Crater on Mars named for author Isaac Asimov

Ken Edgett, a scientist at Malin Space Science Systems and a member of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Color Imager/Context Camera team, has written an extensive article for the blog of The Planetary Society about the newly named Asimov Crater on Mars. The crater, named for Martian SF author and scientist Isaac Asimov on May 4, 2009, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is located in Noachis Terra on Mars and is 84-kilometers wide. To learn more about Asimov Crater and the criteria for naming a crater on Mars after a person, read Edgett’s article.

To learn about other craters on Mars that are named for Martian SF authors (Tolstoy, Burroughs, Heinlein, Lasswitz, Weinbaum, Wells), please see my blog post from September 2007: "Craters in Honor of Authors".

Isaac Asimov wrote several pieces of science fiction about Mars, including the short stories “The Martian Way” (1952), “I’m in Marsport Without Hilda” (1957), and “Latter-Day Martian Chronicles” (1990). He also penned “The Romance of Mars”, a nonfiction essay that served as the introduction to the anthology Mars, We Love You: Tales of Mars, Men and Martians (1971).

Ken Edgett’s first science fiction short story, "Joe the Martian Goes to the Moon", appeared in Return to Luna (2008), an anthology edited by Eric T. Reynolds and published by Hadley Rille Books.

Thanks to the SF Site for the link about Asimov Crater!

Grover’s Mill Coffee Company rewrites the story of the 1938 Martian invasion

The Grover’s Mill Coffee Company of West Windsor, New Jersey, which believes in a relaxing cup of good coffee and is dedicated to the memory of Orson Welles' 1938 radio adaptation of H. G. Well’s novel The War of the Worlds (1898) and its lasting imprint on American history and society, has rewritten the story of the 1938 Martian invasion. The revised story, which is really a piece of flash fiction, is titled “What Really Happened at Grover’s Mill? The Martian Prespective”. Here are the opening lines:

Our Story Begins ...

On October 30, 1938, Orson Welles' radio broadcast version of The War of the Worlds shocked the nation. The radio drama proclaimed that Martian invaders had landed in the sleepy hamlet of Grover's Mill, New Jersey. While many across the land believed the broadcast, it was later dismissed as a hoax. Yet the local farmers of Grover's Mill knew better -- the Martians had indeed come -- and they came for the coffee. ...

The Grover’s Mill Coffee Company sells several flavors of gourmet coffee, including Rocket Fuel, Orson’s Expresso, and Martian Mocha Java. If you’re traveling along the New Jersey Turnpike this summer, take Exit 8 and check out the company's Grover's Mill Coffee House & Roastery at 295 Princeton Hightstown Road, Princeton Junction, NJ 08550.

Pictured above: Logo of Grover's Mill Coffee Company's Martian Mocha Java coffee.

Turning a page, Germany expresses concern about Google Book Search project

According to a recent news article by Reuters, the European Union will study Google’s Book Search project and the proposed $125 million Google Book Search settlement after Germany raised concerns that intellectual property is being stolen from German authors. Germany also said Google's book project could increase media ownership concentration and affect cultural diversity.

Students of the history of the printed word might recall German media conglomerate Bertelsmann A.G.’s historic 1998 acquisition of American publisher Random House, a transaction which was opposed by the Authors Guild but approved by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. "It's as if the New York Yankees were sold," said Paul Aiken, the executive director of the Authors Guild, at the time.
"We're losing one of the major players at a time when there's been a great deal of concern about consolidation and fear of book contract cancellations."

In 2002, a group of scholars revealed that Bertelsmann tried to
cover up its ties to the Nazi regime during World War II, links which allowed it to transform itself from a provincial Lutheran printing company into a mass-market publisher and the largest supplier of books (some filled with anti-Semetic themes) to the German Army. The scholars also concluded that Bertelsmann had probably profited from the use of Jewish slave labor at several printing plants in Lithuania.

Giveaway: A copy of Liz Williams’ acclaimed 2008 novel Winterstrike

The book blog Unbound! is giving away a copy of Winterstrike (UK, 2008), a recent novel written by British SF&F author Liz Williams. Featuring the city
of Winterstrike on a colonized Mars, the novel made Amazon UK’s list of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2008. Winterstrike has not yet been released in the United States, but the giveaway is open to fans of any country. The deadline for the giveaway is early morning, June 1, 2009 (GMT?). Sorry for such short notice, I got caught up in the aftermath of the Manchester United game.

Update on forthcoming film The Lost Hieroglyph: a Brackett & Burroughs Adventure

After surviving three recent Hollywood big-budget box office bombs (Watchmen, Star Trek, and Terminator Salvation), I’m looking forward to a more modest production: the forthcoming film The Lost Hieroglyph: a Brackett & Burroughs Adventure. A project of independent filmmaker Steve Weintz of Big Sur, California, the film, a stop-motion animated serial, is a retro sci-fi screwball adventure in which a couple, Ray and Ceel, travels to Mars in hope of finding a missing relative and a lost book. In the process, they foil a plot to destroy the Martians and enslave Earth!

The Lost Hieroglyph: a Brackett & Burroughs Adventure is full of literary, visual, and historical references to science fiction, including references to Leigh Brackett, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, Robert A. Heinlein, C. L. Moore, Chesley Bonestell, Virgil Finlay, Kelly Freas, Ed Emshwiller, Thoats & Vorks, and the Weinbaum flame-pistol!

Check out selected clips from the forthcoming film (clips are also available on YouTube), set plans for Ray and Ceel's Telegraph Hill apartment in San Francisco, and more!

Pictured above: Promotional poster for The Lost Hieroglyph: a Brackett & Burroughs Adventure. Adventure never looked this good!

Kage Baker's new novel The Empress of Mars receives positive reviews

The Empress of Mars (2009), a new full-length novel written by well-known author Kage Baker and published earlier this month as a hardcover trade edition by Tor Books, is generating some positive reviews. Expanded from Baker’s 2003 novella of the same name and following the publication of a limited edition novel by Subterranean Press in late 2008, the plot revolves around The Empress of Mars, a bar run by character Mary Griffith on a colonial Mars controlled by the British Arean Company.

According to reader Marissa Lingen, “It's not a book that's doing something startlingly new, and it's not exploring serious areas of the human psyche, and that's okay; sometimes you need a book that rolls and crashes along with plenty of cool bits with dust storms and
‘Martian porcelain’ and the characters you like getting their own back against those who would oppress them.”

In a lengthy and excellent review, librarian Mike Ferrante concludes, in part: “With its slow beginning The Empress of Mars had me worried that it just wouldn’t hold my interest. However, the characters of Baker’s novel, like the red dust of the planet its set on, managed to work their under my skin until they felt like they were a part of me; like they were my own family.”

Did NASA robots cook life and human scientists drink all the beer on Mars?

David Shiga of NewScientist magazine has written an interesting science article titled “Mars robots may have destroyed evidence of life”, which speculates that NASA’s 1976 Viking landers and 2008 Phoenix lander may have destroyed chemical signs of life on the Red Planet when they heated soil samples in search of organic compounds.

Reminds me of “All the Beer on Mars” (1989), a hard science fiction short story written by astrophysicist and SF author Gregory Benford. The story is about an international team of scientists who hunt for life on Mars. Their findings are encouraging until they stumble across the wreckage of a 1971 Soviet spacecraft and conclude that it contaminated indigenous life on Mars. The title, "All the Beer on Mars", is simply a reference to the scientist’s consumption of small quantities of beer, which they brew to improve the taste of their recycled water. You can read the story in Isaac Asimov’s Mars (1991), an anthology edited by Gardner Dozois.

1930s Sci-Fi: “How We Went to Mars”, a short story by Arthur C. Clarke

“How We Went to Mars”, a short science fiction story by the visionary writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke originally published in the March 1938 issue of Amateur Science Stories magazine, can be read for free online. According to Tinkoo of the blog Variety SF, the story is a “Light hearted adventure of a group of young boys' accident -- their fun rocket took them to Mars! They meet English speaking natives! Spend a while, are refueled by aliens, & return home happy & safe.” Here are the first few lines of the story:

It is with considerable trepidation that I now take up my pen to describe the incredible adventures that befell the members of the Snoring-in-the-Hay Rocket Society in the Winter of 1952. Although we would have preferred posterity to be our judge, the members of the society of which I am proud to be President, Secretary and Treasurer, feel that we cannot leave unanswered the accusations -- nay, calumnies -- made by envious rivals as to our integrity, sobriety and even sanity. ...

Thanks to Blue Tyson of the blog Free SF Reader for the link.

Head librarian at University of Michigan supports $125m Google Book Search settlement

Google’s Good Deal for Libraries
The Washington Post, May 24, 2009
By Paul N. Courant

In his May 19 op-ed, "A Book Grab by Google," Brewster Kahle said that a court settlement involving Google, if approved, "would produce not one but two court-sanctioned monopolies. Google will have permission to bring under its sole control information that has been accessible through public institutions for centuries. In essence, Google will be privatizing our libraries."

As the steward of one of those libraries, a library that has had some 3 million of its works digitized by Google, let me assure readers that Google will not have a monopoly on the information [...]

Read the entire op-ed piece in The Washington Post.

Paul N. Courant is university librarian and dean of libraries at the University of Michigan.

Ethics of writing about a "Girlfriend in a Coma"

Congratulations to British science fiction writer
Eric Brown, author of the short story “Myths of the Martian Future” (2002) and the forthcoming novella “Gilbert and Edgar on Mars” (2009), for summoning the courage to join the newly christened but soon-to-be-renamed Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics project. The project is “a core platform, a hub of authors who have banded together with the aim of celebrating all that is positive in genre fiction. We aim to leave cynicism and negativity at the door, and concentrate on what makes us smile, what entertains us, and what brings light and joy to our SF, fantasy and horror universe.”

Over the moors, but unrelated to Mars, bottoms up to British lyricist and singer Morrissey, former frontman of the 1980s melancholy band The Smiths, whose writings were recently compared to other great figures of British literature, such as Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde. Focusing on subjects such as “child murder, working-class poverty, suicide, football hooliganism, mental illness, police corruption, disability, animal cruelty, violence, paedophilia, racism, death, [and] the loss of faith,” Morrissey penned the lines to scores of great songs. Here's one of his morbid gems, “Girlfriend in a Coma” (1987):

Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's really serious

There were times when I could
Have "murdered" her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)

No, I don't want to see her

Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do ...

Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know - it's serious
My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye

There were times when I could
Have "strangled" her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)
Would you please
Let me see her!

Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do you really think
She'll pull through?
Do ...
Let me whisper my last goodbyes

I know - It's serious

The song provided Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland’s post-apocalyptic SF/F novel Girlfriend in a Coma (1998) with its title. According to The Guardian, a newspaper in the United Kingdom, Coupland's novel is one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read.

Subterranean Press to reprint “The Toad Prince or, Sex Queen of the Martian Pleasure-Domes”, a fairy tale by Harlan Ellison

As I announced back in January 2009, Subterranean Press is reprinting “The Toad Prince or, Sex Queen of the Martian Pleasure-Domes” (2000), a fairy tale by Sci-Fi curmudgeon Harlan Ellison. Ellison's tale will be bound with ten other stories in Subterranean's Son of Retro Pulp Tales, a forthcoming, limited edition anthology edited by Joe R. Lansdale and Keith Lansdale. Continuing in the vein of the award-winning Retro Pulp Tales (2006), the forthcoming Son of Retro Pulp Tales contains “everything from Lovecraftian monsters to demons to hardboiled shootouts to plain ole unchained oddness" and will be published this summer.

Here are the opening lines of Ellison's Martian fairy tale:

Once upon a time, in a golden kingdom far away, a kingdom dreaming of never was but should have been, on an especially lovely day, a most exceptionally comely blonde princess, with eyes the color of skies toward which the noblest eagles yearn, chose to take a leisurely stroll at the veriest verge of the vast grounds bounding her father’s palace. ...

Pictured above: No, not Jack Kerouac, but Harlan Ellison!

Don’t have time to read? Book-A-Minute SF/F

"Let's face it. There's a lot of science fiction and fantasy out there and very little time to read it in. Well sit back and relax, because your troubles are solved! We here at Book-A-Minute SF/F have come up with a solution. We've taken several great speculative fiction novels and extracted the important stuff, cutting out all the filler. (You'd be surprised how much filler there is sometimes.) With our ultra-condensed versions of your favorite speculative fiction, you can read entire books -- entire series, even -- in just one minute! You can have your books and read them too! And it costs nothing!"

Ultra-condensed SF&F books by David J. Parker and Samuel Stoddard include Ben Bova's Mars (1992), Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) and H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898).

This might be a sign that there is more literate life on other planets.

Mars Attacks! and Star Trek spinoffs: An interview with British film director Alex Cox

Once a promising young filmmaker who directed Repo Man (1984) and Sid & Nancy (1986), British cult film director Alex Cox has spent the past twenty years trying to rekindle his career. Cox recently visited Austin, Texas, and sat down with the city's free weekly newspaper Decider to discuss some of his projects that never came to fruition, such as the film Mars Attacks! (1996).

Alex Cox: I was the person who brought Mars Attacks! to the attention of the studio. They were bubblegum cards I had as a kid. I developed Mars Attacks! with Jon Davidson [sic], the producer of Robocop, for quite a while, but at some point my project got shut down and it was given to Tim Burton. It was a bit of a shame, but I think both the script that I wrote and the Tim Burton one suffered from not being enough like the bubblegum cards. I was very attracted to science fiction when I was a lad, but that sort of science fiction seems to have gone away now -- the hardcore Harry Harrison, Arthur C. Clarke kind of world seems to have disappeared. In the science fiction section of the bookstore now, it’s just Star Trek spinoff books and fantasy novels, flying-on-the-back-of-a-dragon stuff. That really mainstream, kind of macho science fiction of the ’50s and ’60s has just disappeared.

Pictured above is card #21 from the 1962 Topps Mars Attacks bubblegum card series. According to the blog Golden Age Comic Book Stories, the original artwork for card #1, done by Norman Saunders and Bob Powell, sold recently at auction for $70,000! Check out beautiful images of all 55 cards in the Mars Attacks series at Golden Age Comic Book Stories.

The Nation: The book business and its woes

The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes
The Nation, May 20, 2009
By Elisabeth Sifton

Humanity has read, hoarded, discarded and demanded books for centuries; for centuries books have been intimately woven into our sense of ourselves, into the means by which we find out who we are and who we want to be. They have never been mere physical objects -- paper pages of a certain size and weight printed with text and sometimes images, bound together on the left -- never just cherished or reviled reminders of school-day torments, or mementos treasured as expressions of bourgeois achievement, or icons of aristocratic culture. They have been all these things and more. They have been instruments of enlightenment. [...]

Read the entire article in The Nation.

Pictured above: Johannes Gutenberg in the Age of Information.

Actor Leonard Nimoy played Narab the Martian in the 1952 film Zombies of the Stratosphere

Unbeknownst to me, actor Leonard Nimoy, who starred as Dr. Spock in the late 1960s television series Star Trek, played the minor role of Narab
the Martian in the obscure film Zombies of the Stratosphere (Republic Studios, 1952). Here's a synopsis of the
plot, taken from the blog Classic Sci-Fi Movies:

Mars is a dying world, cooling down because it's too far from the sun. The Martians decide to knock Earth out of it's warmer orbit and put Mars there. To accomplish this, the Martians set about trying to build an H-bomb on Earth, with the reluctant help of an earth scientist with "unfriendly powers" connections. Like Radar Men the few Martians who come to Earth employ various earth thugs to do their bidding. In each episode, the Martians' latest plan is foiled. Each episode usually had a chase scene (with or without shootout). The Martians eventually succeed in getting the bomb built and armed. They flee in their rocket, but are shot down by Larry in his rocket. After the crash, the last surviving Martian, Narab, (played by Leonard Nimoy) tells Larry how to find and disarm the bomb. This he does, and the world is safe ... for now.

As the website Todd Gault's Serial Experience notes, “Of course the most famous cast member in the serial is Leonard Nimoy, almost fifteen years before wowing fans as Mr. Spock, plays a small part as a Martian invader, with few scenes and even fewer lines. Though he does get to battle the hero in the underwater knife fight.”

Pictured above: Leonard Nimoy as Narab the Martian.

Flash fiction: “Supernova” by J.R. Blackwell

The free science fiction story site 365 Tomorrows has an interesting piece of flash fiction titled “Supernova” (2006), by writer, photographer and contortionist J.R. Blackwell. The story reminds us that we’re all just composed of stardust. Here's the opening line: "It happened in a late night Karaoke bar on Mars."

Marvel Comics: John Carter, Warlord of Mars #1

The comics blog Diversions of the Groovy Kind has beautiful, readable jpegs of issue #1 of the comic book series John Carter, Warlord of Mars, which was published by Marvel Comics in March 1977. Initially written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gil Kane, John Carter, Warlord of Mars ran for a total of 28 issues, ceasing in August 1979. The storyline was based loosely upon Edgar Rice Burroughs classic science fiction character, John Carter of Mars.

Thanks to Dave Tackett of the blog QuasarDragon for the tip!

Financial analyst: Amazon’s Kindle e-reader will generate $1.6 billion in revenue by 2012

According to Collins Stewart financial analyst Sandeep Aggarwal, Amazon’s Kindle electronic book reader will earn upwards of $300 million in revenue this year and $70 million in profit, growing to $1.6 billion in revenue and at least $400 million in profit by 2012. Aggarwal believes that sales of the Kindle will grow about 80 percent a year from 2009 to 2012, and that subscriptions to content will increase as a result. See a piece in The Washington Post for more details.

Forthcoming: A graphic adaptation of Stanley G. Weinbaum’s short story “A Martian Odyssey”

Eureka Productions has announced that the seventeenth volume of its Graphic Classics series will focus on Sci-Fi. Titled Science Fiction Classics, this anthology will contain graphic adaptations of H.G. Wells’ seminal novel The War of the Worlds (1898) and Stanley G. Weinbaum’s influential short story “A Martian Odyssey” (1934). The 144-page paperback anthology will be in full color and is scheduled to be published in June 2009.

Pictured above: A scene from the first page of Eureka's forthcoming graphic adaptation of "A Martian Odyssey".

Results of poll: Which tribute to author Edgar Rice Burroughs would you most like to see established?

Here are the results of the recent poll I conducted about which tribute to author Edgar Rice Burroughs fans would most like to see established:

• 37% of those who answered the question would most like to see an Edgar Rice Burroughs Award established, to be given annually to a SF novel.

• 25% would most like to see an Edgar Rice Burroughs Scholarship established, to be given annually to an aspiring SF writer to attend the Clarion Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers' Workshop.

• 25% would most like to see an Edgar Rice Burroughs Foundation established, to provide annual grants to high school science teachers to create summer programs to help students understand the merits of sending a human mission to Mars.

• 12% would most like to see an Edgar Rice Burroughs Prize established, to provide a one-time prize to the first team of scientists that successfully creates a propulsion system capable of sending a spacecraft to Mars in less than 60 days.

Thanks to the 8 fans who participated in the poll. Perhaps the folks at Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. will show us the money!

Baen Books reprints Jerry Pournelle’s 1976 novel Birth of Fire

Baen Books has reprinted in one volume two novels written by award-winning SF author Jerry Pournelle: Birth of Fire (1976), which is set on Mars, and King David’s Spaceship (1981), which is not. Published earlier this month under the title Fires of Freedom (2009), the theme of the new volume and the point both novels have in common is the struggle for independence against powerful governmental forces and faceless bureaucrats. In other words, classic Pournelle!

Here’s a synopsis of Birth of Fire, taken from Baen Books' website:
“A teenage delinquent on a crowded, corrupt Earth, Garrett was given a choice: rot in prison on Earth, or be deported to Mars to work in the colony there. But on Mars he would find an inner strength that he had never known before, and when Mars revolted against the multinational corporations that controlled the colonist’s lives, Garrett was on the front lines in the battle for planetary freedom.”

You can read the first twelve chapters of Birth of Fire online, thanks to the generosity of the folks at Baen Books.

Reader reviews of Birth of Fire are posted at Amazon.com.

Director of Internet Archive pens op-ed piece opposing $125m Google Book Search settlement

A Book Grab by Google
The Washington Post, May 19, 2009
By Brewster Kahle

A court in the Southern District of New York will soon make a decision that could determine our digital future.

A ruling is expected shortly on a proposed settlement of lawsuits filed against Google in 2005 by groups representing authors and publishers claiming that Google's book-scanning project violated copyright. When Google announced its project in 2004, the company said its goal was simple yet far-reaching. Like its search engine, which points people to Web sites, Google's book search product would help people find information in books and direct them to volumes in libraries and bookstores. [...]

Read the entire op-ed piece in The Washington Post.

Brewster Kahle is founder and director of the Internet Archive and the Open Content Alliance.

A Chronology of video games set on Mars

A website called Moby Games has a cool chronology of video games that are set on Mars. There are fifty-one different games, ranging from 1981 to 2008, including titles such as Caverns of Mars (1981), Commander Keen 1: Marooned on Mars (1990), Mars Matrix (2000), and Mars Explorer (2008), and for platforms as diverse as Apple, Atari, Commodore, DOS, Macintosh, Ninetendo, PlayStation, SEGA, Windows and Xbox.

Each entry in the chronology includes a description of the game, as well as publishing and release information. In some cases, you can view pictures of the packaging and screen shots. Reviews and ratings from computer and gaming magazines and websites are also available.

I’m embarrassed to admit, I’ve never heard of most of these games and I haven't played any of them, not even the classic Doom (1993).

Pictured above: Back cover of packaging for Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles Adventure Game (1995).

Grandmaster Michael Moorcock genuflects to the Queen of Martian Sci-Fi

Thanks to a recent post by Blue Tyson of the blog
Free SF Reader, you can read “Queen of the Martian Mysteries: An Appreciation of Leigh Brackett”, a lengthy but awesome essay by Brit and SF Grandmaster Michael Moorcock. The essay serves as the introduction to the highly praised Martian Quest: The Early Brackett (2002), an anthology of short stories written by Brackett, the Queen of Martian Sci-Fi, and published by Haffner Press. Here are the first few lines of Moorcock’s essay:

Few people of later generations than mine know how influential Leigh Brackett has been on the field of science fiction and fantasy. If you’ve read the odd piece by me or by Ray Bradbury, for instance, you’ll know that we admired her, loved her, learned from her and were encouraged by her, but you might not know that E.C. Tubb’s excellent long-running Dumarest of Terra series, which has been appearing for almost half-a-century, was originally written in conscious and acknowledged imitation of Brackett’s much-admired Eric John Stark stories. I heard her Stark stories quoted long before I actually read them, just as, while hitch-hiking through Germany a few years later, I had Borges retailed to me by a Spanish-reading Swede before Borges ever appeared in English. Ted Tubb could quote chunks of Brackett from memory and invent a fair version of his own on the spot! He wasn’t the only one. I remember sessions with him and some of the other UK sf writers of the 50s, including Ken Bulmer and John Brunner, in which her work was the sole subject of enthusiastic conversation and where we vied with one another to capture that typical, intoxicating style in extemporary round-robins, which is what writers used to do at sf conventions before they started becoming stars. Someone always had a typewriter and you took turns on it. ...

Leigh Brackett rules!

Monumental prize for first team to reach summit of Olympus Mons

The Earth and Space Foundation, which funds expeditions that bridge the gap between Earth and space exploration, has created awards for future human expeditions on Mars, including one for the first team to reach the summit of Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the Solar System and nearly three times as tall as Mount Everest.

According to the foundation’s website, the Olympus Mountaineering Award was established in 1994 and “The attempt on the summit of Mount Olympus must begin from the Tharsis plains surrounding the base of the volcano. No technological support, other than that required for life support and basic mountaineering, can be used. The team must reach the summit, which is here defined as the highest point on the caldera of Mount Olympus. Any route to the caldera, even given the low angle of ascent of much of the surface, is acceptable."

In a recent article at Space.com, Charles Cockell, a microbiologist at the Open University in the United Kingdom who helped found the Earth and Space Foundation, said: "For the summit of Olympus award, we have a piece of rock from the summit of Mount Everest and a plaque. We also put $10,000 into a high interest account, and the money will just sit there. In a hundred years time, when someone comes to claim it, the award will be substantial."

Interested in reading a neat piece of SF flash fiction about scaling Olympus Mons? Check out "The Elcano Syndrome" (2008), by Gustavo Bondoni, winner of the 2008 Marooned Award for Best Flash Fiction.

Forthcoming: “Gilbert and Edgar on Mars”, a novella by Eric Brown

“Gilbert and Edgar on Mars”, a forthcoming novella by British science fiction author Eric Brown, is scheduled to be released by PS Publishing in mid 2009. Here’s a synopsis, taken directly from PS Publishing's website:

G. K. Chesterton, fantastical novelist, literary journalist, paradoxical poet and prolific short story writer penned more than a hundred books in his lifetime as well as countless articles and essays on every subject under the sun -- but only now can his travels across the face of the red planet be revealed.

In this exuberant novella Eric Brown recounts Chesterton's astounding adventures on Mars, his meeting with Edgar Rice Burroughs and his treatment at the hands of the Six Philosophers.

Why was Chesterton whisked away from planet Earth -- and will he ever return?

Eric Brown is also the author of “Myths of the Martian Future” (2002), a short story that was written for and published in the anthology Mars Probes (2002). He maintains a website at www.ericbrown.co.uk.

Courting diversity, President Obama to consider superhero Miss Martian for Supreme Court

WASHINGTON -- An unnamed Obama administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity revealed late yesterday that the President is considering DC Comics superhero Miss Martian to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Other individuals under consideration reportedly include California Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Appeals Court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Pamela Wood.

Miss Martian, whose real name is M'gann M'orzz and who uses the alias Megan Morse, would bring a number of attractive professional and personal attributes to the Supreme Court if nominated and confirmed:

1. Miss Martian would fulfill President Obama’s secret desire to appoint a comic book superhero to a high-ranking position within the United States government.

2. Miss Martian's race and place of birth would help President Obama redefine the meaning of the term “diversity.”

3. Miss Martian’s parents were captured and executed by the United States government, a horrific event which shaped her “appreciation of how our laws affect the daily realities of people’s lives."

4. Miss Martian once ran away to Australia after having her feelings hurt by her peers. This experience instilled in her a deep sense of empathy, one of the qualities President Obama has said he is looking for in a Supreme Court Justice.

5. Miss Martian would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as one of only two females on the Supreme Court, a move which would please voters on both sides of the political aisle.

6. Miss Martian’s green skin would appeal to Americans of all colors.

7. Miss Martian’s red hair would provide an opportunity for the public to learn more about redheads, a demographic which in various times and cultures has been feared, ridiculed and discriminated against.

8. Miss Martian’s age and membership in the Teen Titans would encourage younger Americans to consider public service, a theme President Obama stressed throughout his presidential campaign.

9. Miss Martian’s physiology is self-sufficient, negating her need to consume food or drink. As such, she does not produce waste, an attribute that would appeal to individuals and groups concerned about the environment and sustainable living.

10. Miss Martian possesses the power of mental telepathy, a quality that would allow her to read the minds of fellow Supreme Court Justices and to transform the role of the court’s “swing vote.”

11. Miss Martian has sufficient experience working with the law, having forged legal documents establishing that Megan Morse, her alias, was a legal citizen of the state of Arizona.

Author Jason Stoddard defies Googlenomics with deal to publish his free e-novel Winning Mars

Seemingly contrary to the laws of Googlenomics, author Jason Stoddard announced that his science fiction e-novel Winning Mars (2005), which was released on the Internet a few years ago as a freebie under a Creative Commons license, will be published as a pay-for-it hardcover book by Prime Books in 2010.

“Wait, wait, isn’t free content the death of a scarcity economy? Won’t a book be a no-go after giving it away? I thought only big-name people got to give it away and also have a book! I’m confused!!!”

Let me explain. In September 2007, Stoddard announced with great fanfare that he was giving away for free his e-novel Winning Mars, which was originally published as a novella in Interzone magazine #196 (January-February 2005). In response to questions such as “So why the hell aren’t you getting this thing published, man?”, “Why don’t you get an agent, shop this bad boy, and get it into that wonderful world of physical print?” and “What could possibly cause you to consider giving up your ability to publish this book, forever, by giving it away online under a Creative Commons license?”, Stoddard responded:

"Well, a number of reasons. First and foremost, Winning Mars is a work of near-future fiction. It’s entirely possible that by the time it crawls through the 2-year process of conventional publishing, it will be irrelevant -- or at least extremely dated. Second, I like writing. I want people to read my stuff. If the gigantic advance (LOL) that I’m going to get from a conventional publisher is getting in the way of people reading my stuff, then I’d rather just have people read my stuff. Third, I write a lot. I have a lot of trunk novels -- think, like, 4 of them -- that I really need to clear out so I can work on new stuff."

Now, in May 2009, Stoddard has had his faith in humanity and the publishing industry restored and believes that a hardcover version of Winning Mars will “benefit from the changes that need to be baked in to any near-future novel, 2 years after release, and 5 years after the novella it was based upon -- as well as the improvements that come from working with a real editor ...”

Bold, brash, and brazen! Best of success, Jason!

Thanks to the blog Futurismic for the link.

Mars is peopled and they want Kirk’s Soap

No, not an attempt by Martians to steal a bar of soap from the personal effects of Captain James T. Kirk, but an old advertisement for Kirk’s American Family Soap manufactured by the James S. Kirk Company of Chicago. The ad, which was apparently published in a Chicago newspaper in 1893, is a play on a proposed 40-inch refracting telescope at the nascent Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin and the popular notion that Mars was populated with intelligent life.

“A Tree Grows Up on Mars”, a short story by the late Ken Rand (1946-2009)

“A Tree Grows up on Mars”, a short story by the late writer Ken Rand that was first published in Neverworlds magazine #10 in the year 2000, has been posted online and can be read for free. Here are the opening lines of the story:

If Ian Beleri wanted to plant a tree on Mars, a tree would be planted on Mars. Beleri had clout. For all practical purposes, he owned Mars. He ran the mining operations. His corporation headquartered in the Beltway owned the bubbles themselves and everything under them. Most colonists worked for BeleriCorp or a subsidiary one way or another.

So, if Beleri wanted a tree in New Horizon (his dull name for the colony), he got a tree.

Not trees -- a tree. Just one.

Ken Rand (1946-2009), who died on April 21 following several years of illness, also wrote the novel Dadgum Martians Invade the Lucky Nickel Saloon! (2006).

Listen to a reading of Gulliver of Mars, a classic novel by Edwin L. Arnold

Thanks to a recent post by the blog QuasarDragon,
I’ll have to make some time to listen to fan James Christopher read Gulliver of Mars (1905), a long-lost classic of Martian SF adventure written by Edwin L. Arnold that predates Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel
A Princess of Mars (1912), which starred character John Carter of Mars. The audio files of Christopher’s reading of Gulliver of Mars, which is more than 6 hours, can be downloaded for free from LibriVox.

Here’s a synopsis of Gulliver of Mars, taken from LibriVox’s website:

This escapist novel first published in 1905 as Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation follows the exploits of American Navy Lieutenant Gulliver Jones, a bold, if slightly hapless, hero who is magically transported to Mars; where he almost outwits his enemies, almost gets the girl, and almost saves the day. Somewhat of a literary and chronological bridge between H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jones’ adventures provide an evocative mix of satire and sword-and-planet adventure.

Interested in old libraries? Checkout “The Library in Edwin Lester Linden Arnold's Gulliver of Mars (1905)", a piece which I posted on this blog back in October 2008.

Pictured above: Cover of the 1964? Ace paperback, with artwork by Frank Frazetta.

Martians learned about free-market economics before Atlas shrugged

A long, long time ago, before Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was vilified for preaching "Drill, Baby, Drill," international commodities trader Marc Rich was indicted for purchasing crude from Iran, and a critic for The New York Times Book Review stated that Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (1957) was "written out of hate," oil companies taught Martians about the benefits of free-market economics in Destination Earth (1956), a 13-minute educational cartoon sponsored by the American Petroleum Industry.

Thanks to the blog boingboing for the link. With the price of crude oil back to almost $60 a barrel, perhaps Mr. Rushkoff should jump on the USO bandwagon.

Horror writer Stephen King: New York City goes all Martian Chronicles over Scare Force One flyover

GQ magazine recently interviewed horror writer Stephen King, who predicted a flu-driven apocalypse in his novel The Stand (1978), about the H1N1 swine flu virus. Here’s an excerpt from the interview, in which King mentions the recent Air Force One flyover of New York City and The Martian Chronicles (1950).

GQ: Is there anything else in your books that you think will come true in the next few years?

Stephen King: Well, here’s one thing. We can’t talk about this too long, it’s too much of a bummer. But it’s been almost 65 years since anybody’s blown up a nuclear weapon in a city in the world. Everybody knows that’s going to happen. You’re going to wake up one morning to find out somebody exploded a dirty nuke in Baghdad or Islamabad. Or the North Koreans actually did launch some kind of a shit-kicking little missile and managed to blow up part of Tokyo. In terms of death toll, it probably won’t be any worse than what happened at Chernobyl. But the trauma. I mean, look at the situation we’re in -- people fly a jet plane low over New York City, and the city goes all Martian Chronicles.

The Martian Chronicles? Perhaps Stephen King meant The War of the Worlds.

Interestingly, “Mars’s Gift”, a short story by Jonathan J. Schlosser that was published online in the December 2008 issue of Aphelion: the Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, is about a plague on Mars. The story has a passing reference to "An old book, still in paper bindings; the cover read The Stand."

Pictured above: Martian Spaceships Invade New York, by Frank R. Paul, artwork which was featured on the cover of the October 1966 issue of Amazing Stories magazine.

Forthcoming: Man O’War, a comic book based on the 1996 novel by William Shatner

Later in the year, comic book company Bluewater Productions will publish Man O’War, its one-shot adaptation of the 1996 science fiction novel by Star Trek actor and bestselling author William Shatner. In consultation with Shatner, the storyline for the comic will be a continuation of the established plot in the novel as opposed to a direct adaptation.

Here’s a description of the forthcoming comic book Man O’War:

In the near future, the population of the Earth has lumbered past the ten billion mark. Most of the planet's natural resources are dwindling or gone. The only thing keeping the ever-increasing masses of Earth alive are the vast food vats of Mars and the mining operations of the asteroid belts. But, the promised rewards for those who thirty years previous went to the stars to save humanity have never materialized. Instead of a new world to homestead, the colonists have been turned into virtual slaves by Red Planet, Inc., the corporation granted the charter to develop Mars.

Now, cheated, lied to, with no hope in sight, the Martian colony has begun to boil with talk of strikes and revolution. A stop in production would mean riots and chaos on Earth, billions dead in a matter of weeks. It would mean war, plague and famine at levels never before known. Into this most explosive political situation is thrust Benton Hawkes, the most trusted diplomatic negotiator alive. All sides agree, he the only man to be trusted to avert a catastrophe which could bring destruction to the entire solar system.

But, bitter reasons of his own, Hawkes wants nothing to do with Mars. And, on top of that, there are those who don't want to see the situation calmed, and who will do nothing to stop Hawkes from interfering with their plans.

Checkout the preview!

Did Space Cadet Tom Corbett use the female fertility drug HCG ?

Based on some speculative research by British SF author Adam Roberts, there is a distinct possibility that character Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, whose adventures were chronicled in Stand By For Mars! (1952) and seven other juvenile science fiction novels written by author Carey Rockwell, used the female fertility drug Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG).

Win a copy of Richard G. Risch’s novel Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet

The blog Brummet's Conscious Discussions is offering a chance to win a copy of Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet (2008), a science fiction novel written by Richard G. Risch. The deadline for entering the contest is Sunday morning, May 10, 2009.

If you're not familiar with Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet, here's a detailed description:

The year is 2152. Martian colonists are faced with a drastic choice, remain on a slowly dying Mars or frantically fight their way out of the solar system in an escalating battle against the forces of their hated overlord, the Earth. The grim reality leaves most colonists reeling in a state of shock as they board waiting vessels to take them elsewhere into uncertainty. This is the opening of R.G. Risch’s Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet, a whirlwind of a science fiction novel.

Throughout Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet, readers follow the harrowing exploits of the Martian space destroyer Crazy Horse, commanded by an audacious naval captain, Richard Wakinyan, and his friend, First Lieutenant James Randall. Together with other Martian ships, the Crazy Horse battles against the most powerful and feared Earth armada in existence, the Crimson Fleet, seeking to destroy their evil pursuer, Admiral Selena Darius. But the outcome hangs in the balance as Admiral Darius proves herself to be a most ruthless and cunning opponent; one who has no problem in obliterating any obstacle that stands in her way.

Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet is based on actual historic naval clashes with accurate visions of tomorrow’s technology. By any standard, it is one of the best action-packed and explosive science fiction thrillers, which deals with the never ending conflict between good and evil as well as man’s will to survive. Beyond Mars - Crimson Fleet by any standard, it is sure to be considered one of the best science fiction books of 2008, if not of all time!

While I haven't read this novel, I have read a sample chapter and selected reader reviews.

New piece of flash fiction: “Martian Goes Grocery Shopping” by Zachary Whitten

“Martian Goes Grocery Shopping” (2009), a new piece of flash fiction by Zachary Whitten, is posted on Brain Release Valve, his blog. The piece is about a Martian contemplating his next meal. Here's the first line: "The stage lights were hot, and the suit trapped my sweat, making me even more uncomfortable."

Zachary Whitten lives in Memphis, Tennessee and occasionally writes things that just might see the light of day.

The Boston Globe newspaper taps canals for delivery to domiciles on Mars

Newspaper Taps Canals for Domicile Delivery on Mars
The Planetary Traveler, May 6, 2049
By Martin Gibson

NEW YORK -- A historic deal reached early Wednesday morning between The New York Times Company and the Water Workers’ Union could deliver the company’s prized asset, The Boston Globe newspaper, to the doorstep of every domicile on Mars.

Under the deal, reached shortly after 3:00 a.m. this morning in New York, the Water Workers' Union on Mars agreed to allow The New York Times Company to use the red planet’s extensive network of canals to establish domicile delivery routes for both the daily and Sunday editions of The Boston Globe. In exchange, the company guaranteed that members of the union will be exempt from any work activity related to or caused by the delivery of the newspaper. Union members also will be entitled to a lifetime subscription to the highly-coveted publication.

Pressed for details, Arthur O. Sulzberger IV, chairman of The New York Times Company, issued a statement from the company’s headquarters in midtown Manhattan: "We are pleased with the opportunity to grow The Boston Globe beyond Earth and to utilize a unique transportation system for its delivery to domiciles on Mars."

Supreme Goodmember Arnie Kott of the Water Workers’ Union released this statement from his undisclosed office in Lewistown, on the surface of Mars: “You know, this agreement is a win-win-win-win situation. The New York Times Company will get more business, readers on Mars will get slightly-dated copies of The Boston Globe delivered to their doorsteps, off-book entrepreneurs on both planets will still be able to get a piece of the broadside action, and Union members won’t have to do a thing.”

Meanwhile, the Skynet is buzzing with rumors that The New York Times Company is in discussions with Martian aborigines, known as the Bleekmen, to deliver The Boston Globe to the domiciles of subscribers by paddling gondolas through Mars’ system of canals. According to one anonymous source, the Bleekmen would serve as unpaid volunteers. A representative for the Bleekmen could not be determined.

Since its purchase in 1993, The Boston Globe has produced an estimated $25 billion in losses for the privately-held The New York Times Company. In a recent GSEC filing, the company’s auditor noted that the loss is just a paper loss and is designed to generate significant tax advantages for the Sulzberger family.

Martin Gibson is an independent journalist. He is a graduate of the Journalism School at Columbia University and has had several pieces of short fiction published.

Libraries support $125 million Google Books Search settlement, whisper concerns

Libraries Ask Judge to Monitor Books Settlement
The New York Times, May 4, 2009
By Miguel Helft

Three groups representing libraries, including the American Library Association, the largest such group in the United States, have asked a federal judge to exercise “vigorous oversight” over a class-action settlement between Google, authors and publishers.

The two other groups are the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries. The groups did not oppose the settlement, but in a court filing they asked Judge Denny Chin of Federal District Court to provide continuing oversight of it, to ensure that the prices Google charges for subscriptions to its digital library aren’t artificially high because of a lack of competition. They have also asked Judge Chin to ensure that the privacy of readers of books made available online by Google is protected. [...]

Read the entire article in The New York Times.

The French on Mars: 100 years of SF (1865-1965)

Thanks to Tinkoo of the blog Variety SF, I learned about an interesting English-Language website that provides an annotated bibliography titled The French on Mars: a Hundred Years Retrospective (1865-1965), compiled by a fellow named Jacques Garin. Most of the titles are new to me and there are even a few pieces of cover art. All worth your time if you’re a serious fan of Martian science fiction!

Pictured above: Les Aventures Merveilleuses de Serge Myrandhal sur la Planète Mars (1908), by Henri Gayar.

Dean McLaughlin's novella “Tenbrook of Mars” wins Analog magazine AnLab Award

“Tenbrook of Mars”, a novella by Dean McLaughlin that was published in the July-August 2008 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, recently won the magazine’s 2008 Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Award for Best Novella, as voted on by readers. McLaughlin’s work, which also won the 2008 Marooned Award for Best Novella or Novelette, stars engineer Don Tenbrook and recounts the rescue of a group of Mars Petro employees who are stranded on the Red Planet.

The Boston Globe’s business model is from the pages of Philip K. Dick’s novel Martian Time-Slip

Not surprisingly, the brain trust at The New York Times Company, which owns The Boston Globe newspaper, lacked the financial aptitude and political courage to shut down the beleagured broadside at midnight on Sunday, May 3, 2009, even though the largest union of workers, the Boston Newspaper Guild, failed to agree to management’s demands. If all goes according to The New York Times Company's plan, management will settle with the union, continue to print and deliver a daily edition of The Boston Globe that generates decreasing advertising revenue, and loose a projected $50 million this year.

This antiquated business model reminds me of a lengthy passage in SF author Philip K. Dick’s novel Martian Time-Slip (1964). You know the passage, the one I posted back in January 2009 about character Arnie Kott, king of the plumbing union on Mars, who enjoys reading a printed copy of The New York Times, Sunday edition, complete with a quarter-page advertisement listing all of the job skills in demand on the Red Planet.

Google patents process for scanning a book without breaking the binding

On March 24, 2009, information juggernaut Google was issued United States Patent 7508978, which solves the problem of how to digitally scan a book efficiently without breaking the binding.

Here's an abstract of U.S. Patent 7508978:

A system and method locate a central groove in a document such as a book, magazine, or catalog. In one implementation, scores are generated for points in a three-dimensional image that defines a surface of the document. The scores quantify a likelihood that a particular point is in the groove. The groove is then detected based on the scores. For example, lines may be fitted through the points and a value calculated for the lines based on the scores. The line corresponding to the highest calculated value may be selected as the line that defines the groove.

Ingenious, as NPR (National Public Radio) noted recently!

1993: Editor Scott Edelman discusses Mars with scientists and authors Geoffrey A. Landis, Robert Zubrin and Doug Beason

Back in May 1993, the (now dead) magazine Science Fiction Age published a neat conversation about Mars among editor Scott Edelman and scientists
and authors Geoffrey A. Landis, Robert Zubrin and Colonel Douglas Beason. Here’s an excerpt that focuses on Martian science fiction:

Scott Edelman: Would anyone care to comment on Mars fiction? What works, what doesn't? What's scientific, what's fantasy? Can you still read bad Mars fiction?

Robert Zubrin: Yes, I can. Burroughs or Bradbury are still fun.

Doug Beason: Look at the recent number of Mars books ...

Geoff Landis: There has been a recent space of novels taking place on Mars, and the post-Viking Mars at that --

Doug Beason: Bad fiction is bad no matter where it takes place.

Scott Edelman: Have you read "Danny Goes to Mars"?

Geoff Landis: Yes, amusing, although now outdated.

Scott Edelman: At least the VP doesn't believe in canals any longer ...

Geoff Landis: Kim Stanley Robinson's "Exploring Fossil Canyon" (a prelude to his Green Mars series) was an excellent post-Viking look at Mars in SF.

Robert Zubrin: I think that SF still has a major role to play in helping get us to Mars. As Shelly said, poets are the legislators of mankind.

Scott Edelman: Is there anything to fill in above? Did I skip over what you wanted to talk about?

Robert Zubrin: We need to create a vision among the public, including those who eventually turn up in the seats of power, that a human civilization on Mars is an idea whose time has come.

Geoff Landis: If not us, who? If not now, when?

Robert Zubrin: People need to know that history is not a spectator sport. The SF and pro-technology communities have more than enough clout to make a Mars mission happen, if we just decide to do so. People need to stop moaning about the stagnation of our space program and start doing something about it.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle is chairman of an international division of Cerberus Capital Management, the multi-billion dollar private equity firm that just drove Chrysler into bankruptcy.

Fort Worth theatre to stage a production of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel A Princess of Mars

As part of its 33rd season, the Hip Pocket Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas will stage a production of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic science fiction novel A Princess of Mars (1912/1917) in October 2009. Here’s a description of the upcoming production, taken from the theatre’s website:

Suddenly projected to Mars, John Carter finds himself captive of the savage green men of Thark. With him is Dejah Thoris, lovely princess of Helium. Between them and rescue, a thousand miles of deadly enemies and unknown dangers await.

Pictured above: Dejah Thoris, as depicted by comic artist Frank Cho.

Graphic adaptation of The Martian Chronicles coming down the canal

Publishers Weekly reports that Sci-Fi author Ray Bradbury is working closely with artist Dennis Calero and Hill & Wang publisher Thomas LeBien on a graphic adaptation of Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950), one of the classics of 20th century literature. No word yet on when the graphic novel will be published.