The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

I read H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds for a book review that is upcoming (I'll link to it when it's live). I'd read The Time Machine earlier this year, so I was eager to read another of his books.

Unfortunately, I found The War of the Worlds much less interesting in the beginning. The Time Machine hooks you early on, because the story is told to the narrator after the time traveler has already returned from his travels — in other words, you already know that he has an exciting story to tell, because of the condition he is in when he returns.

The War of the Worlds is told in a different manner: The narrator tells primarily of his own experiences, with a middle section of the book being about his brother's experiences (though not narrated by his brother). I personally thought the story started off rather slow, though it did pick up about halfway through. Still, there was something about it that always made me drowsy — and it isn't often that it takes me a full week to get through a book that short!

Interestingly, although many of the details of the book were changed in Hollywood's recent version of the movie &mash; for instance, the narrator's wife exchanged for two kids and a bad relationships with an ex — many other details were kept the same. An example that really stood out to me was the similarity of the endings and why the aliens failed in their invasion. The parts of Wells's book that formed the strongest basis for the movie were the meat of the story, which I think speaks highly of the author's ability to create believeable sci-fi.

The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

I recently went on a road trip so my future in-laws and finalize our wedding plans, and so I'm a little behind on my book blog.

The first book I finished on the road wasH.G. Wells's The Time Machine. It's a fairly short book, only around 100 pages, so I was surprised by how closely the recent movie actually followed the book. Although I liked the movie better (primarily because there was more detail and therefore more of an elaborate storyline), the book is extremely good as well.

The novelization of Serenity by Keith R.A. DeCandido

I'm a big fan of Joss Whedon's series Firefly, and the movie conclusion Serenity. It's so disappointing that the series was canceled, because I could quite happily watch it nightly. In any case, thirsting for more Firefly led me to look into what was available in written form. The novelization of Serenity by Keith R.A. DeCandido is one of the items I decided to check out.

So far it's good. It's not one of those novelizations that differs from the movie in fundamental ways, such as plotline. (As a kid, I was horribly disappointed when I read the book Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and discovered it diverged from the movie in several places.) Also, the narration fits the feel of the series and the character dialogue, too - although it's third person omniscient (meaning it's third person but follows many different character's thoughts and feelings), the tone of the narration suits whichever character's point of view is being used at the moment.

In other words, the narration "talks" like the character it's following would in the show, and I really like that. I can literally hear Mal's, or Jayne's, or River's voice in my head as I read. It's definitely not easy for a writer to assume so many drastically different voices at different intervals throughout the book, not to mention to decide which voice is the most appropriate for a particular scene, but DeCandido has done admirably.

This is quite possibly the best novelization of a movie that I've seen (the exception being, naturally, books that were written first), and a definite must-read for any Firefly fan.