"The War of the Worlds" - Herbert George Wells, 1898

This classic, genre defining tale of alien invasion hasn't dated well in some places. The prose is rather stuffy, full of seemingly unnecessary details, and not all of the science stands up to scrutiny.

What makes it interesting is the way in which mankind deals with the situation visited upon him - herein, to the 21st century reader, lies the true horror, now that alien invasion is pretty passe and certainly unlikely from this solar system.

Wells' admiration of Darwinism is apparent in many sections of the book, to the extent where it would almost be unpublishable if certain phrases were included. Sometimes, Wells isn't so much apologising for the subjugation of "savages" by the "civilised" as saying the nature of each makes it inevitable.

This is a significant book, not just because of the genre it spawned, but because of the deeper themes he wrote about, often forgotten in modern versions of the story.