invasions of earth
from our solar system neighbours

Piccadilly winged terrorCan't resist this picture. Can anyone tell me where the invader is from?

This page is meant to grow piecemeal as I discover or remember more of the various attempts on our planet, and think of more points to note about them.  The arrangement, naturally, is planned on an origin-by-origin, invader-by-invader basis.
    My aim at first was to concentrate on full-scale invasions, but secret infiltrations ought also to count, especially if the infiltrators indulge in kidnapping (as in The Whisperer in Darkness).
    Ideally, each section ought eventually to be provided with some sort of discussion of the themes in the relevant tales.

invasions from the sun

The Flames.

invasions from mercury

No need to add anything here; just the above link to the page dedicated to Mercurian invaders.

invasions from venus

The Metamorphosis of Earth.    Three to Conquer.   
The Tumithak saga, comprising: Tumithak of the Corridors - Tumithak in Shawm - Tumithak and the Pillars of Fire - Tumithak and the Ancient Word.

Stid:  The above list, Zendexor, shows you intend to include "long-term aftermath of invasion" in the category "invasion", since the saga of Tumithak is a tale of the resurgence of mankind long ages after he has been driven underground by the Venusian "shelks" who secured domination of the surface of the Earth.

Zendexor:  Well yes, I reckon it's fair to broaden the remit of this page to include the general theme of invasion.  I don't insist that the actual invasion be narrated.

Stid:  Would you then consider broadening the remit still more, to include, reciprocally, invasions by Earth of other worlds?

Zendexor:  It would then get far too big!  The page would bid fair to distend itself over the entire sub-genre of the OSS!  Let's keep it manageable...

invasions from the moon

 The Moon Men.    The Moon Menace.  

invasions from mars

Last And First Men (chapters VIII and IX).    The Silly Season.    The War of the Worlds.    

invasions from one of the gas-giants

 The Kraken Wakes.

The Kraken Wakes

One of the many themes fascinatingly treated in The Kraken Wakes is that of belief and disbelief.  
    A maverick scientist named Bocker is the one whose conclusion as to the source of the attacks from the ocean deeps is the most plausibly argued and the least accepted (p.47):
    ...Therefore, Bocker deduced, we were in the process, while almost unaware of it, of undergoing a species of interplanetary invasion.  If he were to be asked the source of it, he would point to Jupiter as being most likely to fulfil the conditions of pressure...    
    Bocker is sidelined as if he were some kind of nut.  Yet his thesis is tightly argued, and no other explanation comes close to accommodating the kind of events that have taken place.
    Ultimately the reader is left to make up his mind for himself.  Since no communication is possible between mankind and the enemy - their natures being so different - an aura of mystery concerning the "bathies" persists to the end, and enhances the impact of the novel, which is one of the most masterly, best-written tales in all of sf, quite the equal of H G Wells at his best.

invasions from titan

 The Puppet Masters.

invasions from pluto

The Plutonian Terror.    The Slavanns Must Play.    The Whisperer in Darkness.

invasions from comets

 The Comet Doom.


 Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Moon Men (1926); Edmond Hamilton, "The Comet Doom" (Amazing Stories, January 1928); "The Moon Menace" (Weird Tales, September 1927); Robert A Heinlein, The Puppet Masters (1951); Cyril M Kornbluth, "The Silly Season" (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fall 1950); H P Lovecraft, "The Whisperer in Darkness" (Weird Tales, August 1931); Eric Frank Russell, Three to Conquer (1957); Clark Ashton Smith, "The Metamorphosis of Earth" (Weird Tales, September 1951); Olaf Stapledon, Last And First Men (1930); The Flames (1947); Charles R Tanner, "Tumithak of the Corridors" (Amazing Stories, January 1932); "Tumithak in Shawm" (Amazing Stories, June 1933); "Tumithak and the Pillars of Fire" (Super Science Stories, November 1941); "Tumithak and the Ancient Word" (unpublished in the author's lifetime; collected in the 2005 volume Tumithak of the Corridors); H G Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898); Jack Williamson, "The Plutonian Terror" (Weird Tales, October 1933); John Wyndham, The Kraken Wakes (1953).