Following on from David’s pic below, here’s another coincidentally facial-hair-related post… ;p
Today is the birthday of a truly amazing author, H.G. Wells. Not only did he sport a fantastic moustache, he also wrote some of the most thrilling books I’ve ever read.
Did you like Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film version of The War of the Worlds? If so (and I know I did) then read the book: you’ll find that, despite the fact it was published one hundred and eleven years ago, Spielberg and the film’s scriptwriters hardly changed the original story at all. It’s a first person account of an alien invasion. The journalistic style Wells adopted for the book makes it feel snappy, modern and alarmingly convincing. And once you realise how influential War of the Worlds has been (particularly on games) you can start to see why people call Wells “the father of Science Fiction.”
[The above pic is taken from a comics adaptation of WotW by Edginton and D'Israeli, as published by Dark Horse Comics. That's also well worth checking out by the way, as is the rest of Edginton and D'Israeli's work.]
The War of the Worlds is a terrific book. Wells’ short stories are brilliant, too. But my personal favourite thing of his is The Island of Doctor Moreau: click here and scroll down for something I wrote about it on my LibraryThing Review Page.
Meanwhile, a very happy one hundred and forty-third birthday, Mr Wells! 
21/09/2009 at 4:38 pm Permalink
Excellent moustache. You could win prizes with that. Books not bad either.
22/09/2009 at 12:26 pm Permalink
The Time Machine is my favourite of his books.
The various film, TV and radio have played around with the original book quite a bit – and there are several unofficial sequels, including one which I’m still trying to get hold of… Morlock Night by KW Jeter, in which the fierce Morlocks replicate the time machine and travel back to attack Victorian London. Cool!
24/09/2009 at 9:41 am Permalink
For me, The War of the Worlds will forever evoke the sound of an earnest 1970s choir singing ‘Oooo-laaaa!’ on Jeff Wayne’s musical version. Otherwise it was quite scary… but we used to choke with laughter every time the hideous human-torching aliens lunged forth with the old battle cry. ‘Oooo-laaaa!’
Loved the book though. Less fussed about The Adventures Of Mr Polly which was inexplicably chosen for the English Lit O Level syllabus in my year. War of the Worlds or The Time Machine would have been brilliant. But clearly way too much fun for 80s teenagers.
07/10/2009 at 2:25 pm Permalink
I love black and white Sci Fi authors with two initials, my other favourite is HP Lovecraft.
JG Ballard is great too, but he is not black and white.