War with the Newts (Válka s mloky in the original Czech), also translated as War with the Salamanders, is a 1936 satirical science fiction novel by Czech author Karel Čapek. It concerns the discovery in the Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, an intelligent breed of newts, who are initially enslaved and exploited. They acquire human knowledge and rebel, leading to a global war for supremacy. There are obvious similarities to Čapek's earlier R.U.R., but also some original themes. War with the Newts was described as a "classic work" of science fiction by science fiction author and critic Damon Knight. War With The Newts is acclaimed by many as the first dystopian novel, and is today still considered by many as the best book of science fiction ever written. For many years the novel was hard to obtain, and earlier copies have been known to sell for over one hundred dollars.