Now that Steven Spielberg’s WAR OF THE WORLDS remake has hit DVD, you might be inspired to read (or reread) the H.G. Wells novel on which it was based. While there are more scholarly editions out there, you won’t find one more fun than Castle Books’ new collection, H.G. WELLS COLLECTOR’S BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION.
Bargain-priced, this 500+ page hardback reprints WAR as it first appeared when serialized in Pearson’s Magazine in the late 1800s. In other words, that means each page of the book is taken directly from the magazines – type, illustrations and all. The illustrations are lovingly done, true to the period and terrific, truly complementing the story.
But that’s not all. The COLLECTOR’S BOOK also includes two other complete Wells novels – THE FIRST MEN IN THE MOON and WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES – as well as a dozen short stories, including “The Empire of the Ants,” “The Valley of the Spiders,” “In the Abyss” and the rare “Stories of the Stone Age,” all taken from the pages of The Strand, The Idler and others. While not every tale as the lasting resonance as WAR does today, this is a fine collection nonetheless. I know Castle has given the Sherlock Holmes stories this treatment, but I’d like to see even more books issued for other classic authors of the 19th century.
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