Written by Stephen Baxter, The Massacre of Mankind will see the Martians from Wells's story invading Earth once more, having learned from the mistakes they made first time around.
Gollancz will publish the sequel in hardback and eBook on 19 January 2017.
The copyright on the original, which was published in book form in 1898, lasts until 31 December 2016.
In a statement, Baxter said it was "an honour... to celebrate [Wells's] enduring imaginative legacy, more than 150 years after his birth."
The author of more than 20 novels previously penned The Time Ships, a sequel to Wells's 1895 story The Time Machine.
"Steve has a great track record of collaborating with other authors," said Marcus Gipps, commissioning editor at Gollancz.
"I've seen early material from this remarkable new project and can't wait to unleash Steve's new Martian terror upon the world."
The lucrative film rights to the novel will also certainly be hotly contested after a 2005 film, starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg, earned nearly $600m at the global box office.

On Wednesday, a leaked document revealed a private-public sector consortium was the last remaining bidder for a Â£690m contract.
Campaigners handed over their petition at a clinical commissioning group (CCG) meeting on Thursday.
Commissioners said their focus was on improving outcomes for patients.
Speaking at a protest outside the NHS meeting in Hednesford, Gail Gregory, from the Cancer Not For Profit campaign group said the Staffordshire service should be run by the NHS.
"A private company is out to make a profit. That's what you want a private company to do. I'm not a profit opportunity, I'm a patient," she said.
Outsourcing contracts to cover both cancer and end of life care in Staffordshire were announced last year. Together, they are expected to be worth Â£1.2bn and cover a 10-year period.
The contracts will cover the areas controlled by Stafford and Surrounds, Cannock Chase, Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire CCGs.
The cancer contract is expected to be awarded in December and, according to a leaked document seen by the BBC, discussions between the CCGs and the consortium are expected to take place over the next few weeks, before a formal proposal is submitted.
The group includes University Hospitals North Midlands, the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals Trust and private firm Interserve.
The CCGs said they brought together a wide range of expertise.

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen was executed in November 1910 after poisoning his wife and hiding her dismembered remains under the cellar floor.
He was caught as he tried to escape to Canada with his mistress, Ethel Le Neve, who was disguised as a boy.
The letters, written while he was in prison and sold in Wiltshire, would remain in the UK, auctioneers said.
Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge described the atmosphere in the saleroom as "frantic" with bidders calling in from Australia and the United States.
He said the letters provided a "fascinating insight" into Dr Crippen's mind during the last few days of his life.
One of his final letters, written to Lady Henry Somerset on 26 October 1910 - less than a month before he was executed - details his relationship with his mistress and his view that "all yet may come right".
Crippen was hanged at Pentonville prison, in London, on 23 November 1910, after an appeal against his sentence failed.
He became the first criminal to be captured with the aid of wireless communication, after the captain of the ship he was escaping on to Canada, the SS Montrose, became suspicious.
The ship's captain sent a telegraph message informing the owners he believed Crippen was on board.
The infamous killer's letters, which are being sold by a private collector, had been expected to make between £3,000 and £5,000 in the sale at Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers.
A sequel to HG Wells's The War of the Worlds is to be published in 2017 when the copyright on the original expires.
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More than 63,000 people have signed a petition against what they say is the privatisation of cancer care in Staffordshire.
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Letters written by one of the 20th Century's most notorious murderers have been sold for £11,000 at auction.