With an Introduction & Notes by Dr Andrew Frayn Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature & Culture at Edinburgh Napier University In these two compelling novels HG Wells imagines terrifying futures in which civilisation itself is threatened The narrator of The War of the Worlds is quick to discover that what appeared to be a falling star was in fact a metallic cylinder landing from Mars Six million people begin to flee London in panic as tentacled invaders emerge & overpower the city With their heat-ray killing machines black gas & a taste for fresh human blood is there anything that can be done to stop the Martians? In The War in the Air naive but resourceful Bert Smallways is thrilled by speed & fascinated by the new flying machines His curiosity sweeps him away by accident into a German plan to conquer America beginning with the destruction of New York The ease of movement in aerial warfare means that nothing & nobody is safe as Total War erupts civilisation crumbles & Bert's hopes of getting back to London to marry his love seem impossibly distant