Edison's Conquest of Mars
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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 as a sequel to 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. In the book, he travels to Mars, and with his inventions, including the disintegrator ray, an Earth spacefleet after severe battles destroys the Martians' ability to make war. There are battles between ships and ships, and between Earth ships and Martian ground forts. This was perhaps the first space opera, although the term did not yet exist.
Earth technology in the story includes spacesuits (called "air-tight suits"); for more information see Space suit.
Communication between spacemen in space needs a wire to be passed between them; spaceships communicate by flags or lights. Although the story was published in 1898 during the early real experiments in radio, it contains no concept of radio.
Edison's Conquest of Mars was published first as a serial in the Journal American from 12 January to 10 February 1898. It was published in book form in 1947.
- An abridged version appeared in 1954 in The Treasury of Science Fiction Classics.
- In 1969, Forrest J Ackerman published an edited version, called Invasion of Mars.
- In 2005, Apogee Books published an unedited unabridged version with the original newspaper illustrations (ISBN 0-9738203-0-6).
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| The War of the Worlds | |
|---|---|
| Battles | Horsell Offensive • Battle of Pine Summit • Battle of Weybridge/Shepperton • Fall of London • HMS Thunder Child |
| Martians | Black Smoke • Embankment-machine • Flying-machine • Handling-machine • Heat-Ray • Red weed • Tripod |
| Radio | The War of the Worlds • Grover's Mill • The Night That Panicked America |
| Films | The War of the Worlds • H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds • H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds • War of the Worlds |
| Jeff Wayne | Musical • Musical Highlights • Jeff Wayne's The War of the Worlds |
| Television Series | War of the Worlds (Mor-Tax • Mor-Taxan • List of War of the Worlds episodes) |
| Sequels | Edison's Conquest of Mars • Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds • Scarlet Traces • War of the Worlds: New Millennium |
| Miscellaneous | Doctor Clayton Forrester • Comic • The Space Machine • Superman • Arcade game |
