A Real Mars?

SM Stirling's In The Courts Of The Crimson Kings reads as if it is about a real Mars (not our real one, of course!) which other versions merely hint at. That is what writers of fiction try to do. CS Lewis tells us, quite legitimately, that HG Wells' Martians are very different from the real Martians... My other general observations are, first, that I strongly dislike Stirling's Martians' attitudes to life and to each other and, secondly, that I still find them rather complicated and convoluted to read about but that last point just means that I need to persevere as a reader.

And the relevance of all this to Poul Anderson is that, both for comparative purposes and also for their own sakes, Anderson presents more fictional Martians than any other sf writer, even Heinlein.

In a short post, and without initially intending to, we have referred to no less than Stirling, Lewis, Wells, Anderson and Heinlein - and will now stop short of listing others especially at this time of night!

Good night or whatever time of day it may be where you are now.