War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (A Bantam spectra book) [Hardcover]

Kevin Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Bantam spectra book | Publication Date: May 1, 1996

In an anthology of tales inspired by Wells's The War of the Worlds, notable science fiction authors--such as Connie Willis, Mike Resnick, Robert Silverberg, and Gregory Benford--imagine the Martian invasion seen through the eyes of his contemporaries in other locations throughout the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Martians! Percival Lowell may have been responsible for bringing them to Earth; Teddy Roosevelt evidently bagged one in Cuba; H.P. Lovecraft may have been one; and both Albert Einstein and Emily Dickinson seem to have played a role in defeating them. In this collection of stories that complement H.G. Wells's classic novel, these and other speculations are entertained by such well-known SF writers as Mike Resnick, Walter Jon Williams, Robert Silverberg, Connie Willis, Barbara Hambly, Gregory Benford and David Brin. One entry, Howard Waldrop's "Night of the Cooters," which concerns Martians and Texas Rangers, is a reprint. The 18 originals center on the reactions of various historical personages to the advent of Wells's invaders, including Picasso, Henry James, Winston Churchill, H. Rider Haggard, China's Dowager Empress, Rudyard Kipling, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Leo Tolstoy, Jules Verne, Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad. Anderson (Climbing Olympus, 1994) has brought together some solid stories here. But since the overarching plot line apes the Wells, variety and suspense take a back seat. The more successful pieces, then, are those like Waldrop's, or Willis's tale of Emily Dickinson's posthumous heroics, which parody the Wellsian universe. Overall, however, this is a far more literate and imaginative tracing of a Martian invasion than the one offered in Martian Deathtrap, reviewed below.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Leading sf authors Roert Silverberg, Barbara Hambly, Allen Steele, Gergory Benford, Connie Willis, and 14 others imagine H.G. Wells's Martian invasion from points around the world as written by notable 19th-century authors and personages such as Teddy Roosevelt, Picasso, Einstein, Tolstoy, Verne, and Mark Twain. The pieces were all commissioned for this anthology except Howard Waldrop's Night of the Cooters, in which the Martians face the formidable Texas Rangers. A rollicking good compilation, especially Willis's hilarious Emily Dickinson. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 274 pages
• Publisher: Spectra; 1St Edition edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553103539
• ISBN-13: 978-0553103533
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 10 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,735,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin J. Anderson has written 46 national bestsellers and has over 20 million books in print worldwide in thirty languages. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the SFX Readers' Choice Award. Find out more about Kevin Anderson at www.wordfire.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great concept, barely average execution., November 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (Paperback)

Spreading H.G. Wells's "War of the Worlds" around the Earth and having famous people encounter the Martians was a wonderful idea. Too bad that for the most part the original PLOT was also spread around the world as well, with comparatively little to differentiate the famous people from anyone else. Other than to note that I was seriously surprised that Robert Silverberg did not do better in his entry (featuring Henry James), I will refer to the stories by star rather than author. The best ones were the ones featuring the Dowager Empress of China (which was rightly included in the Year's Best), Edgar Rice Burroughs and John Carter (which nevertheless could have been developed MUCH more than it was), Jack London, Joseph Conrad, and H.P. Lovecraft. The James, Picasso, Texas Rangers, Pulitzer, Tolstoy, Twain, and to a lesser extent Kipling and Churchill were basically retellings of the same plot over and over and over. The Roosevelt was distinctive but too restricted by its format, the Lowell distinctive but restricted by its pre-invasion tone. The Einstein suffered from vagueness (all of the sudden time inside the Martian war machine is relative, no explanation for the implications of that), the Verne was ridiculous, and the Dickinson...well, it obviously wasn't serious and so didn't fit in with the rest of the book. All in all, I'd say this was reasonably entertaining reading, but not NEARLY as marvelous as it could have---SHOULD have been.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars War of the Worlds on a global scale!, March 2, 2003

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (Paperback)

What if the Martian Invasion had happened all over the world? And what happens if it's witnessed by all the great authors, such as Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein and Teddy Roosevelt? From China to Cuba, from Paris to New Orleans, from Africa to Canada follow the reports of the alien invasion. Most of the stories are very good but some are old, like 'Night of the Cooters' which is a cool story about Martians against Texas Rangers, and some don't seem to fit with the rest of the stories, like 'Paris Conquers All' in which the aliens and the machines are NOT the same used in the other stories.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful idea, well executed, June 4, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (Paperback)

I had a ball with this book. Essentially, it's a collection of pastiches in the styles of numerous writers and public personalities, depicting either how they experienced the 1898 Martian Invasion or how they were inspired by it later. There are also some third-person accounts where the subject (Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein) isn't really best known as a man of letters. Although all these accounts pretty much stay within H.G. Wells' framework, there's an enormous variety. Henry James wanders through a deserted London. Mark Twain hides in a New Orleans cellar with a bunch of disreputables, including a dwarf and a gypsy. A bunch of Texas Rangers take a no-nonsense and no-prisoners approach to the Martians unlucky enough to land outside Pecos City. A couple of the pieces rise above pastiche into the realm of art. "The Roosevelt Dispatches" perfectly captures Theodore Roosevelt's energy and epistolary style as he describes an encounter with a Martian in the jungles of Cuba (the Martian comes off second best). And the Jack London piece is a seamless imitation of the genuine London style, as well as one of the few pieces in the book to explore interesting thematic territory. There are a couple of duds, but, in all, this should be considered as much literature as science fiction. I hope Kevin Anderson, who put the project together, can do something similar in the future.