关于本书
这部经典科幻作品通过一位无名叙述者，讲述人类面对来自火星的突如其来、毁灭性的入侵。当高度智慧、冷酷而精于算计的生物乘着神秘的圆筒降临地球，故事探讨了人类自满情绪的骤然崩塌，以及在技术更先进、冷酷无情的外星力量面前的求生挣扎。
开篇
I. THE EVE OF THE WAR.
一、大战前夕
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century
在十九世纪的最后几年里，没有人会相信，
that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own;
这个世界正被比人类更高级、却又和人类一样会死的智慧生物敏锐而密切地注视着；
that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly
没有人会相信，当人们忙于各自的事务时，他们正被仔细观察和研究，也许几乎就像
as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
一个人用显微镜仔细观察在一滴水中成群繁殖的短命生物那样细致。
With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs,
人们怀着无限的自满，为了他们的小事在这个地球上来来去去，
serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.
安然自信于他们对物质的统治。
It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same.
显微镜下的纤毛虫也可能是这样做的。
No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger,
没有人想到太空中那些更古老的世界会是人类危险的来源，
or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable.
或者即便想到它们，也只是把在它们上面存在生命的想法当作不可能或不大可能而打消掉。
It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days.
回想起那些逝去的日子里的某些思维习惯，真是令人好奇。
At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars,
地球上的人们至多幻想火星上可能有别的人，
perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise.
也许比他们自己低等，并且准备欢迎一项传教事业。
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts
然而，在太空的深渊彼岸，有一些头脑——它们之于我们的头脑，就像我们的头脑之于那些会死去的
that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes,
野兽的头脑一样——那些巨大、冷静而无情的智慧，正用嫉妒的眼光注视着这个地球，
and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
并缓慢而稳妥地制订着针对我们的计划。
And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.
而在二十世纪初，巨大的幻灭来临了。
The planet Mars, I scarcely need remind the reader, revolves about the sun at a mean distance of 140,000,000 miles,
火星这颗行星，我几乎不必提醒读者，以平均一亿四千万英里的距离绕着太阳运行，
and the light and heat it receives from the sun is barely half of that received by this world.
它从太阳那里得到的光和热，还不到这个世界所得到的一半。
It must be, if the nebular hypothesis has any truth, older than our world;
如果星云假说有任何道理的话，它一定比我们的世界更古老；