The Crystal Egg

"The Crystal Egg" is a science fiction short story written by H. G. Wells in 1897.

The story tells of a shop owner, named Mr. Cave, who finds a strange crystal egg that serves as a window into the planet Mars.

The story was written the same year in which Wells was serializing "The War of the Worlds" in "Pearson's Magazine", a year before it was published as a novel. Because of the vaguely similar descriptions of the Martians and their machines, "The Crystal Egg" is often considered a prequel to "The War of the Worlds", though there is no clear foreshadowing of the events that transpire in the novel.Spanish language writer Jorge Luis Borges uses it as inspiration for the tale El Aleph

Adaptations

*In 1952, "The Crystal Egg" was made into an episode of the science fiction anthology television series "Tales of Tomorrow". The episode was a half hour in length and told in first person narration. The episode is vague as to whether it is set in the 1890s when Wells published his story or in the 1950s when the show was being broadcast.
*In Manly Wade Wellman's "Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds", Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II" and Kevin J. Anderson's "The Martian War", Crystal Eggs appear and are used by the Martians to prepare for their invasion.
*In 2001, the Radio Tales series produced the drama "Watchers", an adaptation of H. G. Wells' "The Crystal Egg" story for National Public Radio and XM Satellite Radio. For a plot summary of the drama, see "the adaptation synopsis".

External links

* [http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=WelCrys.sgm&
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* [http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Galaxy/3773/waroftheworlds/martians/tech.html#crystalegg Martian Technology Analysis Report]