HMS Thunder Child fires people's imagination from the time of when H.G. Wells first wrote his epic science fiction story in Victorian times about a Martian invasion of Earth. It has been translated into many languages and had an epic musical written of the story too.
War of the Worlds is much loved and is still universal to this day. It will always be so. In the future, when humans do live in space; H.G. Wells will be ancient alongside Homer and Plato. I can imagine people, far off in the future, talking of such ancient writings the way we do of Ancient Greeks.
Of course there will be many others too. The list will grow as the Science Fiction input grows. I think Jules Verne will be there and Philip K. Dick. Issac Asimov and John Wyndham to name but a few. Science Fiction is a relatively new genre, but in recent decades it has become more and more popular as interest grows at an astonishing speed.
My early interest rapidly grew at high school when I read The Time Machine. I had seen the splendid movie and was rather surprised by the difference in the actual written story. Also, I was equally surprised by The War of the Worlds. I had seen the 50s decade American movie version of the story, which I enjoyed, but then upon reading the book, I had a stronger Victorian image of the story and, of course, the British setting amid streets and towns I knew of; brought it so much more to life for me. Especially HMS Thunder Child and her battle against three Martian tripods in Malden, Essex.
I've often looked out across the River Blackwater and tried to imagine HMS Thunder Child steaming into action against the colossal edifices of the Martian tripods. Its what made me start the project of writing an imaginary adaptation of my own. It was a very enjoyable project - like painting a picture with words. Knowing the finished product, but inventing a consequence to come to such a result.
The Last Days of Thunder Child is available on CreateSpace and Amazon as a paperback.
On Kindle ebook too.
No comments:
Post a Comment