Books with author Garrett P Serviss

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Edison's Conquest of Mars is an 1898 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's 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.

It is impossible that the stupendous events whichfollowed the disastrous invasion of the earth by theMartians should go without record, and circumstanceshaving placed the facts at my disposal, I deem it aduty, both to posterity and to those who were witnessesof and participants in the avenging counterstroke thatthe earth dealt back at its ruthless enemy in theheavens, to write down the story in a connected form.

Excerpt from Curiosities of the Sky: A Popular Presentation of the Great Riddles and Mysteries of AstronomyAs plain language will permit, showing the wonder that is in them without getting away from the facts. Most Of them have hitherto been discussed only in technical form, and in treatises that the general public seldom sees and never reads.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Is Mars alike to Earth where people can live? What is the reason why there are spaces without stars in the Milky Way? What makes the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights? These are a few of the out of the ordinary questions in Curiosities of the Sky. Garrett found that he had a skill for detailing and defining science that made it available to the general public. Andrew Carnegie was amazed by the writing ability of the young reporter and suggested him to address a sequence of lectures on varied topics such as cosmology, geology, astronomy and other related subjects. Andrew sponsored an interstate lecture tour and provided Garrett with dreamlike lantern slides and items to complement his discourses and make them more outstanding. After the two-year lecture tour, Garrett was determined to commit his life to the idea of propagating science. Garrett Putnam Serviss was a U. S. astronomer, popularizer of astronomy, and one of the first science fiction authors. He was born in upstate New York and majored in science at Cornell University. He studied law at Columbia University but did not practice as a lawyer. In its place, he associated himself with the staff of the The New York Sun newspaper, as a journalist under editor Charles Dana. Garrett’s much-loved subject was astronomy, and of the fifteen stories he made, eight are dedicated to it. He was indisputably far more read by the people on that subject than any person earlier to his time. He produced with Max and Dave Fleischer on The Einstein Theory of Relativity, a brief silent motion picture publicized in relation to one of Garrett’s science fiction stories. He also made six books, which would now be categorized as science fiction. Five of these were novels, and one was a short literature.

What Froude says of history is true also of astronomy: it is the most impressive where it transcends explanation. It is not the mathematics of astronomy, but the wonder and the mystery that seize upon the imagination. The calculation of an eclipse owes all its prestige to the sublimity of its data; the operation, in itself, requires no more mental effort than the preparation of a railway time-table. The dominion which astronomy has always held over the minds of men is akin to that of poetry; when the former becomes merely instructive and the latter purely didactic, both lose their power over the imagination. Astronomy is known as the oldest of the sciences, and it will be the longest-lived because it will always have arcana that have not been penetrated.

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To most minds mystery is more fascinating than science. But when science itself leads straight up to the borders of mystery and there comes to a dead stop, saying, ``At present I can no longer see my way,'' the force of the charm is redoubled. On the other hand, the illimitable is no less potent in mystery than the invisible, whence the dramatic effect of Keats' ``stout Cortez'' staring at the boundless Pacific while all his men look at each other with a wild surmise, ``silent upon a peak in Darien.'' It is with similar feelings that the astronomer regards certain places where from the peaks of the universe his vision seems to range out into endless empty space. He sees there the shore of his little isthmus, and, beyond, unexplored immensity.

Garrett Putnam Serviss (March 24, 1851 - May 25, 1929) was an American astronomer, popularizer of astronomy, and early science fiction writer. Serviss was born in upstate New York and majored in science at Cornell University. He took a law degree at Columbia University but never worked as an attorney. Instead, in 1876 he joined the staff of The New York Sun newspaper, working as a journalist until 1892 under editor Charles Dana.

The book is set following the abortive Martian attack depicted in Fighters from Mars, much more devastating and global than in H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, though in both works the onslaught is thwarted when the aliens die from bacterial illness. Determining that the Martians will inevitably return, Earth's leaders, including U.S. President William McKinley, Queen Victoria, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Emperor Mutsuhito, unite the world against the common threat and plan an attack on Mars. American inventor Thomas Edison leads a group of scientists studying derelict Martian equipment; they are able to develop an anti-gravity device powered by electric repulsion as well as a disintegration ray Using this new technology, the allies construct an armada of space ships for the attack. Edison takes some ships to the moon on a test run; using the first known fictional depiction of space suits, the explorers uncover evidence of an extinct civilization of giants. The armada heads on, discovering a solid gold asteroid being mined by the Martians. The humans fight two space battles against the Martians, suffering heavy casualties but ultimately winning thanks to the superiority of Edison's ray gun compared to the Martians' electric weapons. The humans take a captive, from whom they learn the Martian language. The humans reach Mars, but in spite of their superior forces they have lost half their men to the Martians' overwhelming numbers. The Martians envelop the planet in a smoke screen, and the humans retreat to the moon Deimos. During a raid on Mars for supplies, the earth men find Aina, the last of a population of human slaves whose ancestors were captured from Kashmir in a Martian raid 9,000 years before. During this raid, the Martians also constructed the Great Pyramidsand the Great Sphynx in Egypt, the latter of which is a statue of their leader. Aina advises Edison that meeting the Martians in battle would be fruitless, and that they should instead attack the dams that channel water from the polar ice. Since most of Mars' cities are under sea level, the flood spreads rapidly, killing most of the Martians and destroying their civilization. Edison and company force a peace with the surviving Martians, and return home to great celebration.