The Massacre of Mankind   by Stephen Baxter

A monument to the original The War of the Worlds. Thanks to a massive amount of detail and long, slow build-up to the final action, the book gives a real sense of place and foreboding atmosphere.

This is the first time I've read a retrospective speculative fiction: the author has placed himself in Wellsʼ original time frame (the early years of the 20th century), and created a future world based on extrapolations of the scientific ideas of the time: it is steam-punk with electricity. The treatment of the German state is subtle and indistinct; in this time-line, because of the Martian invasions, the First World War never happens and the Germans are mostly cooperative with the rest of the world, the ugly underbelly of Nazism being avoided.

The book is narrated entirely from the viewpoint of a secondary character, with the refrain ‘I was to learn...’ often used to fill in information which they could not have known at the time, often the thoughts and feelings of those around them. The relationship of the characters with each other actually feels a little odd. A quite disparate set of extremely well-connected people mostly with army backgrounds are clearly friends with each other, having had some matrimonial connections in the past. But familiarity seems to flow through the work too freely, as does access to information at government level.

It is a little bit odd in the way that people jump around all over the globe--‘Youʼve got to see this...’--with the occasional journey described in some excruciating detail.

The first two-thirds of the book are notably very linear temporally, and take you through days in the life of the narrator to some quite excessive detail. There are oftentimes extended descriptions of a simple journey between points A and B, which seem at first superfluous but actually give a feel for how folk are managing day to day while the invasion is going on; ambience is strong in this work.

There is some drudgery where the Martians are invading many capital cities around the world. The author tries hard to make stories befitting every place, but the effort becomes slightly laboured after a time, and somewhat distracting. The eventual retreat of the Martians from all the places is also given light treatment. Thankfully the action around the South of England is kept tight, and the story finds itself eventually back on track.

The best thing is that it ultimately does not solve the problem of the Martians, but explains how people get on with their lives and simply adapt to the everpresence of blood-thirsty aliens. Incremental steps are made forcing the Martians to draw back, but they never quite go away, and the threat to humanity remains at the end.

The ending is nice. The world is left a changed place, but with peace and some optimism about the future. The final adieu is sentimental, and leaves the book feeling, ultimately, humanly humble.

On the whole I think this is a work which will stay in my head. It is very memorable by its size, graphical imagery, and directness in the story line, and makes you feel like you experienced everything first-hand.