War of the Worlds gets 'official' sequel 119 years on – but what about the unofficial ones?

British author Stephen Baxter is writing a follow-up to HG Wells's classic novel of Martian invasion, called The Massacre of Mankind - but War of the Worlds has a rich history of unofficial sequels

When HG Wells saw off the invading Martians at the end of his 1897 science fiction classic War of the Worlds, he didn't envisage them making a comeback. But that hasn't stopped a century's worth of conjecture about what happened next.

It seems that, despite the best efforts of HG Wells and the common cold, you can't keep a good Martian down: 119 years on, the "official" sequel to War of the Worlds has been announced, to be penned by Stephen Baxter, one of Britain's brightest high-concept science fiction writers. Co-author with Terry Pratchett of the Long Earth series of novels, the most recent of which was published after Pratchett's death in March, Baxter has also collaborated with Alastair Reynolds and Arthur C Clarke, as well as having a wide body of solo work under his belt.