& No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly & closely by intelligences greater than man&s& So begins H G Wells& classic novel in which Martian lifeforms take over planet Earth As the Martians emerge they construct giant killing machines
- armed with heatrays
- that are impervious to attack Advancing upon London they destroy everything in their path Everything except the few humans they collect in metal traps Victorian England is a place in which the steam engine is state-of-the-art technology & powered flight is just a dream Mankind is helpless against the killing machines from Mars & soon the survivors are left living in a new stone age