An early
science fiction novel,
The War of the Worlds (1898), by
H.G. Wells, describes the
fictional 1895 invasion of Earth by
aliens, from
Mars, who use
chemical weapons,
lasers, and
robots. The book as been viewed as an indictment of
European colonial actions in
Africa,
Asia, and
The Americas. Wells seems to have taken great pleasure in the
fictional devastation of locations where he had spent an
unhappy childhood.
This theme of an alien invasion has remained a popular one ever since, some recent examples being Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the "Worldwar" series by Harry Turtledove, and the film Independence Day.
- The book is public domain, and can be downloaded here (ftp://ftp.mirror.ac.uk/sites/metalab.unc.edu/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext92/warw12.txt) or from any other Project Gutenberg archive under the filename warw12.txt or warw12.zip