The World Is Not Enough

I first knew of the existence of The Complete War of the Worlds book back in 2004, when I heard that Steven Spielberg was going to direct his own version of H.G. Wells classic sci-fi tale. I had never read it, so I figured it was about time, and the excuse of that movie coming was more than perfect to let it pass.

While searching for the most adequate edition of the book at Amazon, I crossed paths with the one mentioned, which not only had the original text and the illustrations that accompanied it on its first edition, but also included the entire transcription of the Orson Welles infamous 1938 radio adaptation that got half the U.S. nation believing they were under a martian attack. In addition to that, it also had a bunch of articles on regarding the two W-men and the aforementioned consecuences of that radio broadcast and a Ray Bradbury foreword.
And, just in the case that wasn't good enough, the book came with a CD which included the whole original radio play, excerpts from interviews to Orson Welles... and even a clip from the only time that the two geniuses (for they indeed were geniuses) got reunited.
Pretty promising material to not have a look at it. I didn't buy it at first, because of its price and because I had other books way upper on my priorities list. But I knew I was eventually going to come back for it.

And come back for it I did. Almost three years later, but I did. And now that I've read the book from beginning to end and I've taken all the juice that can be taken out of the CD, it's only fair that I review it. So here we go...

I highly recommend you all science-fiction self-proclaimed fans to read H.G. Wells War of the Worlds if you still haven't done it. It won't take you long, because it's not that huge (as in hundred of pages huge) a story, but I've never seen such a pioneer text as this one. Well, as a matter of fact, I've seen them, but they're at the same level as this book. It just can't get more pioneery.

The way the story is told, just as if the main character was retelling true facts that he saw and suffered in the past, manages to add an incredible sense of realism to it. The narrative has that distinctive XIX century flavor to it, that I personally like a lot, and it follows a steady rythm until the very last page. So, here you have an interesting and more or less fast-paced story about a martian invasion of the earth. What's there not to like about that?

On regarding the Orson Welles (who at the time was only 23 years old) and Howard Koch (who later would win an Oscar for his script of Casablanca) adaptation of Wells' work in the form of a radio dramatization, two things have called my attention. First of all, the play is superbly conceived, taking from the book those very few parts that it could use, rewriting the most of it, and waving it all in the form of newsflashes that aim for the credibility, and very well could confuse its audience on regarding the veracity of what they were hearing.
The second thing is, despite what I've just said, is that people can show incredible degrees of stupidity. How could half a country fall for that? I know, as the book very well explains, that they were living in a time of pre-war tensions. I know they didn't have the variety and quantity of mass communication we now can enjoy. That is, mainly the Internet. But they for sure had more than one radio channel. And it's not like they hadn't been warned, because the station they were on, the CBS, had announced the War of the Worlds adaptation for that day, and they even reminded its audience before, during and at the end of the program that what they were hearing wasn't real. And yet, people drove their cars until the point of running out of gas; people got on their knees and prayed for all they were worth; and people barricaded and organized themselves in small parties to try to repel the invaders.
Now I know better the power, the influence, that the mass has on the single person. If you see one person running, you don't even blink; if you see ten persons, you might start wondering something's happening; but if the whole block is running, then I bet you're going to start running too. I know I would do it.

The most and only disappointing thing I've found in the whole book/CD package is that the audio interviews of the two W-men are as a matter of fact very short clips that don't add too much to the whole thing. I would have preferred a two-set CD (even at the cost of some more money out of my pockets) to be able to listen them in their entirety.
All in all, The Complete War of the Worlds is a must read/hear if you like sci-fi, literature or radio. Which I suppose you do, since you're reading this. The only regret I have with it is that I didn't buy it earlier.

By the way, as a Post Scriptum, I would like to claim how good a movie Spielberg's War of the Worlds for me is. On the essence, it's faithful to the book, and it sure is a great visual ride filled with tension and top notch moments. I just can't understand why has such poor ratings on web pages such as IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes. And I know that I'm going to win for myself a lot of criticising for this, but I got to say it: Tom Cruise is not one of the greatest actors of all time, granted, and I couldn't care less about his personal life, but, proffesionally, he's an example to follow.