The War of the Worlds

 
　　外星人早就潛伏在地球的每個角落，隨時準備伸開魔掌掠奪地球。
 
　　一場毀滅性的外星入侵行動即將如火如荼地展開，挑戰全人類的愛與勇氣；遭遇外星高級智慧生物致命突襲的地球，正面臨生死存亡的保衛戰，在這個看似滅絕希望的世界，人類將如何存活下去？

　　科幻小說界的莎士比亞──赫伯特．喬治．威爾斯
 
　　．Herbert George Wells是達爾文進化論和柏拉圖理想國的綜合體，在他的科幻小說中，人類的未來和科學的發展是密不可分的。進化觀點是他的寫作基礎，理想國思想則賦予了作品豐厚的內涵。
 
　　．Herbert George Wells盡情伸展想像力的翅膀，穿梭宇宙的空間與時間，馳騁人類世界的過去和未來，運用廣博的自然科學知識描繪地球未來的生活面貌，獨特的觀點使得故事情節緊張刺激、錯綜離奇……
 
　　．Herbert George Wells被譽為「科幻小說界的莎士比亞」、「科幻小說之父」，作品既深富文學價值、娛樂作用，又兼具教育意義，既介紹科技知識及其偉大貢獻，也透過科學寓言譴責人類的種種荒謬和醜陋。
 
　 　《世界大戰》是部膾炙人口的經典科幻小說，描述在遙遠又神祕的火星上，住著一群比人類智慧更高、科技遠遠超越人類的外星生物，某天突然大舉入侵地球，造 成毀滅性災難！冷酷無情的火星人仗著先進的武器，在世界各處大肆屠殺，地球淪亡在即，人類要如何逃過這場大滅絕危機……
 
　　 Herbert George Wells的經典代表作《世界大戰》曾被改編成各式戲劇，第一次以廣播劇播出時，造成美國民眾大恐慌，引發一股逃難潮。1953年改編成同名電影《世界大 戰》，並贏得當年奧斯卡金像獎的最佳特效獎項。2005年導演史蒂芬．史匹柏拍攝同名電影，重新詮釋火星人入侵地球的過程中，人類展現的愛與勇氣。

　　本書中譯本<<世界大戰：火星人全面入侵>>由普天出版社出版

　　The most famous example of invasion literature and first published in 1898, The War of the Worlds has inspired countless science fiction stories and novels. After a dramatic series of shooting stars are seen tearing across the night sky, a gigantic cylinder descends from Mars and lands near London. Inquisitive locals gather round only to be struck down by a murderous heat-ray. Giant destructive machines climb out the crater formed by the cylinder destroying everything in their path on a merciless march towards London. Can humanity survive this onslaught? A gripping adventure written in semi-documentary style filled with scenes of flight, despair and panic this is also a very human story about pride, fear and the promise of recovery.

　　This Macmillan Collector’s Library edition features a new introduction by author James Blaylock

　　Designed to appeal to the booklover, Macmillan Collector’s Library is a series of beautifully bound hardback gift editions of much loved classic titles. Bound in real cloth, printed on high quality paper, and featuring ribbon markers and gilt edges, Macmillan Collector’s Library are books to love and treasure.

赫伯特．喬治．威爾斯（Herbert George Wells）

　　英國著名史學家、思想家、未 來預言家兼科幻小說家，具有廣博的自然科學知識及深厚的學識涵養，作品中經常以豐富而驚人的想像力描繪科技發展遠景，探討社會現實弊端和人類未來。 1895年，寫下史上首部科幻小說《時光機器》，被譽為「科幻小說元年」，經典代表作《世界大戰》，則描述火星人全面侵略地球的過程。其他代表性著作有 《隱形人》《莫羅博士島》……等。

　　Herbert George Wells was born in Bromley, Kent, England, on September 21, 1866. His father was a professional cricketer and sometime shopkeeper, his mother a former lady's maid. Although "Bertie" left school at fourteen to become a draper's apprentice (a life he detested), he later won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, where he studied with the famous Thomas Henry Huxley. He began to sell articles and short stories regularly in 1893.

　　In 1895, his immediately successful novel rescued him from a life of penury on a schoolteacher's salary. His other "scientific romances" - The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898), The First Men in the Moon (1901), and The War in the Air (1908) - won him distinction as the father of science fiction.

　　Henry James saw in Wells the most gifted writer of the age, but Wells, having coined the phrase "the war that will end war" to describe World War I, became increasingly disillusioned and focused his attention on educating mankind with his bestselling Outline of History (1920) and his later utopian works. Living until 1946, Wells witnessed a world more terrible than any of his imaginative visions, and he bitterly observed: "Reality has taken a leaf from my book and set itself to supercede me."