History Literature / EdisonsConquestOfMars

* LastOfTheirKind: Aina 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.)

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: ZigZaggedTrope. The Humans remember how the Martians were defeated in the original book, and wear space suits in case the atmosphere of Mars is unbreathable. However, this turns out to be unnecessary. They also travel to Mars under the assumption that they will be able to live off the land once they get there, and they are eventually proven right.)

** AlienAbduction: The Martians kidnapped humans during their first visit to the planet, and their descendants are still living on Mars (or at least they do until the Martians decide to [[ThePurge execute them all]].)

** ReverseThePolarity: Unlike many other examples of this trope, the term actually means something here. [[ScienceMarchesOn Serviss apparently thought that gravity was a form of electricity]], so Edison's ships are pretty much huge electromagnets. Thus, reversing the polarity causes the ships to alter between being drawn towards or pushed away from a planetary body. ([[ScienceMarchesOn Incidentally, this means that the stronger a planet's gravity is, the easier it is to leave]].)

->"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We have the means. Let us beard the lion in his den. Let us ourselves turn conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet, and if necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."

** The invasion isn't restricted to the London area but rather happens all around the planet (though nothing in the book tells us that it didn't happen planet-wide).

* FlyingCar: Sort of. Edison's ships are constantly referred to as "cars," but they are clearly much bigger, as they can easily fit 20 people, a small science lab, and a captured giant martian.

''Edison's Conquest of Mars'' is a 1898 ScienceFiction novel by American astronomer and writer Garrett P. Serviss. Written as a sequel to ''Fighters from Mars,'' an unauthorized adaptation of Creator/HGWells's ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds1898'', [[TropeMaker it is notable for introducing many important ideas to the genre]].

''Edison's Conquest Of Mars'' is a 1898 ScienceFiction novel by American astronomer and writer Garrett P. Serviss. Written as a sequel 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.]]

* BroadStrokes: It was actually written ''not'' as a sequel to Literature/WarOfTheWorlds but rather an adaptation of it. As such, there are several differences between the backstory mentioned in this book and the actual plot of Wells' novel.

** DeathRay: The martians already had these back in Literature/WarOfTheWorlds, but now they have been upgraded into handheld weapons.

* BittersweetEnding: Earth has been saved from destruction, our protagonists return home and are celebrated as heroes, and Ania has gotten married to Sidney Phillips, but Edison's fleet has suffered grievous losses, and they were forced to commit genocide to win.

* 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.)

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: Subverted. Our protagonists ''try'' to save the giant woman of Ceres, but she ends up drowning anyway. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Even worse, it's their fault the flood started in the first place.]]
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Mostly PlayedStraight. While Earth's army is a MultinationalTeam, they are still led by the American Thomas Edison, who also invented most of the stuff they use. Most of the money used to finanse the construction of the space fleet is also American, ''and'' the country is also the location of Earth's new world government. All of this naturally doubles as CreatorProvincialism, as Serviss just happened to be American as well.

* BioAugmentation: The Martians are more or less doing this to themselves, breeding all members of their race to perform certain jobs. What's more, they apparently have a ''very'' strong GeneticMemory, [[InstantExpert as they can perform these jobs without any training whatsoever as soon as they have grown up.]]

* BroadStrokes: It was actually written as a sequel ''not'' to Literature/WarOfTheWorlds but rather an adaptation of it. As such, there are several differences between the backstory mentioned in this book and the actual plot of Wells' novel.

** The invading Martians don't all die. Some of them survive and fle back to Mars.

* EternalEnglish: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig Zagged]]. While languages have cleary changed on Earth since the construction of the pyramids, they apparently havn't changed among the humans living on Mars, despite them sharing a planet with aliens speaking a completely different language. You'd think they would at least have picked up a few loan words by now.
* FinalSolution: The Martians kill [[LastOfTheirKind (almost)]] all of their human slaves as a punishment for their own failed invasion of Earth - [[KickTheDog which was in no way their fault.]]
** Edison's army end up doin this to the Martians by flooding the planet. Though this ''is'' treated as a last resort for them, and they do acknowledge that quite a few innocent people will die too.

* NoBiochemicalBarriers: ZigZaggedTrope. The Humans remember how the Martians were defeated in the original book, and wear space suits in case the atmosphere of Mars is unbreathable. [[ScienceMarchesOn However, this turns out to be unnecessary]]. They also travel to Mars under the assumption that they will be able to live off the land once they get there, and they are eventually proven right.)

* OneWorldOrder: Earth might be heading in this direction, since pretty much all of the surviving world leaders have moved to one city and started make desicions concerning the entire planet as a single govermental body.

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

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: The story starts out as ''very'' idealistic, with humanity being hopeful about the future. [[CerebusSyndrome 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.]]
* SolarSystemNeighbors: The Martians are also fighting giant beings from the dwarf planet(then considered an asteroid) Ceres. Their size comes from the very low gravity of Ceres.

** AlienAbduction: The Martians kidnapped humans during their first visit to the planet, and their descendants are still living on Mars (or at least they do until the Martians decide to [[ThePurge execute them all.]])

** OrionDrive: Atomic bombs were theorized, but nobody knew how they'd actually work in 1898 (to whit, one contemporary figured they'd only be as powerful as TNT but "burn" for days). The Martians use a bomb to launch their "car" back to Mars, and it levels a good portion of New York and all of New Jersey states.
** ReverseThePolarity: Unlike many other examples of this trope, the term actually means something here.[[ScienceMarchesOn Serviss apparently thought that gravity was a form of electicity,]] so Edison's ships are pretty much huge electromagnets. Thus, reversing the polarity causes the ships to alter between being drawn towards or pushed away from a planetary body. ([[ScienceMarchesOn Incidentally, this means that the stronger a planet's gravity is, the easier it is to leave.]])

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Mostly PlayedStraight. While Earth's army is a MultinationalTeam, they are still led by the American Thomas Edison, who also invented most of the stuff they use. Most of the money used to finanse the construction of the space fleet is also American, ''and'' the country is also the location of Earth's new world goverment. All of this naturally doubles as CreatorProvincialism, as Serviss just happened to be American as well.

* BroadStrokes: It was actually written as a sequal ''not'' to Literature/WarOfTheWorlds but rather an adaptation of it. As such, there are several differences between the backstory mentioned in this book and the actual plot of Well's novel.
** The invasion wasn't restricted to the London area, but rather happened all around the planet.
** It actually started in Boston, not London.
** The invading martians didn't all die. Some of them survived and fled back to Mars.
** The Martians themselves are more like giant HumanAliens than the StarfishAliens they were originally. Also, they are no longer desperate colonists looking for a new home, but rather imperialistic [[GalacticConqueror Galactic Conquerors]] who have fought wars against many other alien races.

** SpaceBattle: Between Edison's [[YouKeepUsingThatWord "cars"]] and the Martian's flying vehicles.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Towards the end of the story, humans and martians have a peace negotiation under a truce, [[ShootTheMessenger 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.

* OrionDrive: The Martians retreat by way of detonating an explosive underneath their capsule. Since they don't have a cannon to focus most of the energy, they use a bomb powerful enough to ''level all of New York State and part of New Jersey.''
* NoBiochemicalBarriers: ZigZaggedTrope. The Humans remember how the Martians were defeated in the original book, and wear space suits in case the atmosphere of Mars is unbreathable. [[ScienceMarchesOn However, this turns out to be unnecessary.]] They also travel to Mars under the assumption that they will be able to live off the land once they get there, and they are eventually proven right.)
* NominalImportance: While half of Edison's army dies, none of the dead are ever named. In fact, it's outright stated at the end that all characters mentioned by name at any point in the story all survived. Perhaps Serviss felt uncomfortable about killing real people?