Scan barcode
A review by nadia_g
Lost Mars: Stories from the Golden Age of the Red Planet by Mike Ashley
4.0
Following on from its Classics Crime series, The British Library is expanding its genre interest by releasing two anthologies of classic science-fiction stories: Lost Mars and Moonrise.
Lost Mars is a collection of 10 sci-fi short-stories, classics of the genre, set on Mars or interested in the red planet. Knowledgeable sci-fi fans and new readers of sci-fi will find a volume filled with literary gems that span from 1887 (with W.S. Lach-Szyrma who maps out Mars in ' Letters from Mars') to 1963 (with J.G. Ballard and human looters of Martian tombs in The Time Tombs).
Lost Mars is a captivating collection that compiles stories by writers who marked their time and genre, some now lesser known like P Schuyler Miller (The Forgotten Man, 1933) or George C. Wallis (The Great Sacrifice, 1903), and others still remembered today as masters like H.G. Wells (The Crystal Egg, 1897) or Ray Bradbury (Yulla, 1950).
Lost Mars opens with H.G. Wells "regarded as the Father of Science Fiction" and his story The Crystal Egg, a short story described by Ashley as "magic shop" fiction in which an antiquarian discovers that his prized crystal egg is a window into Mars. The collection closes with The Time Tombs by J.G. Ballard who follows human tomb-raiders who specialize in Martian tombs that survived for millennia.
This anthology is introduced by the bibliographer Mike Ashley, author of the multi-volume History of the Science Fiction Magazine. Before each story, Ashley succinctly introduces the writer, the context and time in which these stories were written and published. The striking cover art is by Chesley Bonestell, 1953.
My favourite writer and most prized discovery was Stanley G. Weinbaum and his 'A Martian Odyssey', a story in which a human explorer lost on Mars discovers an alien explorer and helps him out. The alien then decides to accompany this strange human until he finds his ship. Despite the language barrier and their physical capabilities, both become fast friends along their journey. I liked this story most because it focuses on ecology, and it is one of the rare stories in which an alien's higher intelligence is portrayed as non-threatening to a human being who realises that other life forms are positively amazing, and accepts it with grace.
A miner who must find a way to survive after being abandoned on the red planet by colleagues who have no intention of returning, Martians who look out for Earthlings to protect them, a Martian husband jealous of his wife's dreams of a man from Earth, are a few of the brilliant stories in "The Golden Age of the Red Planet".
Is there water or enough oxygen on Mars to sustain human life? Who are or were this planet's inhabitants? What does this planet look like? When technology could not yet answer these questions, these fiction writers explored them. By portraying humans and Martians as invaders, explorers, survivors or distant observers the writers of this anthology looked at what our relationship to the red planet could be, and ultimately questioned our relationship to our universe.
Lost Mars is a collection of 10 sci-fi short-stories, classics of the genre, set on Mars or interested in the red planet. Knowledgeable sci-fi fans and new readers of sci-fi will find a volume filled with literary gems that span from 1887 (with W.S. Lach-Szyrma who maps out Mars in ' Letters from Mars') to 1963 (with J.G. Ballard and human looters of Martian tombs in The Time Tombs).
Lost Mars is a captivating collection that compiles stories by writers who marked their time and genre, some now lesser known like P Schuyler Miller (The Forgotten Man, 1933) or George C. Wallis (The Great Sacrifice, 1903), and others still remembered today as masters like H.G. Wells (The Crystal Egg, 1897) or Ray Bradbury (Yulla, 1950).
Lost Mars opens with H.G. Wells "regarded as the Father of Science Fiction" and his story The Crystal Egg, a short story described by Ashley as "magic shop" fiction in which an antiquarian discovers that his prized crystal egg is a window into Mars. The collection closes with The Time Tombs by J.G. Ballard who follows human tomb-raiders who specialize in Martian tombs that survived for millennia.
This anthology is introduced by the bibliographer Mike Ashley, author of the multi-volume History of the Science Fiction Magazine. Before each story, Ashley succinctly introduces the writer, the context and time in which these stories were written and published. The striking cover art is by Chesley Bonestell, 1953.
My favourite writer and most prized discovery was Stanley G. Weinbaum and his 'A Martian Odyssey', a story in which a human explorer lost on Mars discovers an alien explorer and helps him out. The alien then decides to accompany this strange human until he finds his ship. Despite the language barrier and their physical capabilities, both become fast friends along their journey. I liked this story most because it focuses on ecology, and it is one of the rare stories in which an alien's higher intelligence is portrayed as non-threatening to a human being who realises that other life forms are positively amazing, and accepts it with grace.
A miner who must find a way to survive after being abandoned on the red planet by colleagues who have no intention of returning, Martians who look out for Earthlings to protect them, a Martian husband jealous of his wife's dreams of a man from Earth, are a few of the brilliant stories in "The Golden Age of the Red Planet".
Is there water or enough oxygen on Mars to sustain human life? Who are or were this planet's inhabitants? What does this planet look like? When technology could not yet answer these questions, these fiction writers explored them. By portraying humans and Martians as invaders, explorers, survivors or distant observers the writers of this anthology looked at what our relationship to the red planet could be, and ultimately questioned our relationship to our universe.