The Massacre of Mankind
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Preceded by | The War of the Worlds |
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The Massacre of Mankind (2017) is a science fiction novel by the British writer Stephen Baxter, a sequel to H. G. Wells' 1898 classic The War of the Worlds, authorised by the Wells estate. It is set in 1920, 13 years after the events of the original novel, as a second Martian invasion is chronicled by Miss Elphinstone, the ex-sister-in-law of the narrator of War of the Worlds. Baxter also wrote an authorised sequel to Wells' novel The Time Machine, called The Time Ships.[1]
Plot summary
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From
Two years later, the Martians control England, though they mostly remain within their cordon. Jenkins asks Julie Elphinstone, his former sister-in-law, to go into the Martian cordon to try to communicate with them. She and her group make the long journey to there, dodging several Martian attacks along the way and meeting a saboteur named Marriott. At the Martian base, they discover that the Martians are cannibals, keeping humans and humanoid species in holding tanks for future harvesting. They witness breeding experiments between Martians and humans. Eventually, they come to the feeding hole, where the Martians have humans hung upside-down from scaffolding while they inject the human's blood directly into their Martian bodies.
As the Martians continue to conquer other parts of Earth, Julie comes up with a plan. Knowing that the Martians communicate with their home planet by using
The book jumps forward 14 years. The Martians are still on Earth but no one knows where. Jenkins takes Julie half a mile into the earth to the underground Martian city in England. He speculates that this is how they live on Mars, that they have no secrets because of their telepathy, and that they are all treated as equals. The British Martians built a space gun and fired themselves back to Mars.
Reports say that other Martians moved to the Earth's poles where the climate is more Mars-like. Julie, Jenkins, Eden and some others take a massive German Zeppelin to the Arctic, where they see a Martian terraforming operation. Jenkins theorizes that, with the Jovians watching, they are forced to colonize rather than conquer, and that humans should work with them instead of against.
When Earth-Mars opposition comes around again, the Martians do not launch any cylinders. The war of the worlds is over.
In addition to the main storyline, the novel contains various standalone vignettes depicting Martian attacks in New York City, Berlin and Los Angeles.
See also
References
- Tor. Retrieved 2 May 2023.. The Oxford Culture Review. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- Peter Murphy (21 January 2017). "The Massacre of Mankind review: HG Wells under attack from the clone". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
- Kanta Dihal (12 February 2017). "Review: 'The Massacre of Mankind'"