The Crystal Egg

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"The Crystal Egg"
Short story by H. G. Wells
The cover of Amazing Stories magazine that illustrates "The Crystal Egg", 1926.
Country	United Kingdom
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Published in	Pearson's Magazine

"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, as the Martian effort to observe and study humanity remotely might indicate their preparation for an eventual invasion..