The title of the book is given as Martians from Mars have attacked Men from Earth, causing War for the two worlds Mars and Earth. Hence the title “The War of the Worlds”.
When the Martians emerged from the cylinder everyone ran and hid behind trees including the philosopher. A bunch of people moved up to the Martians and tried to communicate with them by waving flags to show that they were intelligent creatures. But then a machine came up and burnt the people with a laser beam, later called the Heat-Ray. The philosopher then ran away terrified, and collapsed, when he regained consciousness he returned to his house.
The Martians work in the pit, and the military becomes involved. The Philosopher and his wife escape to Leatherhead, where they have cousins. The Philosopher then ventures back to Woking to return the dog cart he had borrowed, when he see’s a towering metal tripod in the storm, and he finds the innkeeper dead. A Martian controls this machine from inside. So the Philosopher rushed home, and invites an artilleryman who tells him what had happened. They head off in the morning, and avoid danger to try and get to Leatherhead and caught by five Martin Machines and decide to jump in the water. The water becomes hot and he drifts to the river bank and falls asleep. When he awakes he finds the Curate of the Church confused.
Then the point of view changes to the philosopher’s brother, who is very caring and has similar ideas of how deal with the world. The brother is in London, and news about the attack of the Martians was slow, and citizens from the destroyed towns start moving through London. Then next morning warnings come that the Martians are unstoppable and are approaching London with Black Smoke witch is deadly. The Philosopher’s brother follows the crowd and reaches a steamboat and leaves after seeing the Martian Machines in the distance, and the warship “Thunder Child” fighting.
Then the point of view changes back to the philosopher, as the fifth cylinder had landed nearby and he and the Curate were trapped in a house. The Curate starts to talk louder and the philosopher has no choice but to knock him out. Shortly after the Martins come in and search the place for blood and pull out the Curate. On the fifteenth day he is convinced they have left there pit and comes out only find the setting around him is covered with an alien plant called red weed, which the Martians brought with them. He then ventures back to London when he finds the Artilleryman with impossible plans and continues. When he reached to London he hears the phrase “Ulla Ulla Ulla Ulla “. He then finds the dead Martins in there huge pit, as that sound was them dying and they had been killed by the Earth’s bacteria. Things slowly return to normal.
A theme in the book is the overthrow of men, as they could take over the Earth and then Men would be forced to fear the Martins, and become a breeding device like we meat to survive. So we would be treated as animals and expected for food.
Another theme is the horrors of war, this includes the death, ruins of cities, and the landscape cover with dead skeletons not buried, and the race against everyone to survive this horrible event.
