The War of the Worlds

How it reads

The War of the Worlds is science fiction (alien invasion, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an international setting, in the historical past, told in the first person by several narrators. Its central concerns are war, survival and class and society. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is bittersweet: it resolves, but at a price. At 192 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's a mega-bestseller — the book everyone seems to have read.