The Sequel To Duel On Syrtis

"War-Maid of Mars" is a very misleading title. Incredibly, this ERBian-sounding story is a direct sequel to "Duel on Syrtis," (see here) which I had thought was a one-shot with a nasty ending. Kreega, the "owlie" (Martian) who defeated a human hunter and looked forward to Martian liberation in "Duel...," is alive and well, still based in Syrtis, and leading the struggle for liberation in "War-Maid..." although, of course, he is not the title character!

Thus, among Poul Anderson's many short series, these two Martian stories could be published as a single volume. What would make a good title?

I do not buy feathered, owl-like Martians, although Anderson would probably have been able to rationalize such organisms inhabiting the Martian environment as it was understood at the time he wrote the story. They sound like the Martians of the first Nicholas van Rijn story, "Margin of Profit," which, when that story was rewritten to fit into the Technic History, were reconceptualized as extra-solar colonists of Mars.

I say yet again: Anderson either systematically examines every possible answer to a question and implication of a concept or at least generates a very good impression of doing so!

War-Maid Of Mars

Right now I am accessing an ebook that is enabling me to read for the first time "War-Maid of Mars" by AA Craig (Poul Anderson), than which there could not be a more ERBian title. (Compare Burroughs' Warlord Of Mars and Thuvia, Maid Of Mars.)

The ERBianism of the title leads the reader to expect Sword and Science, the sf equivalent of the fantasy sub-genre, Sword and Sorcery. However, the story so far is more like Anderson's Shield. Our hero, with an artifact embodying a dangerous new technology in his possession, is on the run from totalitarian conspirators and security men on a future Earth which has world government, regular rocket flights, interplanetary travel and routine contact with natives of Mars and Venus. This sounds familiar: Golden Age sf, though not ERBian. I still do not see where the Maid is coming from.

However, I really must read more of this pulp story before I post any more about it. I will also be reading and posting about a few other uncollected works by Anderson, which will make a change from revisiting his History of Technic History, although the latter as ever is far from exhausted. In fact, I have yet to finish rereading "Hunters of the Sky Cave."

(Also still reading The Scar by China Mieville. Bizarre. Some well thought out consequences of familiar ideas. One detail that I do not remember noticing anywhere else - this fantasy world's moon has moons.)