History YMMV / EdisonsConquestOfMars

* MoralEventHorizon: If the Martians didn't already cross this in Literature/WarOfTheWorlds, one of the first things we are told in the book is that the surviving invaders blew up the entirety of New York City, killing tens of thousands of people in the process, to get the necessary amount of propulsion to returm home in their ships.

* HilariousInHindsight: ''Animation/WarOfTheWordsGoliath'' feels very much like an InterQuel between ''War of the Worlds'' and this book. OneWorldOrder in 1914? Check. Reverse-engineered martian goodies? Check. Martian invasion of America? Check. Earth wants to invade Mars right on back? Check.

* {{Fanon}}: Some readers have theorised that it wasn't actually Edison, but rather his rival UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla who invented the Disintegrator used to combat the Martians. Edison had a self-admitted tendency of stealing other people's work, and such a device seems more like Tesla's style. (He did believe in aliens, and he ''did'' try to build a DeathRay in RealLife (using electrified mercury droplets and a sprayer) - though as far as we know he never made it work.)

* {{Fanon}}: Some readers have theorised that it wasn't actually Edison, but rather his rival UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla who invented the Disintegrator used to combat the Martians. Edison had a self-admitted tendency of stealing other people's work, and such a device seems more like Tesla's style. (He did believe in aliens, and he ''did'' try to build a DeathRay in RealLife - though as far as we know he never made it work.)

** While it becomes a bit of a BrokenAesop later, the first chapters has all surviving nations declaring peace on Earth ''[[HeartwarmingMoments and explicably ending all discrimination based on race and religion!]]'' [[OlderthanTheyThink Yes, this was written in 1898.]]

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

* ValuesResonance: While it becomes a bit of a BrokenAesop later, the first chapters has all surviving nations declaring peace on Earth ''[[HeartwarmingMoments and explicably ending all discrimination based on race and religion!]]'' [[OlderthanTheyThink Yes, this was written in 1898.]]

--> "It gives me much pleasure," he said, "to offer, in the name of the nations of the Old World, this tribute of our admiration for, and our confidence in, the genius of the New World. Perhaps on such an occasion as this, when all racial differences and prejudices ought to be, and are, buried and forgotten, I should not recall anything that might revive them; yet I cannot refrain from expressing my happiness in knowing that the champion who is to achieve the salvation of the earth has come forth from the bosom of the Anglo-Saxon race."

* AssholeVictim: The Martian Monarch, who is shot dead by Colonel Smith after [[WouldHitAGirl beating down a Martian woman]] for ''[[DisproportionateRetribution accidentally bumping into him!]]'' Ania then claims that he was more responsible for the Martians' atrocities than anyone else, which would make him the ultimate BigBad of both this story and [[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Well's original novel.]]

* AssholeVictim: The Martian Monarch, who is shot dead by Colonel Smith after [[WouldHitAGirl beating down a Martian woman]] for ''[[DisproportionateRetribution accidentally bumped into him!]]'' Ania then claims that he was more responsible for the Martians' atrocities than anyone else, which would make him the ultimate BigBad of both this story and [[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Well's original novel.]]

* AssholeVictim: The Martian Monarch, who is shot dead by Colonel Smith after [[WouldHitAGirl beating down a Martian woman]] for ''[[DisproportionateRetribution accidentally bumped into him!]]'' Ania then claims that he was more responsible for the Martian's atrocities than anyone else, which would make him the ultimate BigBad of both this story and [[Literature/WarOfTheWorlds Well's original novel.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: If the Martians didn't already cross this in Literature/WarOfTheWorlds, one of the first things we are told is that the surviving invaders blew up the entirety of New York City, killing tens of thousands of people in the process, to get the necessary amount of propulsion to returm home in their ships.

* SoBadItsGood: Some readers enjoy the book simply because of how ''[[CrackFic insane]]'' it is.