I listened to the audiobook, which helped me get through the slow beginning and some of the dry parts--the narrator did an excellent job with the performance and various voices of characters. When I think that this book was written before the 20th century began, I'm truly amazed. Martians invading earth seems trite now, but Wells was a visionary to write all this when he did. Some of the material, like his account of the Martian anatomy, his descriptions of people evacuating en masse, were riveting. But they're spaced out by periods of the narrator's story, which sometimes had more detail and introspection than I cared for. Anyway, idea is 5/5, but this book was not my thing.