War with the newts

War with the Newts (Válka s Mloky in the original Czech), also translated as Salamander Wars, 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. For many years the English translation was hard to obtain, and earlier copies have been known to sell for a premium.