Edison's Conquest of Mars

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Edison's Conquest of Mars
LC Class
PZ3.S4925 PS3537 .E68
Preceded byFighters from Mars 

Edison's Conquest of Mars is an 1898 science fiction novel by American astronomer and writer Garrett P. Serviss. It was written as a sequel to Fighters from Mars, an unauthorized and heavily altered version of H. G. Wells's 1897 story The War of the Worlds. It has a place in the history of science fiction for its early employment of themes and motifs that later became staples of the genre.[1]

The book features

Emperor Mutsuhito.[1]

Plot

Martian prisoner, teaching the Earthmen their language. 1898 illustration by GY Kauffman.
"Like men, and yet not like men; combining the human and the beast in their appearance, it required a steady nerve to look at them.... In our eyes their moral character shone through their physical aspect and thus rendered them more terrible!"
1898 illustration by GY Kauffman

The book is set following the abortive Martian attack depicted in

disintegration ray.[1]

Using this new technology, the allies construct an armada of space ships for the attack. Edison takes some ships to the

space suits. There the explorers uncover evidence of an extinct civilization of giants. The armada heads on, discovering a solid gold asteroid being mined by the Martians. The humans fight two space battles against the Martians, suffering heavy casualties but ultimately winning thanks to the superiority of Edison's ray gun compared to the Martians' electric weapons. The humans take a captive, from whom they learn the Martian language.[1]

The humans reach Mars, but in spite of their superior forces they have lost half their men to the Martians' overwhelming numbers. The Martians envelop the planet in a smoke screen, and the humans retreat to the moon

Great Sphynx in Egypt, the latter of which is a statue of their leader. Aina advises Edison that meeting the Martians in battle would be fruitless, and that they should instead attack the dams that channel water from the polar ice. Since most of Mars' cities are under sea level, the flood spreads rapidly, killing most of the Martians and destroying their civilization. Edison and company force a peace with the surviving Martians, and return home to great celebration.[1]

Aliens

There are three type of aliens in the book.

The Martians in this version are not like the squid-like Martians described in

H.G. Wells's story. These Martians are more humanoid with arms, legs and an enormous head with projector-like eyes and bad looking faces. When they rise, they are 15 feet (4.6 meters) high. However this is only the male, for the species exhibits sexual dimorphism
. To Earthlings, they appear unpleasant. The Martian women, however, are graceful and beautiful.

The residents of Ceres are at war with the Martians. However, they are only mentioned, except for a female slave who is 40 feet tall. The 'Cerenites' are this height due to the reduced gravity of their world.

When Edison's men land on the Moon, they discover that the Moon was, at one point, capable of supporting life. Only a giant footprint is seen, leaving the reader (and the characters) wondering what was once there.

Legacy

Serviss' first attempt at fiction, the book was published

disintegrator rays.[3][non-primary source needed
]

Rocket scientist Robert H. Goddard read both Edison's Conquest of Mars and Fighters from Mars and credited them with helping form his early interest in developing rockets for interplanetary exploration.[4]

Edward Guimont has argued that Edison's Conquest of Mars was an influence on author H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, particular with its use of the ancient alien tropes of massive alien-built ruins.[5]

Robert Crossley [Wikidata], in his 2011 non-fiction book Imagining Mars: A Literary History on the history of Mars in fiction, commented on Edison's Conquest of Mars that "As fiction it is hackwork; as a commentary on The War of the Worlds it is astonishingly impervious to Wells's anti-imperialist motive; but as an example of how cultural and national values get drawn into the Martian myth it is both instructive and appalling."[6]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0873384164
    . Science-Fiction, the Early Years.
  2. ISBN 978-0-517-53174-7
    .
  3. ^ Edison's Conquest of Mars. Apogee books. 2005. p. 4.
  4. McGraw-Hill Education
    , p. 7
  5. Necronomicon Providence 2017, New York: Hippocampus Press
    , p. 63
  6. ISBN 978-0-8195-6927-1
    .

Sources

  • Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd. p. 138.
  • ISBN 0-911682-22-8
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edison's Conquest of Mars.
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