Hey, I *like[/i the Turtledove books (I’m finishing up the last one now), and I think he makes it very plausible. Besides, if he didn’t give the aliens such limited weaponry the books would have been a ten page pamphlet, not a 2000+ page series.
Wells was doing siomething similar – his aliens, at least, didn’t have to travel light years to get to the earth. It was believable that they had technology not very much advanced over human technology (The martian heat ray – the first Ray un in SF – is actually amazingly similar to a CO2 laser, right down to the description of its appearance and effects)
The discussion about books vs. films given above is absurd in its reductionism – the dichotomy between absolutely faithful vs. completely different is artificial. The point is that there have been plenty of films that have been acceptably close to their source material without slavishly following it. What people hate are films that depart so wildly from the nominal source that you wonder why they even claim there is a relationship. (Wanna start an argument on this Board? Mention Starship Troopers or I, Robot. As I’ve noted before, spy thrillers seem to get this “seriously departed from the original book” treatment, although those fans aren’t so vocal – The James Bond films, Ice Station Zebra, a lot of Tom Clancy novels, The Osterman Weekend. But note how , for instance, the James Bond films or the Alistair McClean novels that adhere more closely to the books are more satisfying and more successful.) Audiences loved the Lord of the Rings adaptations, and the Harry Potter books, and Gone with the Wind.
A more faithful War of the Worlds would, to me, have the attraction of a period feel. The limitations on the Martians’ power would make them more comprehensible, and would make the war clearer. And you could easily expand on the fighting between the two sides that is actually described in the book but thus far hasn’t been adequately depicted on the screen.
As opposed to giving the Aliens shields so our best weapons, even nukes, are useless anyway, so you either have a deus ex machina(WoTW) or idiotic weak point(ID4).
This has been done…twice. THat’s a lot of the the reason so many people want to see it set in the 1890’s like the book. Because they’ve already done the updated version. At least that way, humanity does get to kick some ass even if they still are unable to defeat them. Makes it a trifle less one-sided.
As opposed to giving the Aliens shields so our best weapons, even nukes, are useless anyway, so you either have a deus ex machina(WoTW) or idiotic weak point(ID4).
This has been done…twice. THat’s a lot of the the reason so many people want to see it set in the 1890’s like the book. Because they’ve already done the updated version. At least that way, humanity does get to kick some ass even if they still are unable to defeat them. Makes it a trifle less one-sided.