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Cover to Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds

Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds is a sequel to The War of the Worlds, written by Manly Wade Wellman and his son Wade Wellman, and published in 1975. It was inspired by a viewing of A Study in Terror.

Overview

The story consists of the tales of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Professor Challenger in London during the Martian invasion.

Background

The underlying philosophy of the book is very different to, indeed contradictory to, the original Wells story. There, the idea is repeatedly expressed of humans being completely helpless before the Martian invaders, as are other creatures towards the humans.

In various parts of the Wells book, Martian/Human is compared to human/cow, human/rabbit, human/ant etc. The Humans' final deliverance, due to the Martians' succumbing to earthly bacteria, is completely unconnected to their own efforts. Conversely, in the present book Holmes, Watson and Challenger are plucky and resourceful humans, continually confronting and outwitting the Martians and completely undeterred by the invaders' technological superiority.

Alternate versions

• The theme of Sherlock Holmes participating in the events of The War of the Worlds was later explored in Sherlock Holmes In The Case Of The Missing Martian, a 1990 comic book by Doug Murray.^[1]

• An online story entitled Solar Pons's War of the Worlds follows a similar storyline to the Wellman story, substituting Holmes with Solar Pons and Professor Challenger with H. G. Wells.^[2]

• Titan Books' 2009 reprint of the novel is titled The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds.

See also

• Non-canonical Sherlock Holmes works

References

External links

• Profile from a War of the Worlds site