Edison's Conquest of Mars
by Garrett P. Serviss
My Blurb:
One edition falsely describes this as "an absolutely wonderful SF masterpiece", but then says it was written in 1947, so that shows how much they know! It's actually a newspaper serial first published in the late 1800s. Anyway... the same blurb that got the year wrong goes on to say the following:
"Edison's Conquest of Mars is a 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' 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."
Following the events of The War of the Worlds, in which Martians attack and lay waste to huge areas of Earth, humans across the globe must rally an effort to defend their planet from a repeat attack. Fortunately for them, they are led by that amazing inventor and heroic warrior... Thomas Edison! Will their efforts succeed (as is heavily implied by the title of this book)? You'll have to read to find out! (Or not. The title kind of gives it away, really.)
My Reaction:
Donald and I read this together for the 372 Pages We Won't Get Back podcast/book club.
I haven't read much (any?) "space-themed" science fiction, though I've watched my share of TV shows and movies set in space. Serviss apparently was the first or one of the first authors to write about... space suits, I think it was. He also has a few other ideas that will be familiar to anyone who reads, views, or otherwise consumes space-y sci-fi.
I give him credit for his creativity, but sadly, he wasn't much of a fiction-writer. He had terrible pacing, practically no attempt at characterization, only the most barebone plot, and zero flair for storytelling. Just awful, really. Maybe a child without any expectations or experience of quality writing might enjoy this. For everyone else, it's a curiosity, at best. The occasional moments of unintended humor are the best thing this has going for it.
One thing that particularly annoyed me about this book:
On the one hand, Serviss' version of Edison is an unapparelled genius, in this tale. He reverse engineers alien technology (only his version is even better, don'tchaknow), conceptualizes and whips up new inventions and improvements on the fly (all behind the scenes, of course), and basically has the most amazing brain God has ever given a man.
On the other hand, he continually makes idiotic strategic mistakes, at the cost of the other men's lives!
"Hey! There are some Martians coming! Mr. Edison, should we use our powerful weapons to safely destroy them before they get too close, seeing as how they tried to annihilate us all on Earth just a while ago?"
Edison says no. Let's just wait and see what happens, first.
Shocking surprise: The Martians attack. Many men are killed.
Edison: "Oopsie! Well, okay... Yeah, let's use our death ray... I guess..."
And he never learns! Some variation on this happens at least a few different times. When you're on a mission to Mars to avenge Earth and protect it from further harm, you don't dilly-dally and pussyfoot, man! You kill-kill-kill until every last Martian is dead. (Or at least that's what I'd do, probably. Hey, they started it with an unprovoked attack, and for all Edison's genius, it was only by a stroke of fortune that Earth's heroes were able to achieve the "conquest". The Martians would be very lucky if I left any of them alive.)
Conclusion: Glad to leave this one behind!
