Robert Potter - The Germ Growers: The Strange Adventures of Robert Easterley and John Wilbraham - Hutchinson & Co., 1892, First Edition.

London, Hutchinson & Co., 1892. First edition, first impression. Hardback. A very good copy. One of the earliest novels to look at alien invaders as hostile, predating War of the Worlds. There are two known issues of this UK issue, one in red and one in brown, like this. No priority is known. A couple of bumps to the corners and the spine tips, gift inscription. Four plates by W. Hatherell as required. A nice copy. A little offsetting to the endpapers. "It is probably the world's first story of an alien invasion, produced in Melbourne six years before H. G. Wells's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. Shape-shifter aliens establish bases in wilderness areas of Earth, including northwest Australia. Unlike the Martians of Wells's book, they do not resort to open warfare with vastly superior technology, but use airships, invisibility, and biological weapons. While exploring the Kimberleys, two English youths stumble upon a plot by the aliens to destroy humanity through the breeding of new forms of plague. At first the conspirators appear merely to be members of some secret society, but it is soon revealed that they are nothing less than devils from outer space. The heroes refuse to work for these disease-disseminating devils, and good triumphs over evil when they are rescued by an angel. As in much modern 'aliens among us' SF, the world remains blissfully unaware of the danger by the novel's end because another more benevolent race of aliens steps in to keep the peace." Blackford etc. Strange Constellations, courtesy of Currey's description of the same. [12492, Hyraxia Books].