In 1897, when H.G. Wells was out walking with his brother, he was discussing the fate of the Tasmanians who had been exterminated by European colonists during the 1800s. Being the introspective person that he was, Wells wondered what would happen if the tables were turned. What if British imperialists were invaded by aspiring colonists of Earth with technology far beyond humankind’s as Britain’s was compared to the islanders. That’s how the seed of The War of the Worlds was implanted in his brain. The colonists in the book are Martians, determined to take possession of Earth. The civilization that the Britishers were so overwhelmingly proud of is shattered to smithereens in this classic SciFi.

TWOTW became not only the first piece of literature to talk about space invasion with futuristic technology, but it is also one of the central myths of twentieth-century Anglo-American science fiction, providing a chilling glance at invasion and colonialism. Through this book, Wells wanted to humble the zealous champions of the British Empire by portraying that they were not the destined lords of the planet but insignificant creatures in a vast universal scheme. But what happened next? His idea got recycled endless times in various science fiction projects throughout the 20th and 21st century, but instead of holding on to its core belief, the defenders of Earth are always shown to strike back and win.

This is exactly why we need to read classics, even though at times they seem hard to go through. They will tell us what went wrong, not just in the genre, but also in our perception of those stories.