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The First Cylinder

Published by Fayetteville Mafia Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Emmy-winning writer/producer Joseph Dougherty (thirtysomething, Pretty Little Liars) showcases his vivid imagination and wicked sense of satire in this brilliant retelling of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds from the perspective of the Martian invaders.





“No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own . . . ” And so H. G. Wells opened his thrilling The War of the Worlds in 1897. Since then millions of readers have shivered and shrieked at his depiction of a Martian invasion of Earth. The tale has become part of our cultural memory, but Wells didn’t tell the whole story. He never gave us the Martian side of the conflict. Now, Joseph Dougherty, the Emmy-winning writer, reports on the invasion of Earth from an up-close-and-personal Martian point of view. Dougherty views Wells’s epic battles from an all new, painfully modern perspective. Our narrator is Vvv, a reluctant conscript on board The First Cylinder to reach Earth in the invasion. Vvv is the Martian incarnation of all reluctant warriors, from Yossarian in Catch-22 to Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. War is hell . . . for aliens and humans alike. Sardonic and heartrending, tragic and comic, The First Cylinder is a breakout science fiction novel in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury.

About The Author

Joseph Dougherty is an Emmy and Humanitas Prize winner for his work on the groundbreaking series thirtysomething, he has written several movies for HBO including the remake of Attack of the 50 Ft. Womandirected by Christopher Guest, and the Emmy-winning noir/occult mashup Cast a Deadly Spell, which was nominated for a Ray Bradbury Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

He has contributed as a writer and director to many popular television series, including Judging Amy, Once and Again, and Saving Grace. He was a writer, director, and executive producer on the hit series Pretty Little Liars, cocreated the Pretty Little Liars spinoff Ravenswood, and helped launch Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists. His books include Comfort and Joi, Trunk Piece, A Screenwriter's Companion, The First Cylinder, Psychopomp, and The Persistence of Phosphors, which received an AfterEllen Visibility Award as Best Book of 2013.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Fayetteville Mafia Press (January 5, 2023)
  • Length: 92 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781949024555

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