Garrett Putman Serviss

The original sequel to HG Wells War of the Worlds as written by the science editor of the Hearst newspaper group. Mentioned multiple times by rocket pioneer Robert Hutchings Goddard in his diaries as one of the sources of inspiration for him. The 2005 paperback edition from Apogee Books includes an extensive history of the work by Robert Godwin, noted space historian and space curator of the Canadian Air & Space Museum. The 2010 reprint also includes more original illustrations from 2010 as well as reproductions of Serviss' correspondence with Thomas Edison.

The year was 1909 and Garrett Putnam Serviss was already a respected science writer for the Hearst newspaper group. Serviss’ reputation was such that his articles appeared in almost every major American magazine. Beginning in January of that year Frank Munsey’s All-Story magazine began the serialization of Serviss’ epic science fiction adventure A Columbus of Space. Just three months earlier the visionary rocket pioneer, Robert Goddard, had submitted an article to Popular Science magazine about the possibilities of nuclear propulsion for space travel. Goddard’s article was rejected, but Serviss had no such problem with his science-fiction adventure story. In August of 1926 Serviss’ story was resurrected in the pages of Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories magazine. In fact Serviss was featured in eight of the first eleven issues of Amazing. A Columbus of Space is an adventure thriller written at a time when Venus was still believed to only show one hemisphere to the sun and Venusian life was still thought to be possible.

In Other Worlds, Michael Lemonick introduces us to the pioneering researchers who are using brand-new technology to explore the universe, looking for elusive signs of life. Other Worlds takes us inside the observatories, from the world's most powerful telescopes, situated at the top of a volcanic mountain in Hawaii, to the giant radio antennas in a bucolic West Virginia valley, used to listen for alien signals. It is in these places that scientists like Paul Butler and Geoff Marcy analyze the data that led to their discovery of new planets trillions of miles away, and where astronomer Seth Shostak helps run Project Phoenix for the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) Institute. Even NASA has now begun its Origins Program, hoping the search for extraterrestrial life will do for the agency what the mission to put a man on the moon did in the 1960s.