Did you ever read “War of the Worlds” by HG Wells, or did you just see the recent movie with Tom Cruise and now think you know all there is to know about old school sci-fi? That’s like watching William Shatner hosting “100 Most Metal Moments” on VH1 and thinking you know Star Trek. Not that Star Trek is anything but for fucking geeks, but still.
Anyway… Wells’ “War of the Worlds” is a milestone in science fiction, no matter what way you cut it. It had all the classic elements of what makes a great sci-fi tale: humanity’s struggle against a superior enemy, crazy technology and great stiff prose.
So what is this “The Martian War” all about, and what does it have to do with anything?
Well, Gabriel Mesta (a.k.a. Kevin Anderson to his lame ass Star Wars and Dune fans) decided to put a spin on the classic tale of Wells’ Martians, so he wrote an alternate saga of what lead up to the “War of the Worlds”. Like an advanced prologue. In this story he makes a young HG Wells the story’s main man, together with both actual and fictional contemporary characters. A distinguished roster of famous 19th century scientists, including the astronomer Howell and the evolutionist Huxley, shares elbow space with prominent creatures and characters from a variety of classic Wells stories, like the infamous, and rather brutish, Dr. Moreau (from “The Island of Dr. Moreau”).
Young Wells is, together with his mentor - Huxley, thrown into the middle of an interplanetary conflict. Due to some rather unfortunate and slightly impossible circumstances, they are hurled into space inside an experimental top secret British Empire gravity shuttle, and experience some rather dramatic series of events on both the Moon and Mars, in their humble efforts to thwart the Martians’ hostile plans. We also get to follow the very direct Dr. Moreau and the highly opinionated Lowell, as they recover an alien vessel in Africa and capture the only surviving Martian; a big-brained and tentacled beast of great malice. Their journey from the Sahara desert to Lowell’s Arizona observatory, with the pissy Martian in tow in a big old cage, is all recorded and told in episodes through the meticulous journal of Dr. Moreau.
Gabriel Mesta has in his book created a fantastic old school science fiction story, with intentionally old fashioned and beautiful writing, reminiscing of past greats like Wells, Verne and Poe. All the characters are as dry, naïve and adventurous as you can expect from people in the infancy of a new technological world, especially in tales like these from that time, and the subtle references to social problems in our distant future are beautifully implied, but never spoken out loud. This book could have been written at the turn of the last century and you would never have known the difference. The way Mesta has managed to intertwine all Wells’ themes, ideas and characters from all across his classic work into one singular tale of an Earth David vs. a Martian Goliath is astonishing. This is the book Jules Verne or HG Wells never wrote, but are probably both spinning in their graves over, cursing that they never did.
I think Gabriel Mesta has missed his true calling. He should stop wasting his time writing Star Wars, Dune and X-files books for a mentally challenged generation and focus more on this kind of books. He’s obviously a talented writer behind all that commercial fluff. He also rewrote Verne’s “20,000 Leagues under the Sea” in the same fashion and released it as “Captain Nemo”, and I guess I will go hunt for that now.
Also… If a book with chapters titled “Gardens of the Moon”, “Celestial Romance” and “The Monster on Mars Hill” is not intriguing enough to make you read it, then you’re clearly not an old school sci-fi buff to begin with and would not appreciate the charm, tone or feel of this eminent tale anyway.
"Martian War"
by
Gabriel Mesta
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~ The Red Collar Report ~
