Space Machine, The

One of the signs of how influential H.G. Wells was in the history of science fiction can be seen in the number of later writers who have produced sequels to his books or picked up on his ideas. One of the most fun is The Space Machine by Christopher Priest. In late-Victorian Britain, a young couple, Edward and Amelia, encounter an inventor who has devised a time machine. But because of the motion of the planets, movement in time is also movement in space, and when Edward and Amelia use the time machine they find themselves transported to Mars on the eve of the Martian invasion. The Mars they discover is extrapolated from The War of the Worlds, an ancient civilisation coming under threat from the advancing desert. The Martians are technologically advanced, and Edward and Amelia must find a way to prevent or a least impede their invasion of Earth. ­­­­­­­­­­­ A clever mash-up of The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds, that remains true to the events in both novels, this is a vividly enjoyable pastiche that shows how well Mars works as a landscape of the imagination.