 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.Mr.