' Cities nations civilization progress-it's all over That game's up We're beat' One of the most important & influential invasion narratives ever written The War of the Worlds (1897) describes the coming of the Martians who land in Woking & make their way remorselessly towards the capital wreaking chaos death & destruction The novel is closely associated with anxiety about a possible invasion of Great Britain at the turn of the century & concerns about imperial expansion & its impact & it drew on the latest astronomical knowledge to imagine a desert planet Mars turning to Earth for its future The Martians are also evolutionarily superior to mankind