Edison's Conquest of Mars Review
Prelude to the next short story
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A Forgotten But Fun 1800s Fan Fiction
Today we’re taking a look at a unique bit of science fiction from the 1800s. The Victorian Age setting gives it a steampunk-like feel, though it’s more electricpunk. It’s an unauthorized sequel to a much better known science fiction classic. Want to take a guess?
We all know about the 1897 serial War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells took British fears of another powerful empire violating Britannia, a popular genre at the time known as invasion literature, and used them to make a science fiction tale of Martians. The tale’s emphasis on a science ending that the atheist Wells wrote in a way many Christians could take as divine providence hit the sweet spot of appealing to all sorts of British readers.
However, a story of heroic defense with a victory won via pathogens didn’t reflect the raw-raw jingoism of late 1800s Americans. Thinking he found a way to add to the tale for his fellow citizens, American author Garrett P. Serviss wrote an unauthorized sequel titled Edison’s Conquest of Mars in 1898. Edison’s Conquests flips the theme around. Instead of cowering from Martian invaders, this story features America leading an international counterattack on Mars, led by none other than the great inventor Thomas Edison.
There are spoilers ahead. If you want to read the story for free, click here. If you are still reading, let’s begin with the spoilers.
The story starts with the Martians retreating from Earth, destroying New York City. Much of the world is in disarray. Then astronomers make a frightening discovery: there is notable light activity visible on Mars. The world initially panics, but Thomas Edison announces he has been studying captured Martian technology and has made weapons and spacecraft known as “flying cars” that use electricity for propulsion. World leaders such as Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm, Tsar Nicholas, and the Japanese emperor convene in Washington, D.C., pooling resources for a massive expedition. It’s a mix of military might, like the international coalition during the Boxer Rebellion combined with scientific curiosity of Napoleon bringing scholars with him to Egypt. World leaders name Edison the interplanetary expedition’s commander, and soon, a fleet of 100 ships is soaring into space.
Before reaching Mars, there is a sidetrip to the Moon where they discover ancient ruins of cities and gigantic footprints. Additionally, they find a field of dazzling crystals, possibly diamonds, which the narrator describes as a potential treasure trove to offset Earth’s Martian-caused damages.
Eventually, the expedition gets close to Mars. It is there that they encounter a stranded remnant of the Martian invasion fleet retreating from Earth. This is our first look at the Martians: towering, big-headed giants and male pattern baldness. The stranded elements quickly go from dispirited to hostile. They blast a few of Edison’s ships before they are dealt with. It becomes clear that Earth’s counterattack won’t be a walk in the park.
However, mankind presses on. Edison leads a daring reconnaissance over Mars. The description of Mars is based on the then belief of it having channels all across its surface. The narrator says Mars is a flat planet, dotted with sprawling cities, canals, and vast wilderness. It’s a classic sci-fi vista, but the Areography enjoyment doesn’t last long as the Martians have a massive air fleet and sheer numbers on their side. The humans do damage but also take heavy losses.
The Martians up the ante by deploying a smokescreen that cloaks the planet. Retreating, the expedition conducts a series of raids to keep the Martians off guard, one of them discovering a human woman who is a slave held by the Martians. A scientist onboard figures out her language being a proto-Indo-European dialect.
Overtime while the group recovers on one of Mars’ moons, they manage to communicate enough for the woman to share her story. Her people were kidnapped from the Kashmir Valley millennia ago. The Martians, she says, once ruled Earth as an outpost, claiming they built the Sphinx in Egypt. When I read this part, I chuckled and thought, “The Ancient Aliens fans must never know.”
However, as she keeps talking, the tale takes a grim turn. After Martians failed invasion of Earth, they slaughtered all their other human slaves in a fit of rage. She’s the last of her kind. This fuels outrage among Edison’s crew, pushing the desire for revenge into WMD range. Thankfully, this sole female slave knows all about the Martians complex water management system, including how to operate the one dam that could flood most of the populated areas. Edison and the other humans don’t hesitate to more than settle the score.
They pull off the operation, and the deluge is apocalyptic as cities vanish, Martians drown, and even a giant female slave from Ceres, Mars’ rival, gets swept away.
The flood breaks the Martians’ spirit. Their emperor surrenders, and Edison’s crew claims victory. They head back to Earth, triumphant but battered, suffering about 60% losses. The story closes with a wedding between one of the expedition members and the liberated slave from Mars. The book ends with this description of the wedding: “And thus was united, for all future time, the first stem of the Aryan race, which had been long lost, but not destroyed, with the latest offspring of that great family, and the link which had served to bring them together was the far-away planet of Mars.”
Edison’s Conquest of Mars is a fun, little romp of pre-pulp serialized action plus Victorian space science. It shows the bravado of America at the time and doesn’t even think about apologizing for it. I recommend it to fans of old science fiction.
I just read Edison’s Conquest of Mars so it didn’t influence the creation of the Fallen series. However, the aliens' ties to ancient Earth history and the military angle are obvious similarities.
Two things stuck out to me in the story. First, the thought that there might be resources in space that would make space travel profitable. The discovery of what may be diamonds leads the narrator to think it could off-set all the physical damage the Martians did. We already are scouting out potential mining sites on asteroids, so that bit could become true soon enough.
The most obvious and striking thing was making the world’s greatest inventor at that time the hero. To be fair, Edison’s marketing machine, combined with his inventions, made him the only candidate to “reasonably” be the inventor capable of building spacecraft.
The modern comparison of Elon Musk stood out like a sore thumb, or at least I thought so. I wondered something similar to this, so I searched for parodies featuring Elon Musk but found nothing.
To make up for this, my next author’s newsletter will feature a short, non-partisan parody that laughs with everyone without being mean spirited. And its title? Elon Musk’s Conquest of Mars. Love him or hate him, I wrote something everyone can enjoy. The beta readers agree!
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Until Next Time
Next time we will have Elon Musk’s Conquest of Mars. Then, I will publish a military science fiction author roundtable.
As always, please leave a comment with any questions, reviews, thoughts, whatever about Fallen, Risen, Dormition, An Odd Pilgrimage, The Savannah Paranormal Detective Agency or whatever else I have discussed. I promise to reply!
I've heard of this story but never read it. Thanks for the good summation! :)