Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett P. Serviss, is one of the many science fiction novels published in the nineteenth century. Although science fiction was not at the time thought of as a distinct literary genre, it was a very popular literary form, with almost every fiction magazine regularly publishing science fiction stories and novels. "Edison's Conquest of Mars" was published in 1898 intended to be a sequel to "Fighters from Mars", an un-a...
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Edison's Conquest of Mars, by Garrett P. Serviss, is one of the many science fiction novels published in the nineteenth century. Although science fiction was not at the time thought of as a distinct literary genre, it was a very popular literary form, with almost every fiction magazine regularly publishing science fiction stories and novels. "Edison's Conquest of Mars" was published in 1898 intended to be a sequel to "Fighters from Mars", an un-authorized and heavily altered version of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, but did not achieve the fame of its predecessor.
The book was endorsed by Thomas Edison, the hero of the book -- though not by Wells. The themes and messages of Serviss's book are diametrically opposed to Wells's original. In it, Edison travels to Mars, his inventions (including the disintegrator ray) allow an Earth spacefleet to destroy the Martians' ability to make war after several exciting battles. There are ship-to-ship battles, and battles between Earth ships...
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