History Literature / EdisonsConquestOfMars

* OvershadowedByTheAwesome: The buzz of Edison inventing a spaceship is understandably and catastrophically eclipsed by the mortal chaos of the Martian Invasion.

Compare Literature/TheFutureEve, another influential ninteenth century ScienceFiction novel starring UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison. Compare ''and'' contrast ''[[http://www.teslasociety.com/marswithtesla.htm To Mars with Tesla,]]'' a somewhat similar story starring [[UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla a certain rival of Edison.]]

!![[Literature/EdisonsConquestOfMars Edison's Conquest Of Mars]] contains examples of:

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The story starts out as ''very'' idealistic, with humanity being hopeful about the future. [[CerberusSyndrome Later on, the story gets far more pessimistic]] as they realise just how outnumbered they are against the Martians. The story eventually ends [[BittersweetEnding on a bittersweet note]] as Earth has been saved, [[WarIsHell but many innocent people died to make it happen.]]

Earth has started to recover from the Marian attacks, but humanity still fears that the aliens will return, and that the planet will not survive a second war. Fortunately, American inventor UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison has created prototypes for both a gun which humanity can use to take down the Martians, and a spaceship which will move the fight to the enemy's home turf. After getting donations from all surviving world leaders, Edison starts constructing an armada of ships and brings together an invasion force consisting of the greatest scientific minds in the world. Together, this army of [[ScienceHero Science Heroes]] set out on the longest journey in human history, in an attempt to save the world.

''Edison's Conquest Of Mars'' is a 1898 ScienceFiction novel by American astronomer and writer Garrett P. Serviss. Written as a sequal to ''Fighters from Mars,'' an unauthorized adaptation of Creator/HGWells's Literature/WarOfTheWorlds, [[TropeMaker it is notable for introducing many important ideas to the genre.]]

* XMeetsY: Film/IndependenceDay [[IndependenceDayResurgence and its' sequal]] meets Film/StarshipTroopers... as a nineteenth century RealPersonFic.

* {{Heavyworlder}}: Inverted. The Martians are much taller than humans due to their planet's weaker gravity. The people of Ceres are even taller, if the one person we see is any indication.

* LastOfTheirKind: Ania is the only survivor of the Martian's genocide on their human slaves, and thus also the last member of her precursor race (though her eventual husband Sidney Phillips is apparently enough of a {{Badass}} to qualify as an honorary member.)

** XMeetsY: Film/IndependenceDay [[IndependenceDayResurgence and its' sequal]] meets Film/StarshipTroopers... as a nineteenth century RealPersonFic.

* LastOfTheirKind: Ania is the only survivor of the Martian's genocide on their human slaves, and thus also the last member of her BenevolentPrecursor race (though her eventual husband Sidney Phillips is apparently enough of a {{Badass}} to qualify as an honorary member.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Towards the end of the story, humans and martians have a peace negotiation under a truce, [[ShootTheMessanger only for one of the martian guards to shoot the unarmed, unprotected Aina, who is acting as an interpreter.]] It ''is'' possible that the Martians really ''were'' planning to surrender, only for this one douche to open fire on the woman responsible for the flood. Nevertheless, it does end all hope for a peaceful end to the conflict, and it would indeed be classified as a serious war crime if it happened today.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Towards the end of the story, humans and martians have a peace negotiation under a truce, [[ShootTheMessanger only for one of the martian guards to shoot the unarmed, unprotected Aina, who is acting as an interpreter.]] It ''is'' possible that the Martians really ''were'' planning to surrender, only for this one douche to open fire on the woman responsible for the flood. Nevertheless, it does end all hope for a peaceful end to the conflict, and it would indeed be classified as a serious war crimeif it happened today.

** AncientAstronauts: The Martians built the pyramids in Egypt, and the sphinx is actually a statue of their emperor.

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The story starts out as ''very'' idealistic, with humanity being hopeful about the future. [[CerberusSyndrome Later on, the story gets far more pessimistic]] as they realise just how outnumbered they are. The story eventually ends [[BittersweetEnding on a bittersweet note]] as Earth has been saved, [[WarIsHell but many innocent people died to make it happen.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Martians and Terrestrians Fight a Terrible Battle.]]

--> Suddenly cablegrams flashed to the Government at Washington, announcing that UsefulNotes/QueenVictoria, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II,_German_Emperor Emperor William]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II_of_Russia the Czar Nicholas]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfonso_XIII_of_Spain Alphonso of Spain]], with his mother, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Christina_of_Austria Maria Christina]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Joseph_I_of_Austria the old Emperor Francis Joseph]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria the Empress Elizabeth, of Austria]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_II_of_Sweden King Oscar]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophia_of_Nassau Queen Sophia]], of Sweden and Norway; [[Umberto_I_of_Italy King Humbert]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margherita_of_Savoy Queen Margherita, of Italy]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_I_of_Greece King George]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Constantinovna_of_Russia Queen Olga, of Greece]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Hamid_II Abdul Hamid, of Turkey]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangxu_Emperor Tsait'ien, Emperor of China]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Meiji Mutsuhito, the Japanese Mikado]], with his beautiful [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanagihara_Naruko Princess Haruko]]; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A9lix_Faure the President of France]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_Ruffythe President of Switzerland]], [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_First_Syndics_of_the_General_Council the First Syndic of the little republic of Andorra]], perched on the crest of the Pyrenees, [[AndTheRest and the heads of all the Central and South American republics]], were coming to Washington to take part in the deliberations, which, it was felt, were to settle the fate of earth and Mars.

Earth has started to recover from the Marian attacks, but humanity still fears that the aliens will return, and that the planet will not survive a second war. Fortunately, American inventor Creator/ThomasEdison has created prototypes for both a gun which humanity can use to take down the Martians, and a spaceship which will move the fight to the enemy's home turf. After getting donations from all surviving world leaders, Edison starts constructing an armada of ships and brings together an invasion force consisting of the greatest scientific minds in the world. Together, this army of [[ScienceHero Science Heroes]] set out on the longest journey in human history, in an attempt to save the world.

Compare Literature/TheFutureEve, another influential ninteenth century ScienceFiction novel starring Literature/ThomasEdison. Compare ''and'' contrast ''[[http://www.teslasociety.com/marswithtesla.htm To Mars with Tesla,]]'' a somewhat similar story starring [[Creator/NikolaTesla a certain rival of Edison.]]

* RealPersonFic: Many real people appear as characters in this story, the most obivous example probably being Creator/ThomasEdison himself. Serviss actually got permission from Edison to use his name in the story.