Road trippin' between my daughter's new home in Madison and my home in Omaha. Time for an audiobook!

I became aware of this production through a mention in William Shatner's Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man, an audio book I listened to on a previous road trip. This is a new staging of the classic radio play adapted by Howard Koch and made infamous by Orson Wells and his Mercury Theatre broadcast featuring Leonard Nimoy and several other actors who have appeared on Star Trek shows. It's short length -- just over an hour -- was perfect to fill a gap at the very end of my trip after my other audio book concluded.

Unfortunately, I have never liked H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, and even Nimoy's wonderful and familiar voice cannot save this morose story of death and destruction from an ill-fated alien invasion. It was almost interesting while the first half was presented like real-time radio reports from invasion eye-witnesses and frontline combatants, but then the back end becomes a dreary monologue of a survivor wandering the marred landscape and then listening to the ranting of a delusional survivor.

I might have been better off turning on the radio or streaming my own musical playlists. ( )

The delivery of the production made this great. ( )

A production of the classic radio play adaptation of H.G. Wells by Orson Welles. Directed by John De Lancie, the production is full of cast members from Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, which adds an extra layer of delight to this well done production. Of course, being familiar with the panic caused by the original production, it's interesting to listen to this version and very easily grasp how it could have been taken as the real thing in an era when news was distributed primarily in print and on the radio. Also, having not read Wells original novel, it's a fascinating way to experience the outlines of his narrative. ( )

Lots of fun here. :) ( )

This production lacks nothing in its retelling. The fast-paced dialogue may not keep you on the edge of your seat (we all know how it’s going to end), but the listener will still get caught up in the excitement of the minute-by-minute reporting of the invasion from Mars. It goes without saying that the acting in this drama is superb, and along with the music and sound effects, this rendition is quite entertaining. ( )