1. Throughout his career, Wells was concerned about the ethical uses of technology and scientific knowledge. How are his ideas reflected in The War of the Worlds? (A good place to begin your research is Isaac Asimov's "The Science Fiction Breakthrough" and Rosalynn D. Haynes's H. G. Wells, Discoverer of the Future. Wells's own Experiment in Autobiography provides insight into what he hoped to say in his novels about the ethical use of advanced technology.)

2. Compare The War of the Worlds to another famous outer-space invasion book, such as John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids (1951). How are the books similar? How are they different? Does the second author seem to be responding to any particular aspect of Wells's novel?

3. What was the state of military preparedness in England in the late 1890s? Is Wells accurate in his depiction of the...