When H.G. Wells published The War of the Worlds as a serialized collection of stories in 1897 and a full novel a year later, he may not have known the groundbreaking work he was unleashing on the world. A sci-fi story that dared to look at the dark side of theoretical human-alien contact, War of the Worlds was a fantastical-yet-grounded story that imagined visitors from the planet Mars as anything but friendly. The book became fertile ground for adaptations, from Orson Welles’ dramatic 1938 radio dramatization to Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film adaptation and not…