Customer Reviews

Edison's Conquest of Mars

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The Martians of Wells' War of the Worlds have gone back to Mars; and Thomas Edison, in order to prevent another invasion, invents an anti-gravity drive and a disintegration ray. Then he succeeds in organizing a force of the top military and scientific men to take over Mars. This was first published in the New York Journal in 1898. The author was Garrett P. Serviss, one of the nation's foremost popularizers of science, especially of astronomy. However, this is a riproaring tale written to re-assure the public after War of the Worlds was published. While Serviss apparently knew his science, he also knew what was popular: the book includes phrenology, Aryans, the superiority of Anglo-Saxons, intelligent life on the Moon, solid gold asteroids, the Canals of Mars and the oceans of Mars. Certainly, this is not a book for the politically correct. As to what Serviss really believed, who knows? He is on record as favoring the canals on Mars, but I do not know about the rest. Another thing that might annoy readers is he makes very little attempt at characterization. I bet he knew he would flub that. There is one aspect of this novel literarily in his favor: as a journalist by trade, he does have a concise style that, unlike other novels then, keeps the plot from getting bogged down. I am less enthusiastic about the moral we learn at the end: the Martians are not as different from us as Wells claims.

Yes, this is the long awaited sequel to H.G. Wells War of the Worlds. But it isn't written by Wells and the author does not have his writing skills nor his imagination. Characters are stereotypes, the story is simple and sometimes just strange.

This is a good buy for readers interested in understanding the trash literature of ancient times. But that's all.