“Book Descriptions: War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches features stories by the brightest stars in the science fiction firmament. One of the most startlingly original and entertaining SF anthology concepts in years, perfectly preserving the spirit of H. G. Wells's classic. H. G. Wells's immortal novel The War of the Worlds describes an invasion from Mars through the fictional dispatches of a London newspaper reporter. Yet we have been able to see only one segment of the global catastrophe - until now. Here is the Martian invasion that might have been, from the Earthlings best prepared to tell the tale. Besides the struggle in England, the reporter mentions similar battles taking place all over the planet. From Teddy Roosevelt in Cuba to the Dowager Empress in China, we see our fellow humans encounter the Martian menace through the eyes of science fiction luminaries: --In Providence, Rhode Island, an eight-year-old H. P. Lovecraft bravely seeks communion with an alien intelligence - and a return to his long-lost home; --In Russia, a letter by Count Leo Tolstoy describes the coming of the ultimate revolution; --In a dark woods outside of Zurich, a heroic Albert Einstein finds himself trapped inside a Martian craft, where survival itself is relative; --In Amherst, Massachussetts, Emily Dickinson leaves poetic evidence that she encountered the Martians eleven years after her death; --In Paris, a young artist named Pablo Picasso is inspired by the Martian carnage to create his most shocking and disturbing masterpiece. Contents: **(H. G. Wells): Foreword (War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches) • essay by H. G. Wells *(Teddy Roosevelt): The Roosevelt Dispatches [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Mike Resnick *(Percival Lowell): Canals in the Sand [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Kevin J. Anderson *(Dowager Empress of China): Foreign Devils [War of the Worlds] (1996) / novelette by Walter Jon Williams *(Pablo Picasso): Blue Period [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Daniel Marcus *(Henry James): The Martian Invasion Journals of Henry James [War of the Worlds] (1996) / novelette by Robert Silverberg *(Winston Churchill and H. Rider Haggard): The True Tale of the Final Battle of Umslopogaas the Zulu [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Janet Berliner *(Texas Rangers): Night of the Cooters [War of the Worlds] (1987) / shortstory by Howard Waldrop *(Albert Einstein): Determinism and the Martian War, with Relativistic Corrections [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Doug Beason *(Rudyard Kipling): Soldier of the Queen [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Barbara Hambly *(Edgar Rice Burroughs): Mars: The Home Front [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by George Alec Effinger *(Joseph Pulitzer): A Letter from St. Louis [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Allen Steele *(Leo Tolstoy): Resurrection [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Mark W. Tiedemann *(Jules Verne): Paris Conquers All [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Gregory Benford and David Brin *(H. P. Lovecraft): To Mars and Providence [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Don Webb *(Mark Twain): Roughing It During the Martian Invasion [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Daniel Keys Moran and Jodi Moran *(Joseph Conrad): To See the World End [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by M. Shayne Bell *(Jack London): After a Lean Winter [War of the Worlds] (1996) / novelette by Dave Wolverton *(Emily Dickinson): The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective [War of the Worlds] (1996) / shortstory by Connie Willis **(Jules Verne): Afterword: Retrospective (War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches) (1996) • essay by Gregory Benford and David Brin. .” DRIVE