the Martians here, in novels such as Robert Heinlein’s Stranger In A Strange Land. Even Sherlock Holmes has locked horns with the Martians in Sherlock Holmes’ War Of The Worlds, but the common thread is a fascination with a planet that has in equal measure, forever tantalized and terrified human minds.

You can read more about this publishing phenomenon on the War of the Worlds website at http://www.war-ofthe-worlds.co.uk/