The Day of the Martians: The Martian Diaries, Volume 1 By H.E. Wilburson

4/7/2018

Multi-volume, science-fiction author H.E. Wilburson introduces us to his audio book The Day of the Martians:
The terror of the coming of the Martians has become a distant memory, a bad dream that has faded with time. It is now 1913 and the cosy, suburban life of the writer from H G Wells' iconic 'The War Of The Worlds' descends again into a Martian nightmare. A cylinder from the previous invasion has been unearthed in Wales, intact and completely sealed from the Earth's atmosphere, then transported to London for no apparent reason. It is unclear whether there are Martians still alive inside it after more than a decade.
The situation worsens. Ogilvy the astronomer reveals that in three months, the Martians are set to invade in vast numbers, just before Christmas. Having learned hard lessons about deadly bacteria, the Martians are set on the conquest of our planet.
On a hunch, the writer takes his wife with him to Mount Tryfan in Wales where they make a surprising discovery, but is it significant? With no realistic defence against Martian tripods and heat rays, the government has no choice and adopts the writer's plan. But time is short, too short. Only a single hope now stands in the way of total oblivion and The Day of the Martians…
The Day of the Martians by H.E. Wilburson is a sequel to The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

This audio book was so much fun! I loved it! The story kept me on the edge of my kindle for the entire tale. The narration and the sound effects were top notch. I felt like I was transported into the past and was witnessing these events myself. The power of the audio book is quite amazing. The enjoyment factor is high!
As the sequel to such a famous story it was handled quite well and felt so organic to the original story.
I give The Day of the Martians 5 STARS! I loved it and so will you!
I am very happy to report that there are two more stories coming: “The Lake on the Moon” and “Gateway to Mars”. Thank you, Mr. Wilburson.

You can buy this book on the platform of your choice:
mybook.to/themartiandiaries

You can follow the author:
books.martiandiaries.com

Here is the link for my review of the second book in the series:
www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/lake-on-the-moon-the-war-of-the-worlds-audio-drama-sequel-a-new-martian-menace-invades-earth-the-martian-diaries-vol-2
Here is the link for my review of the third book in the series:
www.wordrefiner.com/book-reviews/the-martian-diaries-vol-3-gateway-to-mars

Tags: sci-fi, science fiction, historical, aliens, Mars, invasion, England, Wales

Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction

28 Comments

Wilburson link

4/9/2018 01:29:10 pm

I am delighted with this 5 star review of my audio book sequel to The War Of The Worlds and so pleased that you enjoyed it.

Mark

4/9/2018 01:43:32 pm

Your delight makes Grizz and I very happy. Thank you for being willing to answer a few questions.
What inspired you to choose the form of an audiobook for this story?

4/9/2018 02:21:33 pm

The reason was simple. First and foremost I am a storyteller and I have been telling stories with music for a long time. To be able to combine the music with my own text has been a life-long dream and the audio book format is the perfect platform.

4/9/2018 05:20:00 pm

Do you have other stories published? Where can people find them?

4/10/2018 04:31:42 am

I'm really excited and focused on completing The Martian Diaries trilogy at present. Book 1 'The Day Of The Martians' is now released and I am currently writing book 2 'The Lake On The Moon'. Most of my time is taken up with this trilogy but I have another project that's completed but not yet published. It's a retelling of Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, again with my own original music and it will be out as an audio book in the near future.

4/10/2018 11:41:05 am

I am happy to hear that you are working on the second book.
Pilgrim's Progress is an amazing historical book also. Why that book? Do I detect a theme in that choice? What other stories would you like to bring to life?

H.E.Wilburson link

4/10/2018 02:35:56 pm

My version of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' was completed in 2015 on a very low budget. It gave me the skills and ambition to attempt a trilogy sequel to the daddy of science fiction, 'The War Of The Worlds'. Both 'The Pilgrims Progress' and 'The War Of the Worlds' are familiar titles to many, and perhaps, under appreciated today. I wanted to bring a new life and sympathetic perspective to these classics. I hope my involvement with them is seamless and they make enjoyable audio books. I have one rule, to do my best. There are several potential titles I would like to work on but 'The Martian Diaries' trilogy is still far from complete and to consider another project just now would be difficult.

4/10/2018 03:29:27 pm

Are you also a musician? Earlier you mentioned combining stories and music. When did you first have the idea to combine the art forms and what provided the initial inspiration?

4/11/2018 03:53:42 am

I enjoy painting pictures with music and creating worlds from words.I will leave it to to the listener to decide whether I am a musician or a writer. It is my hope that I have done my job right and the story is enjoyable enough that it will be listened to over and over, without becoming stale.
The conveying of an idea or mood has always been the inspiration behind combining the two art forms, in order to tell the story better and the reason 'The Day Of The Martians' is published as an audio book, for now.
It's been a pleasure to share this with you and thank you for your review.

4/11/2018 11:08:22 am

Tell me about your writing process. Do you have a certain time or place devoted to writing? Are you a plotter or a pantster? Are you a member of a writers' group?

4/12/2018 05:54:21 am

Writing doesn't come easy to me, I find composing music much easier and a relaxation from trying to make a sentence read right. I am currently in the middle of a significant plot that's going to need tons and tons of research and it is a pressure and a concern. I like to sketch out the ending of a story first, complete an early chapter, then with the dots joined up, create the beginning. I am hopeless at remembering things, so I have to write, note or jot on my laptop as I go, no matter what time of day or night, or the thread / thought is gone. I am not in a writing group as yet as I have no time to spare, none at all, just too busy with all the marketing as well.

4/12/2018 01:16:42 pm

Do you use special software for writing and researching, such as Scrivener or something else? If not, what system do you use? Marketing does take a lot of time, no doubt about that. Do you develop a playlist of music for your characters, something they would like to listen to?

Rhani D'Chae

4/11/2018 03:26:43 pm

That's an interesting concept for a book, making it a sequel to a book from a different author. I'm not sure that I would be brave enough to try it. Lol Especially not THAT book and THAT author! 😁

4/11/2018 09:42:29 pm

Perhaps someone else then? What famous dead .author would you like to do a sequel for if you knew you couldn't fail?

4/12/2018 03:01:14 pm

'The War Of The Worlds' is a fantastic story and it deserves a great sequel. I hope I have done a good enough job with book 1 of my trilogy 'The Martian Diaries'.You can listen to the first 4 chapters on the website here http://www.martiandiaries.com
I would love to know what you think.

5/15/2018 10:20:33 am

You seem to be doing a good job of promoting your audiobook on Twitter, I really enjoy the facts about H.G. Wells and Mars. How are the reviews doing? It's the hope of every author that a purchaser will leave a review. Many authors are quite disappointed in that area. Any ideas on why it's so hard for readers to leave a review?

5/15/2018 11:50:03 am

Hi again, it has been a while. Its funny you should ask about reviews, there has been one which I have found interesting. I was wondering what your thoughts would be about it? It is great that they have left the review I would like to see if they would be interested in commenting here further too. Many thanks H.E.

This presentation was not for me
I realize I'm in the minority here, but I did not enjoy The Day of the Martians: The Martian Diaries. I cannot give this more than 2.5 stars, rounded to 3 simply for the Herculean effort put into the production.

I just today finished listening to The Day of the Martians: The Martian Diaries, which was offered as a sequel to The War of the Worlds, written in tribute to H.G. Wells's groundbreaking novel. Since this was an audiobook presentation, I first found and listened to Simon Vance's narration of The War of the Worlds, so I could approach the sequel with the original fresh in my mind. This was a mistake, as the two did not mesh at all.

I feel like the author missed the point of The War of the Worlds, with its speculative philosophy and allusions to British imperialism in the mid-late 1800s, and instead wrote a piece of fan fiction that merely included the world and characters of H.G. Wells's novel. This sequel contained mostly dialogue and adventure, rather than the didactic description, Wellsian introspection, and characters representing different ideologies.

As well the writing style was much more informal, and lacked the Victorian era pompousness and richness of the original. The descriptions, and especially the dialogue, sounded too contemporary, generously using contractions and sentences ending with prepositions. I especially missed the era-specific colloquialisms, like skedaddle.

And finally, while many enjoyed the addition of music and sound effects, I found they detracted from the presentation. Especially troublesome were the cheesy, 1980's electric guitar solos and psychedelic sound effects. If we are supposed to be in 1913, none of the electronica in the background could exist, and suspension of disbelief became impossible for me.

But please do not allow my personal dislike of this presentation to deter you. If you go in free of expectations and would love a chance to hear more Martian colonialism efforts similar to The War of the Worlds, this may be just the audio presentation for you.

5/15/2018 12:33:13 pm

That's an interesting mix of ideas and expectations. Every reader gets something different from a book, because every reader is different. In this sense, a book is never fully complete until it's been read.
I would not have thought of comparing an audio version of the original H.G. Wells book to DOTM. I appreciate the reviewer's comments about the lack of historical congruency, I am very comfortable with how you structured your sequel. I don't think it should have to be the same, because it's your perspective of a classic. Everyone sees it a little differently. That is why we can have any given genre and so many similar but different books.
In some ways, this reviewer has validated your vision and writing. By defining your differences from Wells, your authorship is declared to the world, H. W. Wilburson is an author, not just another wannabe copycat.
If we are brutally truthful, there have been no new stories for centuries. Every story since Virgil, The Bible, or Shakespeare, is merely a copy or shadow of something already written. Yet, we instinctively know that is irrelevant, because each author brings something new to the old and we have more books than we can read. I revel in the opportunity for choice, unlimited choice!
I would say to all authors, embrace every review and give thanks that another person took time to share their thoughts with you and others.

5/15/2018 01:28:02 pm

Yes, I wholly agree. Some of the things you have both said, reflects precisely that 'The Day Of The Martians' is one third part of the whole. book one of the trilogy.

'The Martian Diaries' in its entirety is the sequel to 'The War Of The Worlds' and a set journey towards H.G. Wells' original and classic, not away from it...

I expect there will be many more comments about my choice of electric guitars, however, every instrument has a heart that is unique to its self. I am sure that Beethoven would have enjoyed writing a piece for electric guitar in E minor if he had one to hand. Can you imagine that? I certainly would have liked to have heard it!

May I ask, which chapter of The Day Of The Martians did you like the most?

5/15/2018 01:34:59 pm

I have a hunch Beethoven would have loved the electric guitar. My favorite chapter is the resolution of the situation, akin to the happily ever after, albeit a temporary one in this case.
I am looking forward to the next installment. Any idea when that will be out?

5/15/2018 02:11:31 pm

My favourite is Chapter 2, Train Journey, it was fun to do, and so was Chapter 3, 4.... I had a problem with chapter 13 The Tea Room. In the end I had to generate noise to imply silence. Yes, all great fun to do.

At the the moment I am working on books 2 and 3 together, the reason for this will eventually become clear. I am hoping to have book 2 completed by Christmas. It is a roller coaster!

5/15/2018 02:32:46 pm

Glad you are working on the rest of the story. I am looking forward to it.

wilburson

11/4/2018 04:24:44 pm

Hi Mark, I've been a little busy. It's nice to be finishing up this project and to have a little time to communicate with people again. One more tricky chapter to edit and I should be done writing book 2. Wow, was it really May since we last spoke? Once Harry has recorded in the next couple of weeks, putting it all together with the music will be the fun bit for me. It's been a tough journey, I always knew Lake On The Moon would be, but I was not prepared for that. Hopefully it will be out soon.

11/4/2018 05:31:10 pm

You have been busy, I have no doubt about that! Do you write the book as if it was a play or a movie, following the pattern of a script?
I am glad you have some fun coming up.

Wilburson

11/11/2018 03:12:51 pm

Fact and fiction collide in book 2, Lake On The Moon, because it is set roughly 100 years ago. WW1 and the Spanish influenza took the lives of millions, and was certainly a challenging time for that generation. Ask me when book 3 is finished, and I can reveal the idea behind the trilogy's direction.

11/11/2018 05:06:21 pm

Now you got me thinking. What could the Martians possibly have to do with such world-changing events?

11/12/2018 10:24:59 am

There is only one Lake On The Moon...

11/12/2018 11:39:44 am

Very good! Now you got me!

The Day of the Martians: The Martian Diaries, Volume 1 By H.E. Wilburson

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