Home from a Long Voyage ...

Recently, we returned home from a five-month voyage that began last March. Here are some notable developments in Martian science fiction that occurred while we were away:

• Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a space visionary and pillar of science fiction writing for more than fifty years, died on March 19, 2008. Among his many works is The Sands of Mars (1951).

• In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, a novel by S. M. Stirling, was published by Tor Books in March 2008. Sample chapters are posted on Stirling's website and a review by Tom Easton is posted on Analog's website.

• Lord of the Spiders, by science fiction Grand Master Michael Moorcock, was republished by Paizo Publishing in April 2008. This pastiche of Edgar Rice Burroughs was originally published in 1965 as Blades of Mars under a Moorcock pseudonym, Edward P. Bradbury.

• The Martian General’s Daughter, a novel by Theodore Judson, was published by Pyr in April 2008. A summary, sample chapters, and reviews are available at Pyr’s website.

• Chronicling Mars: The 2008 J. Lloyd Eaton Conference of Science Fiction was held in mid May 2008 at the University of California, Riverside. The conference featured appearances by Ray Bradbury, Frederik Pohl, Kim Stanley Robinson, Geoffrey Landis, Mary Turzillo, Greg Bear, Larry Niven, and Gregory Benford, and the presentation of a number of interesting papers.

• NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission spacecraft landed on the Red Planet in late May 2008. The spacecraft contains Visions of Mars, a library in DVD format of Martian-related material, including science fiction classics by Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Kim Stanley Robinson. The DVD is designed to survive at least 500 years on the cold Martian surface.

• Masters of the Pit, by Michael Moorcock, was republished by Paizo Publishing in July 2008. This epic of sword-and-planet adventure was originally published in 1965 as Barbarians of Mars under Moorcock’s pseudonym, Edward P. Bradbury.