Tuesday 5 April 2016

Mars

Science fiction writers, including Poul Anderson, have written a lot about Mars and Martians. We recently referred to Mars here and here. Blog readers might notice that I am unfamiliar with some more recent versions, e.g., Moving Mars, the Mars Trilogy and The Martian. Comments and comparisons would be welcome.

Ray Bradbury's Mars stories divide into:

those included in The Martian Chronicles;
those not included;
one that has been in some editions but not in others (see Comments here).

However, it seems that all have now been gathered together. See here.

Science fiction is collaborative. It makes sense to compare Anderson's own versions of Mars and Martians, then to extend the discussion to cover all Martian fiction which is an extremely large subject.

For James Blish's Mars, see here.
For ERB's, see here.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Andy Weir's novel THE MARTIAN is very much worth reading. Esp. since it's set in the near future using technology we either already have or could be developed fairly quickly. Much of the book reminded me of what I read in Robert Zubrin and Richard Wagner's THE CASE FOR MARS, a nonfictional study of how people COULD get to Mars and live there using resources found on Mars.

Sean

David Birr said...

Paul:
*The Martian* is some of the HARDEST hard science fiction going. It's therefore of a rather different order from any story that includes ALIENS from Mars (especially if they're invading because we have something they want). It's well-written, exciting, and often funny -- the main character has a very irreverent sense of humor, which serves him well in his uniquely desperate situation.

Paul Shackley said...

David,
Thank you. There are at least 2 earlier novels of survival on a scientifically accurate Mars: FIRST ON MARS by Rex Gordon; WELCOME TO MARS by James Blish.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, David and Paul!

David, and I thought THE MARTIAN better than the movie based on it. Even tho I've only read John Wright's review of the movie, I could tell the novel was better.

Paul, and it's James Blish's WELCOME TO MARS which caught my eye!

Sean