The Crystal Egg (Unabridged)

"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 precursor to «The War of the Worlds», though there is no clear foreshadowing of the events that transpire in the novel.