Edison's Conquest of Mars

In Short

Garrett Putman Serviss's 1898 novel is a grand, early space opera where humanity launches a retributive strike against Mars following a devastating alien attack. Armed with Thomas Edison’s revolutionary electrical spacecraft and atomic disintegrators, a fleet representing the global powers travels through the solar system to confront the giant Martians on their home world. The novel has endured as a pioneering work of early American science fiction that imagines interstellar warfare, anti-gravity technology, and cosmic history well before the modern space age.

The Story

Following an initial wave of Martian destruction on Earth, humanity refuses to wait for a second invasion. Instead, world leaders and prominent scientists gather in Washington, D.C., uniting behind Thomas Edison, who has invented an anti-gravity propulsion system and a hand-held disintegrator beam. Recognizing that safety requires absolute victory, the nations of the world fund a massive fleet of armed electrical spacecraft to take the war directly to Mars.

The expedition sets out across the vacuum of space. Along the way, the armada stops at the Moon, where the crew discovers ancient Cyclopean ruins, suggesting that the solar system holds long-buried history. Pressing forward, they stop at an asteroid only five miles in diameter, where unexpected gravitational anomalies and hostile Martian sentinels lead to deadly skirmishes. The humans lose several men to Martian hand-weapons before taking a Martian prisoner, whose language they begin to learn.

Upon reaching Mars, the fleet finds the planet shrouded in a massive, terrifying wall of black smoke deployed as a defense mechanism. To bypass this barrier, the Earth forces split their fleet. While part of the armada creates a diversionary bombardment, a scouting ship slips through the dark clouds to the night side of the planet. There, they rescue Aina, a human girl living on Mars, whose ancestors were captured from Earth long ago. Through Aina and linguistic experts, the expedition learns a startling historical truth: the Martians had invaded Earth thousands of years in the past, built the Pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt, and carried human slaves back to Mars.

Realizing the scale of the Martian military threat, Edison and the expedition's military commanders, including Colonel Smith and Lord Kelvin, decide on a radical strategy. They infiltrate a vital canal control station and open the floodgates that regulate the Martian water supply. A catastrophic deluge sweeps across the low-lying continents of Mars, submerging the capital surrounding the Lake of the Sun and wiping out the majority of the Martian population and their military infrastructure.

With their civilization shattered and their armies underwater, the surviving Martian leaders and their emperor surrender. Edison exacts a binding pledge of non-aggression from the defeated monarch, ensuring Earth will never face another invasion. The triumphant fleet prepares to return to Earth, having secured human survival through scientific ingenuity and absolute war.

How It Unfolds

The mobilization of Earth Global leaders assemble in Washington, D.C., to organize a unified defense fleet under the scientific leadership of Thomas Edison.

The lunar expedition The fleet makes an early stop on the Moon, discovering giant Cyclopean ruins that prove ancient civilizations once crossed the void of space.

Skirmish on the asteroid While measuring unusual gravity on a five-mile-wide asteroid, human forces clash with Martian sentinels, suffering casualties before taking an alien prisoner.

The black smoke barrier Arriving at Mars, the expedition encounters an impenetrable wall of dark vapor deployed by the Martians to blind the human ships.

The Earth girl's revelation Slipping beneath the cloud layer, human scouts rescue Aina, who reveals that Martians enslaved her ancestors in ancient times and built Egypt's Pyramids and Sphinx.

Unleashing the flood Human forces infiltrate a crucial Martian engine house, opening the massive sea gates and unleashing a planet-wide flood that drowns the enemy capital.

Surrender and triumph The humbled Martian emperor signs an unconditional peace agreement, leaving the victorious fleet to prepare for its journey home.

The People

• Thomas Edison acts as the chief scientific architect of humanity's retaliation. He desires to prove the practical power of human genius and protect Earth from annihilation. Facing unknown alien weapons and harsh cosmic environments, he adapts rapidly by inventing space suits and steering the strategy, ultimately emerging as the savior of mankind.
• The Narrator is a scientist and companion to Edison who seeks to document this historic voyage. Plunged into the perils of deep space and planetary combat, he moves from a curious observer to an active participant in combat and infiltration.
• Colonel Smith leads military operations for the expedition. He aims to defeat the Martian military through direct tactical maneuvers. Confronted by superior alien defenses, he adapts by executing high-risk stealth raids on the Martian infrastructure.
• Aina is a human girl raised on Mars as a remnant of an ancient enslaved human population. She desires freedom and safety for her lost people. Trapped in the conflict between Earth and Mars, her rescue provides the key historical knowledge needed to understand the Martians.
• The Martian Emperor seeks to preserve his empire and eradicate the human threat. Stymied by Edison's technological daring and the sudden destruction of his lands, he ends the conflict forced into total submission.

In Its Own Voice

"Well, have you seen enough?" he asked. "Then let us go back to Washington."

Edison remains characteristically pragmatic while observing the global mobilization generated by his new warship.

"To think that we should have come to the planet Mars to solve one of the standing mysteries of the earth, which had puzzled mankind and defied all their efforts at solution for so many centuries!"

The narrator reacts in utter amazement upon realizing that the Martians built the Pyramids and the Sphinx during an ancient invasion.

"Probably more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants of Mars have perished in the deluge."

Lord Kelvin calmly assesses the massive devastation inflicted upon the alien world after the human forces open the canal floodgates.

What It's Really About

Underneath its space-faring adventure, the novel wrestles with the total mobilization of human industry and science against an existential threat. It explores the idea that human ingenuity, embodied by late-nineteenth-century industrial invention, can overcome vast physical distances and superior alien technology. The story also constructs an alternate deep history for Earth, positioning human civilization as historically interconnected with the cosmos through ancient conquest. Finally, it deals with the moral math of total war, questioning how far a threatened civilization should go—including ecological devastation and mass drowning—to guarantee its own survival against an uncompromising adversary.

Why Read It Today

Readers interested in the roots of modern space opera will find this an entertaining and historical curiosity. Written as an unauthorized, immediate sequel to H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, it flips the narrative of human helplessness into a tale of aggressive technological vengeance. Reading it feels like stepping inside an optimistic 1890s newspaper serial, full of daring maneuvers, Victorian scientific speculation, and classic "wizard" invention tropes.

The prose moves quickly, though readers should prepare for nineteenth-century technological assumptions and stark period attitudes toward total war and alien extermination. The narrative treats mass destruction with a matter-of-fact Victorian coolness that highlights the era's unshakeable faith in human supremacy and industrial power. What stays with you is the sheer scale of imagination: a fleet of nineteenth-century scientists wearing primitive pressure suits, firing atomic rays in zero gravity, and rewriting ancient human history while standing on the red soil of Mars.