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Stars: 3 out of 5

After reading the first book, I was stoked to hear that there was a canon sequel, autherized by the wells estate themselves! This must be insane!

I was wrong.
The novel is slow and dragging, takes 100 pages before the first attack even happens. Baxter, the author, seemed to take more inspiration from The 1978 Musical than the actual book it's a sequel of. Many characters were named after the fictional ones given in the musical, and strangely enough at one point right before a major time skip, like twenty tripods go on primrose hill and exhulate "Ulla!", with baxter saying its a 'victory cry'. Funnily enough, this 'victory cry' is supposed to be a miserable and helpless death cry, as stated at the end of the original 1898 novel. Again, seems like Stephen Baxter listened to the musical too many times, as this is exclusive to the musical. In the wells book, ulla is a cry of dispair. In the musical, its a war cry. Baxter thought the musical was a 1:1 recreation of the wells novel for some reason.
Another annoying thing is that the chapter "In London" is repeated over and over multiple times across the seemingly thousands of chapters.

As a massive wells fan and heavy analyzer of the original text, this book really bugged me. I didn't even finish it. Also, another problem is that it says the original war took place in 1907. Which wouldnt make sense, as the 8th hussars as mentioned in the oriignal wells text would be busy fighting in the real world Boer war, and they didnt even return to britain until 1919. Realistically, the first war most likely took place in 1899 (or 1900). Also, they make the tripods seem invincible. In the oriignal wells book, one artillery strike is all it takes to bring one down. But in the new "sequel" that takes place in 1920, this thing can withstand planes, tanks, zepplins, you name it.

WARNING:

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