"That fool with a stupid moustache."

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This story concept is simply delicious, being based on an alternate history following a famous, but fictional, invasion: that of the Martians in Wells' War of the Worlds. As such, it not only turns history on it's head and includes famous named historical figures - Stalin Lloyd George, Charles de Gaulle, Rommel, Kaiser Wilhelm II and President Maginot, amongst others - but also allows for numerous delightful little vignettes, such as Rommel, on his way to board the spaceship as part of earth's attacking fleet, is held up by a group of men in brown shirts led by a man with a toothbrush moustache who rages on about the Martians only being puppets of Jews, the real threat to humanity. Rommel promptly has his men arrest this unknown madman, Hitler, and carries on to board hi spaceship, annoyed that the encounter made his arrival twenty minutes late.

This is a straightforward tale of retaliation against st the Mars invasion which, 26 years prior to the commencement had slaughtered millions of earth people and was only stopped by the Martians falling ill and overcome by viruses in the atmosphere to which they had no resistance. Technologically vastly superior to the eathmen at the end of the 1800s, the Martians left their war machines behind as they died, equipment that was reverse engineered, thus thrusting the Earth into space travel capability in the early 20th century and even drawing together a loose, if uneasy alliance of most of the world's nations in a determination to wipe out the home world of their attackers, Mars.
The real joy of the book, in addition to the battle scenarios, is the personalities, rivalries and intrigues of the named leaders - Baria, the soviet commander, is given an especially bad press. The narrator, Samuel Hoke III, gives fine voice to all of the nuances of conflict, both of physical fighting and the dispositions of the characters. His rich, deep reading might seem a little hesitant at first but soon proves perfect for the time setting.

A most enjoyable book. My thanks to the rights holder who gifted me my copy, via Audio book Boom. It was a great idea, exciting, humorous at times, and well executed with an immediate feeling of reality. A book I am happy to recommend.

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Four stars

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This is set decades after the original war of the worlds.
It also has real characters from history (which surprised me, since I wasn't expecting it).
I loved the characters because they all thought and acted differently. This gave them and the story a more 3D effect.
The story deals with response to the original invasion and how technology advanced from the use of the captured alien spacecraft. It also contains some politic and how some countries acted after the invasion. This I believe gives it more realism unlike some other books that I have read where the countries come together without any arguing or having there own agenda. Also what I love about this book is that no one country is the hero. It is the different countries working together to achieve their objective just like WWII.
There is swearing in this book and mild violence.

I was voluntarily provided this review copy audio book at no charge by the author, publisher, and/or narrator.

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A brilliant story but

The story itself was amazing. Its always incredible when we get a double side of both human and martian perspective, but, thought the narrator gives a fantastic effort into accents there is something about how he reads the natural story that lowers the over all standard. If as much effort had been putting into the full reading than just the accents of characterisation, then this would be perfect

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