Published in 1898 and never out of print since that time, 'The War of the Worlds' is one of the most influential science fiction novels ever written, and the seminal work for all the many 'alien invasion' tales that have followed. The amazing products of Wells' prodigious imagination - death rays, mobile weapons-platforms, flying machines (all unheard of in his day) - have proved wonderfully, and hideously, prophetic. Given today's advances in space exploration and the discovery of earth-like planets orbiting other stars, the author's vision of evil, conquering aliens continues to strike a chord of terror in modern minds.