I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. You may know that I recently reread the original book to which this is an authorised sequel: The War of the Worlds by HG Wells.
Though there have been many, many books over the last century that have attempted to write a follow-up, there are not many that can boast what this one has: a sticker on the front cover proclaiming “Authorised by the HG Wells Estate”.
But if anyone was going to be up to the challenge, then Stephen Baxter, author of The Time Ships, the also-authorised sequel to The Time Machine, (also recommended, by the way) is the author to do it.
The Massacre of Mankind occurs in the 1920’s, what we would call ‘the Jazz Age’. The time of the first Martian invasion was originally left vague* but is now set at June 1907 and called ‘The First War’ to match astronomical events.
For as the planets align again, it is clear that the Martians have watched and learned and are now ready for another attempt. This time it is told as an account from a woman, Julie Elphinstone, once sister-in-law to the original Narrator, now named Walter Jenkins. (Frank, Julie’s ex-husband, was mentioned in the first novel and gave a secondary account of the Martians travelling through London.)
This is an alternate history, of sorts. There is no First World War, presumably in response to the effect of global alien invasion, but we do see the broadening of the focus as characters go to the USA, France, Germany and beyond.
It isn’t just a case of things returning to normal – society is altered. When Julie returns to London, after time abroad in the US, she is surprised at what has changed and what has stayed the same. It is a world of society balls and zeppelins, of German soldiers outside Whitehall (a non-aggression pact between Britain and Germany has led to this) and Nelson’s Column still standing, a new world with a new leader, Brian Marvin, who seems to be leading the countries’ recovery, albeit rather superficially.
It is also a country of strict controls and checks – Julie is kept for questioning by the police when it is revealed that years ago she signed up to the Suffragette Party, a group now illegal. Suspected of being an anarchist, it is only through the intervention of her friend, Philip Parris (Walter Jenkins’ cousin), and an agreement that she will report into the local police station on her arrival.
In all ways this is a bigger, broader and more ambitious novel than the original. In the reread I remember the original being quite limited in focus and scale, something I regarded as one of its strengths. (I have always found it a little odd, though understandable for the means of plot, that in the original novel for a global invasion we saw little of it beyond London.) What Baxter has deliberately chosen to do is widen and deepen the perspectives of the original novel for contemporary reader’s tastes. Cleverly, Stephen manages to remind the reader of the plot of the original without too much info-dumping. It can be a difficult thing to balance, yet the use of a new observer allows this to happen without being too clunkingly obvious. This also works for new intrepid readers with a vague idea of the original to be able to read the new book without too much difficulty.
Although The Massacre of Mankind still concentrates on a Martian perimeter created around London and the South-East (for reasons that are explained), we also see the effect of the Martian’s invasion on other places. We briefly go to New York and see Paris and Berlin, both fairly unaffected by the Martians but under a different type of domination. When another bigger wave of an invading force arrives, Baxter writes from a number of different perspectives in Durban, South Africa, in California, USA, in Australia and Constantinople, to give the fact that this time it is now a much more global invasion.
This wider view is presented to us through a greater range of characters. Though Julie is the main focus there are more characters, some of whom we have met before. ‘The Artilleryman’, now named Albert Cook, is an integral part of the plot this time too. Much of the fun in reading this version of events is spotting all the little meta-links between the original novel and SF in general. They are fun but not over-intrusive.
Most notably, the character of Walter is a key one throughout the novel, who affects much of what is around him, and yet he is regarded as a rather negative figure, at least to start with. Indeed, The War of the Worlds narrative is often regarded as the product of an unreliable narrator, a man who was clearly in the process of some sort of nervous breakdown at the time.
Stephen also uses the space created in this bigger novel to tell the tale of the conflict between Earth and the Martians, not over a matter of weeks as in the first novel, but over years. Whilst you may initially wonder why some places in the world are seemingly unaffected by the return of the aliens, we do discover that this return is perhaps only the prelude to a larger force in the future. There is always the implied threat that there is more to come.
Taking this broader perspective even further we also see the consequences of the Martians expanding their interests to planets other than Earth – swampy Venus and mysteriously majestic Jupiter, for example – a decision which becomes more important towards the end of the novel.
It must be said that, overall, if the purpose of the book is to go beyond the scope of the original, to extend and develop what has gone before, then The Massacre of Mankind succeeds admirably. It is a solidly-entertaining, page-turning novel that pays homage to the original story but then enhances it. Where the original at the time of its original publication was startlingly creative (and I think that that was one of the reasons for its initial popularity) Baxter shows us that such events would not stand alone and ramps things up to create further interest.
The Massacre of Mankind is a surprisingly thoughtful book, well-researched and sensible in its progression from the first plot. There is a lot riding on this sequel, though Stephen seems to have managed it admirably. It is logical, it is exciting and quite ambitious. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.
Recommended.
*Something that I think lends itself to the enduring popularity of the original – it’s timelessness means it could be any time.
The Massacre of Mankind
Published by Gollancz, January 2017
ISBN: 978 1 473 20509 3
456 pages
Review by Mark Yon
