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chris_gerribIn looking for something else, I discovered there was a sequel to H. G. Well's book War of the Worlds! Well, kinda.
Back in 1898, when War of the Worlds came out, international copyright law was much like the Pirate's Code - more guidelines, really, than law. So, when War came out, various people rewrote it to their own liking, setting it wherever they felt it would be convenient. One of those (highly unauthorized) rewrites was Fighters from Mars, set in and around Boston.
This was such a commercial success that an American astronomer, Garrett P. Serviss, was engaged to write a sequel. The result was Edison's Conquest of Mars. The plot, or so Wikipedia tells me, is that Thomas Edison, working on behalf of then-current world leaders, reverse engineers the Martian tech and leads a fleet, first to the Moon and then to Mars.
The book is available in dead-tree and free Project Gutenberg editions. Apparently it introduces a lot of SF tropes, including ancient astronauts kidnapping humans ancestors and building the pyramids.
So know you know.
Back in 1898, when War of the Worlds came out, international copyright law was much like the Pirate's Code - more guidelines, really, than law. So, when War came out, various people rewrote it to their own liking, setting it wherever they felt it would be convenient. One of those (highly unauthorized) rewrites was Fighters from Mars, set in and around Boston.
This was such a commercial success that an American astronomer, Garrett P. Serviss, was engaged to write a sequel. The result was Edison's Conquest of Mars. The plot, or so Wikipedia tells me, is that Thomas Edison, working on behalf of then-current world leaders, reverse engineers the Martian tech and leads a fleet, first to the Moon and then to Mars.
The book is available in dead-tree and free Project Gutenberg editions. Apparently it introduces a lot of SF tropes, including ancient astronauts kidnapping humans ancestors and building the pyramids.
So know you know.
