The book readdresses the idea of the existence of Martians, famously written about in The War of the Worlds (1898). The dialog of Star-Begotten makes brief cursory references Wells's earlier novel The War of the Worlds, referring to it as having been written by "Conan Doyle or one of those people". The protagonist of the story Joseph Davis, who is an author of popular histories, becomes overtaken with suspicion that he and his family have already been exposed and are starting to change.