The War of the Worlds

Wells's other great speculative novel — The Time Machine looks forward in time, War of the Worlds brings the threat to the present

Published a year later, Conrad's novella critiques imperialism from within the colony; Wells critiques it by bringing the colony home

The foundational science fiction novel — both explore the consequences of beings created by superior intelligence

Wells's student Orwell continued the project of using speculative fiction to critique power structures

McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel inherits Wells's interest in what survives when civilization collapses

Achebe tells the colonial story Wells imagined — the destruction of a civilization by a technologically superior invader, from the colonized perspective