They see a new Martian machine, one that kidnaps any human it finds, throwing them into a container on its back. This is the end of Book 1.īook 2 begins with the narrator and the curate searching houses for food.
Soon after, the military crumbles and the Martians roam the British countryside free from any opposition. However, just in time, another ship called the HMS Thunder Child rams the Tripods, destroying itself but allowing the other ship filled with civilians to leave. They buy passage on a ship to America, but just as they are about to leave, Martians appear and almost destroy the ship. The brother saves a family from being robbed, and the family then comes with him. He flees to the Essex coast, a journey he completes with all the other refugees. The novel's point of view then switches to the neighbors' brother, who is now a refugee from London. The Martians break the line of defense around London and release the Black Smoke, causing a mass exodus from London. There, he meets a curate, with whom he teams up. The narrator fashions a raft and tries to float down the Thames stopping at Walton. The Martians are now retreating towards Woking. The two try to escape Woking, and they hear that the military has taken down a Tripod by the Thames, a great victory. An artilleryman warns the narrator that another canister has landed nearby, which separates the narrator from his wife. These Tripods quickly destroy most of the military and Woking, leaving wreckage in their wake. Each has a heat ray and a chemical weapon, known as Black Smoke.
The Martians have constructed Tripods-brutal, three-legged robots, manned by Martians. He returns to Woking to return a cart, but a new Martian weapon forces him to crash.
The narrator takes his wife to a neighboring town, hoping that she will be safer there. After receiving heavy fire from the military, the Heat Ray suddenly erupts. The British military arrives, and the entire small town of Woking is stuck in a tense standoff. The Martians vaporize the humans with a Heat Ray before continuing to assemble their machinery. A human delegation, including the astronomer, approaches while waving the white flag of peace. The Martians dislike Earth’s atmosphere and retreat back into the canister. It is nearly the size of a bear and greyish with large eyes and tentacles. One canister lands near the narrator's home. From Earth, one only sees sudden explosions on the surface of Mars, but this fascinates the scientific community. Its inhabitants seek a way off of their planet in order to survive these changes, and they achieve this by firing themselves off of Mars in canisters. The story begins in an observatory, where an astronomer notices that Mars, older than Earth, has experienced a sudden drop off in sea levels and temperature.
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