The War of the Worlds is a science ?ction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was writen between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in Pearson’s Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ?rst published in hardcover in 1898 by William Heinemann. The War of the Worlds is one of the earliest stories to detail a con?ict between humankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is the ?rst-person narrative of an unnamed protagonist in Surrey and his younger brother in London as southern England is invaded by Martians. It is one of the most commented-on works in the science ?ction canon.