So far two books in the series, The Great Martian War written by Scott Washburn is, like Scarlet Traces and Global Dispatches, is a fan sequel to HG Wells' The War of the Worlds.
The story begins in 1908, eight years after the failed Martian invasion of Southern England depicted in Well's book. Humanity is shocked from the existence of the aliens and some nations are preparing for the likelihood of a second invasion; U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt in particular encouraged the Preparedness Movement (name after the same OTL movement during World War I except this time it is against Martians) and strengthening the American military, which have early steam-powered tanks. However, there are some doubters as people believed there won't be a second invasion given that it has been somewhat long after the first invasion and others believed that the Martian invasion was all a hoax. Eventually it happens of course.
Noticeably, Britain stubbornly refuses to share their spoils of the Martian tech and knowledge to the rest of the world (not unlike Scarlet Traces) until they do so when the second invasion becomes even more dire.
The books have a Martian villain protagonist. The aliens, referring by their native tongue only as "The Race", are given attention to their society, biology, and even sympathy (even though they have no problems sucking the fluids from humans they refer to as "prey-creatures") than in Wells' novels. What is more interesting is the author's depiction of Martian reproduction which reveals that the Martian buds also serve as body replacements in which they can transfer their minds into the buds when their body is failing or dying. Also genetic memory plays a big role in their life cycle.
The books does not hold back onto realism as to how both humanity and Martian deal in the invasion. The Martians have their superior technology and weapons, but they are still limited by their numbers and resources. Humanity have the opposite, but they are still strained by logistics and slow adaptation to new tactics against the Martians. The books even have Nikola Tesla turning his Wardenclyffe Tower into a Tesla Tower like in Red Alert, but while cool it is still impractical. Even the tanks aren't any different from their WWI counterparts and are still vulnerable to flanking, though worked in mass attack waves. Airplanes are still in their infancy and are only use to scout and observe. Martian tripods are still vulnerable to artillery and battleships, but can be utilize by their mobility and speed to counter their enemies and making havoc behind enemy lines.
The setting mainly focus on the Martian incursion in the New Mexico Territory (in OTL, NM becomes a state in 1912), but make mentions what's going in the rest of the world. The Martians invades Earth with 200 cylinders and landing in remote and isolated places where human military forces would not be able to get to the landing sites and exterminate them (as discussed in Wells' book). Within a span of a year, the Martians are able to completely overrun Australia and parts of South America, Eastern Russia, and Central Asia - mainly because these nations are ill-equipped to properly prepare. The Martians do not land in Europe because the European nations are too militarized that could overwhelm the invaders. British South Africa is struggling to hold the line, German Eastern Africa is "written off", the Suez Canal is defended at all cost by the British, and the same goes for the US with the Panama Canal. Germany, France, and Britain eventually sends expeditionary forces to Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada respectively. Refugee crisis's are happening.
Some historical characters get their shine including Roosevelt, Leonard Wood, Tesla, George Patton (who gets to ride a tank and gets wounded), Thomas Edison (who is still an asshole as in real life), Robert Goddard (whose getting ideas to make hand-held rocket launchers), and Harry Truman (who importantly helps one of the protagonists to taking down some tripods from stopping the evacuation of Santa Fe).
As of the second book called "Breakthrough", the invasion is not going to be over soon as the ending result in American military forces being utterly routed by the Martians and forcing President Roosevelt to order a mass evacuation of everything between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River to the east. The Martians achieves their goal and spending their time to build their giant fortresses and forces, while the Americans do likewise as they begin to fortified the Mississippi and seriously build up their forces to retake the west in the future.
Overall the books are a fine, simple read. Even though the story is limited to the actions going on in New Mexico and among the viewpoint characters.
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