Cylinders from Mars land near Woking, and a nameless narrator survives the tripod machines, the Heat-Ray and the Black Smoke, in the Project Gutenberg text.
A short, fast alien invasion told as a survivor's report, with a calm, dry voice and a few unforgettable set pieces: the first cylinder, the storm, the river at Shepperton, the Thunder Child and the buried house. The narrator's tone is formal and the artilleryman's long speech slows the pace, but the ending is still unlike most invasion stories. Four and a half out of five (draft).
Every guide comes as a video and a full written article. Pick the one you need: the review is spoiler-free, the ending explained is not.
The War of the Worlds summary, Book One and Book Two, day by day from the first cylinder to the ending: the Heat-Ray, the Black Smoke, the Thunder Child, the buried house and Primrose Hill. Full spoilers.
The War of the Worlds ending explained, with full spoilers: how the Martians die, the clues planted earlier, the narrator's lost days, his wife and what the epilogue leaves open.
The War of the Worlds characters: the narrator who has no name, his wife, brother, the curate, the artilleryman, Ogilvy and the Martians, and what happens to each. Full spoilers.
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells about Martians who land in Surrey and turn Woking, the Thames valley and London into a battlefield, told by a nameless narrator who lives at Maybury. We used the Project Gutenberg text, ebook #36, which has 27 chapters in two books.
Below you’ll find a full day-by-day summary, a character guide that includes the people the book never names, and an explanation of how the Martians lose, with counts from the text. Spoilers throughout.
A short, fast alien invasion told as a survivor's report, with a calm, dry voice and a few unforgettable set pieces: the first cylinder, the storm, the river at Shepperton, the Thunder Child and the buried house. The narrator's tone is formal and the artilleryman's long speech slows the pace, but the ending is still unlike most invasion stories. Four and a half out of five (draft). Read it if: you want an invasion story told as an eyewitness report; you like short classics with strong set pieces; you are curious about an ending that is not a military victory. Skip it if: you want a hero who fights back and wins; formal, long sentences wear you out; you expect modern pacing in every chapter.
Our ending explained covers the final chapters in full, with spoilers. The War of the Worlds ending explained, with full spoilers: how the Martians die, the clues planted earlier, the narrator's lost days, his wife and what the epilogue leaves open. The War of the Worlds Ending Explained →
The War of the Worlds summary, Book One and Book Two, day by day from the first cylinder to the ending: the Heat-Ray, the Black Smoke, the Thunder Child, the buried house and Primrose Hill. Full spoilers. The War of the Worlds Summary by Chapter →
Cylinders fired from Mars land on the common near Woking, and Martians in tall walking machines begin to destroy Surrey and then London with a heat beam and poison smoke. A nameless narrator, a writer on philosophy, tries to survive, to reach his wife and to understand what he is seeing.
The Project Gutenberg text, ebook number 36, has 27 chapters: 17 in Book One, The Coming of the Martians, and 10 in Book Two, The Earth Under the Martians. By our count the story is about 60,000 words, not counting the license and front matter.
An unnamed man who lives at Maybury, near Woking, and writes about philosophy. He also relays his younger brother's experiences in London in chapters 14 to 17 of Book One. In the text we read, neither is ever named.
The Heat-Ray, an invisible beam of intense heat from a mirror-like projector, and the Black Smoke, a heavy poisonous vapour fired in canisters from tubes. They also use tall tripod fighting-machines and smaller handling-machines.
