Professor George Edward Challenger invents a machine to talk to Martians. Because obviously nothing bad has ever come from his ideas before.

Naturally, GEC sends a peremptory summons to his friends to watch the demonstration. Edward Malone is hoping for a quiet afternoon, while fully expecting an explosion. Lord John Roxton will settle for a decent whisky, and Professor Summerlee is always on the lookout to argue a point. What they get instead is an aetheric rift, a threatening Martian entity, and the not-so-surprising realization that Challenger's "scientific breakthroughs" are, more often than not, indistinguishable from natural disasters.

But worse is to come: the Martian presence isn't here by accident. And if Challenger and his friends don't find a way to stop it, the next breach may swallow more than a laboratory!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells meet steampunk adventure!