"They had been a strange and marvelous people. I had seen the ruins of one of the great-cities in which they lived...with broad avenues that ran for miles, crumbling buildings still soaring up against the sky, huge shops into which all the houses of my native village could have been packed, with room left over. They had moved in ease and splendor about the earth, splendor beyond measuring, almost beyond understanding. And despite this, the Tripods had conquered and enslaved them." Chap. 1, p. 2

"And at the head of all the groups there was one man, whose hands held all the threads, whose decisions were unquestioned. This was Julius." Chap. 1, p. 9

"We had seen no sign of Tripods during our journey from the White Mountains through the valleys to the river. During this day on deck, I saw two. Both were distant, striding along the western skyline, three...