World War II "Victory Book Campaign"

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Alastair Reynolds enjoyed fellow British author Liz Williams’ 2008 novel Winterstrike

In a recent comment to his “Optimism and pessimism - where did it all go right?” guest post over at Babel Clash, award-winning British SF author Alastair Reynolds wrote: “One of my most enjoyable recent reads was Liz Williams’ striking and atmospheric far future Mars novel Winterstrike.” British SF&F author Liz Williams’ novel Winterstrike (2008) features the blustery city of Winterstrike on a colonized Mars governed by matriarchs.

“The Canals on Mars” 1914 mathematical puzzle designed by Sam Loyd

Here is a map of the newly discovered cities and waterways on our nearest neighbor planet, Mars. Start at the city marked T, at the south pole, and see if you can spell a complete English sentence by making a tour of all the cities, visiting each city only once, and returning to the starting point.

When this puzzle originally appeared in a magazine, more than fifty thousand readers reported, “There is no possible way.” Yet it is a very simple puzzle.

[Originally published in Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles (1914), by Sam Loyd]

Authors, works, characters mentioned in Allen Steele’s story “The Emperor of Mars”

I've finished reading “The Emperor of Mars,” the new recursive SF/F novelette by Hugo Award-winning author Allen M. Steele that was published in the June 2010 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. As mentioned previously, the plot revolves around Jeff Halbert, a roughneck stationed on a near-future Mars, who, after suffering severe emotional trauma, starts reading the contents of the Planetary Society's “Visions of Mars” DVD library that he recovers from NASA’s dead Phoenix lander. Unfortunately, Jeff's fragile state of mind and reading habits lead to some rather erratic behavior and he evolves into Emperor Jeffery the First, sovereign monarch of the Great Martian Empire, warlord and protector of the red planet.

Despite a few minor weaknesses, “The Emperor of Mars” is, quite simply, a wonderful and brilliant work. If you love Martian science fiction & fantasy, technology, scribes, books and libraries, you absolutely have to read this novelette! The first few pages are posted on Asimov’s website and I’ve compiled a list of all the Martian SF&F authors, works, characters and artists mentioned in the storyline:

Authors
Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Leigh Brackett, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur C. Clarke, Otis Adelbert Kline, Michael Moorcock, Larry Niven, H. Beam Piper, Garrett P. Serviss, Theodore Sturgeon, John Varley, A.E. van Vogt, Stanley G. Weinbaum, Orson Welles, H.G. Wells, Jack Williamson, Roger Zelazny

Works
The War of the Worlds (1898)
Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898)
“A Martian Odyssey” (1934)
“The Enchanted Village” (1950)
“The Martian Way” (1952)
“Omnilingual” (1957)
“The Martian Crown Jewels” (1958)
The Swordsman of Mars (1960)
“A Rose For Ecclesiastes” (1963)
“Transit of Earth” (1971)
“A Martian Ricorso” (1976)
“In the Hall of the Martian Kings” (1977)

Characters
John Carter, Flash Gordon, Lieutenant Gullivar Jones, Eric John Stark, Tar Tarkas, Dejah Thoris, Thuvia

Artists
Chesley Bonestell, Ed Emshwiller, Michael Whelan

Seriously, get your ass to Fictionwise and buy the June 2010 issue Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine!

NYC’s Flatiron Building is just one more piece of Macmillan’s outdated business model

A couple of days before The New York Times published Garrison Keillor’s hilarious op-ed piece “The End of an Era in Publishing” lamenting the decline of New York City’s literary elite, it published a nostalgic article about the city’s historic Flatiron Building titled “A Quirky Building That Has Charmed Its Tenants.” Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly all of the building’s office space is occupied by Macmillan, one of several old line publishing houses that are having great difficulty adjusting to technology, business and life in the 21st century. Here are my favorite lines from the article:

• “Everyone will be dragged kicking and screaming from here,” said Airie Stuart, publisher of Palgrave, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers.

• “I came in to find the window on the floor and a 1,200-page manuscript all over the place,” said Mr. Janssen, director for academic and library marketing at Macmillan.

• “I have an incredible view,” said Charles Bozian, Macmillan’s vice president for finance and administration. “But not unless I stand up.”

• “And the bathrooms are not very nice, either,” said Alison Lazarus, the president of Macmillan’s sales division. When important guests visit, she has them use the spacious bathroom on the 18th floor, by far the building’s best, offering a view all the way to New Jersey.

• The elevators were so slow that one executive claims you could read an entire manuscript while waiting for one and then riding it up. Mr. Murphy lived in a high-rise right across the street from the Flatiron for 15 years. “My commute,” he said, “was a half hour.”

• “I think they were surprised by the response of people wanting to stay in this building, even with its foibles,” Mr. Shear said. “You see these strange little offices. There’s nothing cookie-cutter here. I mean, did you see the 21st floor?” he asked, laughing. “It’s like a place you’d put your mad aunt.”

Although Macmillan’s lease runs through the year 2018, the beautiful landmark Flatiron Building is just one more piece of Macmillan’s outdated business model.

A Verdadeira Invasão dos Marcianos, a 2004 novel by Portuguese writer João Barreiros

At the recent Euroconference Odyssey 2010 held in London over the long Easter weekend, award-winning British science fiction author Ian McDonald moderated a fascinating panel discussion called “Best Unread (in English) European SF Books.” Among the panel's recommendations: A Verdadeira Invasão dos Marcianos [The Real Martian Invasion] (2004), by Portuguese science fiction writer and editor João Barreiros. “This is a dark comedy and the story of a punitive human expedition to Mars, led by Wells and Verne, and also several other characters from literature around that time. There they find the actual truth behind the War of the Worlds. The Real Martian Invasion […] was actually the title of the second (1992) of a trilogy of novellas each published a few years apart that made up this book. The trilogy has also been published in Spain as The True War of the Worlds [La Verdadera Guerra de los Mundos].”

[via The Science Fact & Science Fiction Concatenation]

Cities of Martian Rails: Bottomos

Martian Rails (2009), the crayon board game manufactured by Mayfair Games about railroading on the Red Planet in which players build tracks and haul freight, has a long list of interesting cities that players can capitalize on to generate revenue for their rail companies. For example:

Bottomos -- A small settlement in the southeast section. Jerome Bixby named it as a pun for the third moon of Mars. When a settlement was founded in the deepest part of the deepest impact basin, Bottomos seemed the natural name.

Martian Rails is loaded with references to Martian SF!

Journeys to the Planet Mars, a 1905 spiritual work by psychic Sara Weiss

I’ve been spending some time perusing Journeys to the Planet Mars, or, Our Mission to Ento (Mars): Being a Record of Visits Made to Ento (Mars), by Sara Weiss, Psychic, Under the Guidance of a Spirit Band, for the Purpose of Conveying to the Entoans, a knowledge of the Continuity of Life, (2nd Edition, 1905), which is part of Google's digital book project. Two of the more interesting features of Weiss’ work: 13 beautiful drawings of some of the fauna and flora of Ento, including the national flower, the Rodel; a glossary of about 200 Entoan words, including numbers and colors.

EC Comics from 1950s: “Spawn of Mars”

The blog Cloud 109 has beautiful, readable jpegs of a comic titled “Spawn of Mars,” which was published by EC Comics in the September/October 1951 issue of Weird Fantasy. Scripted by Al Feldstein with rich artwork by Wally “Woody” Wood (1927-1981), this eight-page comic tells the tale of Miss Jean Belmont, the first woman to set foot on the mysterious Red Planet.

Garrison Keillor and Authors Guild insiders lament decline of New York literary elite

Author, satirist amd radio personality Garrison Keillor just had a humorous column lamenting the decline of the sacred New York literary elite printed in the . . . Baltimore Sun: “When everyone's a writer, no one is.” The funniest part of Keillor’s anti-self publishing piece is the opening:

"In New York the other night, I ran into my daughter's favorite author, Mary Pope Osborne, whose "Magic Tree House" books I've read to the child at night, and a moment later, Scott Turow, who writes legal thrillers that keep people awake all night, and David Remnick, the biographer of President Barack Obama. Bang bang bang, one heavyweight after another. Erica Jong, Jeffrey Toobin, Judy Blume. It was a rooftop party in Tribeca that I got invited to via a well-connected pal, wall-to-wall authors and agents and editors and elegant young women in little black dresses, standing, white wine in hand, looking out across the Hudson at the lights of Hoboken and Jersey City, eating shrimp and scallops and spanikopita on toothpicks, all talking at once the way New Yorkers do."

What was the “rooftop party in Tribeca” that Keillor attended? The annual gala of the elitist Authors Guild, which Keillor conveniently neglects to mention. And who was the “well-connected pal” to whom Keillor refers? None other than the prairie homeboy himself, a longtime director of the affiliated Authors Guild Foundation who has contributed more than $20,000 to that organization since the year 2000.

[via Charles Tan of Bibliophile Stalker]

Flash fiction: “Crash Protocol” by Dan Fuhr

The free science fiction story site 365 tomorrows has a cynical but human piece of flash fiction titled “Crash Protocol” (2008) by writer Daniel Fuhr. It’s about a seasoned bureaucrat who investigates a crashed spaceship on a peopled Mars. Here is the opening line: “Red rocks crumbled under my heavy boots.”

[via Tinkoo Valia of Variety SF]

Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of the beast...

I’ve never read Robert A. Heinlein’s 1980 science fiction novel The Number of the Beast, but I am quite familiar with British heavy metal band Iron Maiden’s classic song “The Number of the Beast,” which was released in 1982. Here is the official Maiden video for "the Beast," complete with a clip from the SF film The Angry Red Planet (1959).



Anyone see a link to the Heinlein novel?

BookExpo America panel discussion turns into industry blame game over e-book piracy

Publishers Weekly has a hilarious report from BookExpo America 2010. Apparently, a panel discussion among top executives of the book publishing industry about “The Value of the Book” turned into a heated argument over who is to blame for the skyrocketing piracy of ebooks. The players: Suits from Farrar, Straus & Giroux, the Authors Guild, Workman group, ICM, Ingram, Penguin Group and the American Booksellers Association.

Top cat at Authors Guild is all $mile$

Thanks to the “papers please” policy of the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, a stack of paperwork presented by the Authors Guild and its small gang of affiliated organizations reveals that Paul Aiken, the Guild’s executive director and top cat, earned $141,000 in compensation in FY 2008/2009, up from a mere $87,500 in the prior fiscal year. Aiken also benefited from the Guild’s tasty 401(k) plan, which “provides for a matching contribution by the Guild to a maximum of 4% (a plan amendment increased the matching contribution by 1% in 2008) of eligible employee compensation.” Toss in the $37,500 that Aiken earned in compensation in FY 2008/2009 for serving as executive director of the affiliated Authors Guild Foundation, plus the $20,000 he usually earns in "legal fees" from the affiliated Authors League Fund, and you’ll understand why this cat is all $mile$.

“Knowing Mars” a 2007 queer superhero story by Tycho Garen

Tycho Garen, a LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning and Intersex) speculative fiction writer and an active member of The Outer Alliance, recently posted his science fiction novella “Knowing Mars” (2007) online for all to read. Here’s how Garen described his novella in a recent interview for Outer Alliance Spotlight #35:

Outer Alliance: You describe your novella, Knowing Mars, as a reluctant queer superhero story. Can you tell us anything more about it?

Tycho Garen: I suppose it’s less that the story itself is reluctantly a queer superhero story and more that I’ve been reluctant to call it a queer superhero story. Nevertheless, particularly in retrospect, it’s very clear to me that’s what it is. I wrote a quasi-cyberpunk story about a group of exiled telepathic people arriving on Mars to get away from a sticky political and social situation on Earth. Separately, and after the fact, I was talking about the superhero sub-genre with someone, mostly in terms of how I didn’t really get superheros, and they said “so what about the telepaths, in those stories that you wrote,” and I realized that of course they were right. It’s a superhero story of a certain sort.

Having said that I’m not sure how this story fares in the final analysis. I’m ambivalent about it: the story needs to be set free, and I think it’s an admirable attempt but I’m acutely aware of the flaws, but then isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?

In the interview, Garen also discusses his decision to post “Knowing Mars” online.

On the horizon: Martian Sands, a new novel by Lavie Tidhar

Israeli science fiction writer, editor and World SF News blogger Lavie Tidhar has a short novel on the horizon: Martian Sands. Scheduled to be published by Apex Book Company and released in late 2010 or early 2011, Martian Sands is, according to Tidhar, “something between Schindler’s List and Total Recall -- it has kibbutzim on Mars, possible time-travel, four-armed Martian warriors, plots, schemes, fictional detectives and the Holocaust.” Sounds interesting!

SETI scientist on shortlist for Rob Zombie remake of 1968 film Mars Needs Women

Here’s my shortlist for musician, troll and horror film fan Rob Zombie’s unconfirmed remake of the 1968 Hollywood movie flop Mars Needs Women, which starred a dapper Tommy Kirk as a desperate Martian and a sexy Yvonne Craig as Dr. Marjorie Bolen, an expert on extra-terrestrial reproduction:

Dr. Marjorie Bolen:

• Dr. Janice Bishop, chemist and planetary scientist, Principal Investigator for SETI Institute, expert on spectral behavior of organic Martian materials

• Rebecca K. Rowe, speculative fiction author and freelance writer, member of Mars Society and National Space Society


Artist abducted by Martians:

• Any one of the Guerrilla Girls


Homecoming queen abducted by Martians:

• Sheri Moon Zombie, Rob Zombie's wife

• Moon Unit Zappa, Frank Zappa's daughter


Airline stewardess abducted by Martians:

• Former astronaut Lisa Nowak

• Former U.S. Air Force officer Colleen Shipman


Stripper abducted by Martians:

• Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond

• Carmen Dula

“The Blindman’s World,” an 1886 short story by Edward Bellamy

Thanks to the Google Books project, you can read or download Edward Bellamy’s oft-forgotten short story “The Blindman’s World” as it was originally published in the November 1886 issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine. The plot revolves around Professor S. Erastus Larrabee, an astronomer who collapses at his telescope and enters a trance-like state for several hours. Later, the professor realizes that his spirit journeyed to Mars, a utopian planet inhabited by a human, English-speaking, scientifically advanced race called the Martials who have complete foreknowledge of their own future. The opening lines:

THE NARRATIVE to which this note is introductory was found among the papers of the late Professor S. Erastus Larrabee, and, as an acquaintance of the gentleman to whom they were bequeathed, I was requested to prepare it for publication. This turned out a very easy task, for the document proved of so extraordinary a character that, if published at all, it should obviously be without change. It appears that the professor did really, at one time in his life, have an attack of vertigo, or something of the sort, under circumstances similar to those described by him, and to that extent his narrative may be founded on fact. How soon it shifts from that foundation, or whether it does at all, the reader must conclude for himself. It appears certain that the professor never related to any one, while living, the stranger features of the experience here narrated...

A lengthy quote from “The Blindman’s World” appears in scholar Gary Westfahl’s Science Fiction Quotations: From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits (2005).

According to one literary critic, Bellamy’s “The Blindman’s World” “anticipates the utopian impulse more fully realized years later in Looking Backward” (1888).

The Miranda Gate, a new SF archaeological thriller by Terence J. Henley

Terence J. Henley, a British science fiction writer and amateur astronomer who is confined to a wheelchair and uses his pen for pain management, recently had his new novel, The Miranda Gate (2010) published by Strategic Publishing Group. The second book in Henley's Martian trilogy, here is the promotional piece for The Miranda Gate:

What do outer space, an Egyptian pharaoh and a galactic war all have in common?

In this exciting new science fiction thriller, it’s time to suspend disbelief and imagine a universe without the planet Earth. After our planet’s destruction, Earth’s population is resettled on Mars. Professor Mike Anderson heads up a team searching deep space to find other hospitable worlds for humans to populate.

While searching for a new planet, Dr Anderson discovers The Miranda Gate, capable of moving ships quickly across the galaxy. This gateway makes it possible to do the impossible.

In The Miranda Gate, a new star named Miranda is discovered in our solar system, but it hides a deathly secret.

Meanwhile, back on Mars, an astounding discovery is made. The body of King Ramesses III is found in deep hibernation under the North Pole. After he is revived, Ramesses tells of a war between Earth and Mars against the Rigilion Empire that has been raging for over 15,000 years.

As King Ramesses warns of an imminent attack by the Rigilions, those living on Mars must counter an attack by a foe who wants to wipe out all of humanity.

Terence J. Henley was just profiled in a local British newspaper article titled “Bristol science fiction writer Terry Henley writes to escape the pain.”

Controversial immigration reform group has greater financial transparency than EFF

Despite a board of directors that includes prominent information technologists such as Brewster “Internet Archive” Kahle, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a San Francisco-based nonprofit founded in 1990 that defends the digital rights of consumers, probably will not be winning any digital rights awards for financial disclosure and transparency (D&T) in the near future. Here’s an update to EFF’s digital commitment to D&T, for all of you consumers who are recording the numbers at home:

• 2008-2009 Annual Report

• 2007 Annual Report

• 2006 Annual Report

Contrast that with these documents, all posted on the website of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a controversial national non-profit organization based in Washington that seeks to reform United States immigration policies:

• 2008 Annual Report and IRS Form 990

• 2007 Annual Report and IRS Form 990

• 2006 Annual Report and IRS Form 990

• 2005 Annual Report and IRS Form 990

• 2004 Annual Report and IRS Form 990

• 2003 Annual Report

• 2002 Annual Report

• 2001 Annual Report

Memo to Brewster Kahle: The Internet Archive has a copy of Rules and Regulations of the Insane Asylum of California (1861) but doesn’t have a copy of EFF’s 2001 Annual Report?

Gallery of Mars art from 1895 British boys’ interplanetary adventure novel

I have compiled a gallery on Flickr of six beautiful pieces of Mars art, all black-and-white illustrations by Captain Arthur Layard, that were published in Fifteen Hundred Miles an Hour (1895), a British boys' interplanetary adventure novel about a flight to Mars in an electrically powered spacecraft.

Pictured: Princess Volinè of Mars.

“The Emperor of Mars,” a new recursive SF/F novelette by Allen Steele

I’m reading my way through “The Emperor of Mars,” a new recursive SF/F novelette by Hugo Award-winning author Allen M. Steele that was published in the June 2010 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine. The plot revolves around Jeff Halbert, a roughneck stationed on a near-future Mars, who, after suffering severe emotional trauma, starts reading the contents of the Planetary Society's “Visions of Mars” DVD library that he recovers from NASA’s dead Phoenix lander. Unfortunately, Jeff's fragile state of mind and reading habits lead to some rather erratic behavior. The first few pages of Steele's novelette are posted on Asimov’s website.

While I think there are a few weaknesses to "The Emperor of Mars," it’s an easy, enjoyable, must-read for hardcore fans of Martian science fiction & fantasy for two reasons:

1) The storyline mentions quite a few classic authors, works and characters from the field, such as H.G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, “A Martian Odyssey” (1934), “The Enchanted Village” (1950), Lieutenant Gullivar Jones, and Dejah Thoris

2) Steele is no alien to the sub-genre, having written “Live from the Mars Hotel” (1988), “Red Planet Blues” (1989), Labyrinth of Night (1992), “A Letter from St. Louis” (1996), “Zwarte Piet's Tale” (1998) and “A Walk Across Mars” (2002)

If you don’t subscribe to Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine, you can read Allen Steele's "The Emperor of Mars" by purchasing the June 2010 issue through Fictionwise for just a few dollars.

Mars 500 mock mission: 6 men, 0 women

Space.com reports that the “international” crew of mock astronauts that will be sealed in a fictitious spaceship & landing site environment at Russia's Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow on June 3, 2010, for Mars500, a 520-day simulated mission to the Red Planet, has been finalized. The volunteer, six-person team, which is composed of three Russian men, a French man, an Italian man, and a Chinese fellow, will allow scientists to study the psychological and physiological effects of small-group, long-term confinement. Apparently, over 6,000 people from 40 countries applied to join the $15 million mock mission, which includes a 250-day outbound journey, 30 days of exploring and colonizing, and a 240-day return flight. No word on why the mission does not include any women.

Pictured: Pam Grier in zero-gravity recliner.

Events of Martian Rails: Sabotage in Space!

Martian Rails (2009), the crayon board game manufactured by Mayfair Games about railroading on the Red Planet in which players build tracks and haul freight, has a long list of events to which players can respond in order to generate revenue for their rail companies. For example:

Sabotage in Space! -- The greed of the corpor-nationals on Mars and Earth led to a quality of life plunge in the Martian towns. The situation results in a violent revolution. During these troubles, the space elevator is sabotaged. The falling cable destroys all track immediately north of the Equator. With the elevator gone, no commodities are available at Skyhook for the remainder of the game. Deliveries, to maintain the population and rebuild the elevator, continue.

Martian Rails is loaded with references to Martian SF!

Review of new John Carter of Mars: The Jesse Marsh Years comic book collection

The blog JCOM Reader has an insightful review of the new Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars: The Jesse Marsh Years (Dark Horse Comics, May 2010) reprinted 1950s comic book collection, concluding: “In the end the book is probably going to split John Carter fans. Some will probably enjoy it and some will probably not like it for differing reasons. The presentation by Dark Horse is pretty good though -- a nice hardcover binding, original covers and inside art showing the different creatures of Barsoom -- and a nice introduction by Love and Rockets co-creator Marco Hernandez at least gives it an A for effort for B material.” I bought the book but haven't had a chance to look at it closely.

New York senators are Big Pub’s top two bitches

According to the Center for Responsive Politics' website OpenSecrets.org, United States Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) & Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY) are the Books, Magazines & Newspapers industry’s top two bitches, having swallowed $82,100 and $68,550, respectively, in industry campaign contributions for the 2010 federal election cycle. Apparently, “paper costs and mailing rates are major fiscal concerns of the industry, as are Internet and copyright issues that affect an increasing number of publishers.” Seriously, when is the last time you've seen Chuck Schumer hold a press conference to voice his opinion about e-book piracy or the Google Book Settlement?

Even Panama Jack had access to ERB's classic novel A Princess of Mars

According to the December 18, 1918 (Vol. XII, No. 18) issue of The Panama Canal Record, the official publication of the Panama Canal that was published weekly by the United States government in Balboa Heights, Canal Zone, even Panama Jack had access to Edgar Rice Burroughs’ classic novel A Princess of Mars (1917):

The sale of books by the Commissary Division continues to meet with favor on the part of patrons, and sales have been uniformly good. With the approach of Christmas, and the appropriateness of books as gifts, it is believed that many will wish to take advantage of the large stock on hand, some of which has just been received. The following titles, while by no means representing a complete list of those on hand, present a good variety from which selections may be made for gifts [...]

In this connection, a requisition has recently been placed with the commissary purchasing agent for a further supply of books, embracing all that is new in fiction, humor, etc. The following are among the titles ordered:

The Red One, and Other Stories.................... Jack London
A Princess of Mars.......................... Edgar Rice Burroughs
The God of Mars............................. Edgar Rice Burroughs
A Daughter of the Land.................... Gene Stratum Porter
The Laughing Girl............................. Robert W. Chambers
Shavings....................................................... Jos. C. Lincoln
Ashton-Kirk, Criminologist.................... John T. Mclntyre
Josselyn's Wife........................................... Kathleen Norris
Firebrand Trevison.......................................... C. A. Seltzer
Treat'em Rough............................................. Ring Lardner
My Four Weeks in France............................ Ring Lardner
From Baseball to Bodies................................ H. C. Witwer
The Island Mystery.............................. G. A. Birmingham
The Clutch of Circumstance.......... Majorie Benton Cooke
The Money Maker...................................... Irving R. Allen
Gaslight Sonatas............................................ Fannie Hurst
The Cross of Fire................................ Robert G. Anderson
Virtuous Wives........................................... Owen Johnson
Dere Mable......................................................... E. Streeter
The House of Torchy....................................... Sewell Ford
The Valley of the Giants............................... Peter B. Kyne

Notice will be given through the columns of The Panama Canal Record when the above books are received, together with a short review which will serve as a guide to purchasers in making selections.

Apparently, regular shipments of books were distributed among commissaries at Ancon, Balboa, Cristobal, Pedro Miguel, and Gatun, and titles were priced at about a dollar.

“Translator’s Error,” a 1952 short story by Charles Dye

Thanks to Doc Mars of the amazing French-language website Mars & la Science Fiction, you can download and read American writer Charles Dye’s short story “Translator’s Error” (pdf) as it was originally published in the December 1952 issue of Dynamic Science Fiction magazine. Set on the Red Planet, the plot revolves around an ancient Martian mural and a human rehabilitation project to melt the planet’s polar ice caps and refill the once-glorious canals with water again. I’m not sure I understand the ending, but here are the opening lines:

RICHARD POTTERBOY was a beefy man with a big red face like an old-time politician’s; he looked like an elephant beside the little man with the telescopic spectacles sitting next to him. They both arose as Grisby walked in.

Potterboy’s face grew a shade redder as he glanced menacingly at his watch. “Good Lord, Grisby, where do you think you’re at? Vacationing back on earth? We’ve been waiting here nearly an hour four you!” He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. His uppers didn’t fit well and he was inclined to sputter...

Interestingly, writer Charles Dye (1927-1955) died in his 20's.

Merci beaucoup, Doc Mars!

RPG adventure: Caravans of Mars

The website DriveThruRPG.com has a neat 8-page preview (pdf) of Caravans of Mars (2000), an original 64-page Game Designers’ Worskhop RPG adventure written by Ed Andrews, illustrated by Tim Bradstreet, and reprinted by Heliograph Inc. of Somerville, Mass. An epic Red Planet adventure that uses the RPG rules of the legendary Space: 1889 adventure, Caravans of Mars revolves around a delicate diplomatic mission to a remote desert city-state in lands roamed by fierce nomadic creatures.

“Prison Break,” a new piece of flash fiction by Patricia Stewart

The free science fiction story site 365 tomorrows has a refreshing piece of flash fiction titled “Prison Break” (2010), by veteran writer and NASA physicist Patricia Stewart. It’s about a prison break on Mars. Here is the opening line: “The alarm of the Olympia Undae Penitentiary snapped warden Jacobs from a deep sleep.”

[via Tinkoo Valia of Variety SF]

Candace Flynn from Disney Channel’s "Phineus and Ferb" sings "Queen of Mars"

The conservative SF blog Republibot has an interesting one-minute video clip from "Phineus and Ferb," a Disney Channel award-winning animated series that I've never even heard of, in which some girl named Candace Flynn teaches the three-eyed, green inhabitants of the Red Planet about music by singing “Queen of Mars.” I don't know, seems like it might be some of that Stalinist commie bullshit. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Legal dispute between "Ludington librarian" and PublishAmerica headed to civil jury trial

According to legal documents issued by the Circuit Court for Frederick County, Maryland, a contract dispute between Sally Stern-Hamilton, the notorious “Ludington librarian” who was fired from her job as an assistant at the public library in Ludington, Michigan, in the summer of 2008 after writing The Library Diaries, an unflattering book about the quirky and disreputable patrons with whom she interacted, and PublishAmerica, the infamous vanity press located in Maryland, is scheduled to be decided by a civil jury trial in late October 2010. Presumably, the dispute revolves around Stern-Hamilton’s book, which was written under a pseudonym and published by PublishAmerica in June 2008.

Dire Planet Compendium: The Wings of Mars

Pulp science fiction author Joel Jenkins has posted the sixth entry in his Dire Planet Compendium: The Wings of Mars. The compendium, illustrated by Noel Tauzon, is derived from Jenkins’ Dire Planet series, a collection of three sword & planet books inspired by Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs that chronicles swashbuckling hero Garvey Dire and his adventures on the Red Planet.

Proceeds from Authors Guild Foundation’s annual benefit dinner have fallen off the table

Thanks to the “papers please” policy of the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau, the audited financial statements of the Authors Guild Foundation (the “educational arm” of the Authors Guild) reveal that the proceeds from the organization’s annual benefit dinner held each spring have fallen off the table, declining in each of the last four years, from $294,647 in 2005 to $84,252 in 2009:

2005 Benefit Dinner
Revenue (net of direct expenses) was $294,647

2006 Benefit Dinner
Revenue (net of direct expenses of $56,314) was $216,522

2007 Benefit Dinner
Revenue (net of direct expenses of $51,842) was $180,983

2008 Benefit Dinner
Revenue (net of direct expenses of $52,635) was $174,875

2009 Benefit Dinner
Revenue (net of direct expenses of $49,948) was $84,252

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the slope of the graph. And how did the 2010 18th annual benefit dinner fare? We’ll have to wait until next year to read the “papers please” paperwork!

10 fabulous Mars film posters from the 1950s

I’ve compiled a gallery on Flickr of ten Mars science fiction & horror film posters, all from the 1950s. When you view each poster, select the "All Sizes" option so you can really enjoy the details of these beautiful works of art. Veritably fabulous! Red Planet Mars (1952), starring the late Peter Graves is my favorite.

D.B. Grady’s novel Red Planet Noir wins 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award

Congratulations to freelance writer and novelist D.B. Grady, whose debut novel Red Planet Noir (Brown Street Press, 2009) just won the 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award in the science fiction category! A hard-boiled detective tale written in the pulp tradition of the 1930s, Red Planet Noir is “a Raymond Chandler mystery in a Robert Heinlein world.” Read Chapter 1 (pdf) for free!

Mars Crossing, 2000 novel by Geoffrey A. Landis

Mars Crossing (2000), a science fiction novel by scientist and award-winning author Geoffrey A. Landis.

Pictured: Paperback (New York: Tor Books, 2001) 434 p., $7.99. Here’s the promotional piece from the back cover:

By the middle of the 21st century, humanity has finally landed men on Mars -- only to watch helplessly as the first two missions end in catastrophe and death.

With resources running out, a third -- and perhaps final -- mission to Mars is hastily mounted, with a crew of four men and two women. But from the moment of their arrival on Mars, everything begins to go wrong. The fuel tanks that were to have supplied their return trip are found corroded and empty. Their supplies are running out and their life support systems are beginning to fail. And any rescue mission won't reach them for months, or even years -- if at all.

The crew's only hope for survival lies in a desperate plan: an agonizing trek halfway across the surface of Mars to a ship designed to carry only half their number. Torn by conflict and dissent, and troubled by secrets that endanger them all, they must embark on an ordeal that will test them to the limits of endurance.

Mars Crossing has received quite a few positive reviews and many kind words over the past decade, including these by the late Mac Tonnies:

Geoffrey Landis' deceptively breezy Martian odyssey just might be the best "mission to Mars" novel ever written. Panoramic and insightful, Landis' story of a crew of stranded astronauts forced to circumnavigate an alien world is presented in short chapters of one or two pages. Fortunately, the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. Landis accomplishes a taut adventure peopled by interesting characters. And the rigorous portayal of Mars itself is top-notch; never has the stark landscape of another world been rendered with such subtlety and narrative savvy. As with the best of near-future science fiction, Mars Crossing reads with a forbidding -- and exhilerating -- sense of inevitability.

Less complimentary are these concluding words from a review by James Sallis published in the August 2001 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction:

While certainly interesting enough, Landis's characters never quite come alive or register quite true. His approach is reductive, so that too often they're rendered as little more than their quirks: this one out for revenge, this one living a lie, this one ... I found myself longing to know what they were eating. And to hear from one of them just how badly those suits stank.

Mars Crossing was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the Locus Poll Award for Best First Novel.

Off-Broadway: Total Recall: The Musical

Here’s a hilarious three-minute clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger performing "The Mountains of Mars" from Total Recall: The Musical, an off-Broadway production based on the 1990 film.



Music and Lyrics by Jon Kaplan and Al Kaplan.

Commodities of Martian Rails: Green Martians

Martian Rails (2009), the crayon board game manufactured by Mayfair Games about railroading on the Red Planet in which players build tracks and haul freight, has a long list of cool commodities that players can transport to generate revenue for their rail companies. For example:

Green Martians -- Members of the most uncivilized tribes of native Martians. They are fifteen feet tall, four-armed, and equipped with tusks. Their largest city is U-Gor. Historically, they have been at war with the Red Martians for eons. Note: The Green Martians of U-Gor should not be confused with the Greens, a human political party that believes in the complete terraforming of Mars.

Martian Rails is loaded with references to Martian SF!

Artist Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)

Frank Frazetta (1928-2010)

ERB on war, citizenship and deportation

The unrivaled but labyrinthic ERBzine has a fascinating piece about World War II, American citizenship and the deportation of Japanese-Americans that pulp fiction author and United Press correspondent Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote for his May 1945 “Laugh It Off!” column in Hawaii Magazine. Burroughs’ column was “originally started shortly after Pearl Harbor at the request of army authorities in the Hawaiian department as a civilian morale booster.”

Harvard University reconsiders Google Book ban

The Harvard Crimson student newspaper reports that the prestigious Ivy League school is reconsidering the current ban prohibiting Google from scanning, digitizing and making publicly available copyrighted material from the university's vast collection of books. Although Google has already digitized 40,000 public domain books from Harvard’s collection, the university has staunchly opposed the terms of the proposed $125 million Google Book Settlement because of copyright concerns. Interestingly, the Crimson article was co-written by Elyssa A.L. Spitzer, a member of the Class of 2012 and daughter of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

“Martian Mouse,” a 1962 piece of flash fiction by Theodore Sturgeon’s 10-year-old son

Thanks to Doc Mars of the amazing French-language website Mars & la Science Fiction, you can download and read “Martian Mouse,” a piece of flash fiction that was written by author Theodore Sturgeon’s ten-year-old son, Robin, and published in the September 1962 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Here’s the first line: “This is an animal I’d like very much for a pet.”

Thanks, Doc Mars!

Heinlein Prize Trust’s investment in bankrupt satellite launcher grounded by Russian company

The Moscow Times and SatNews.com report that Russian space corporation Energia has received preliminary approval from a United States bankruptcy court to provide $30 million in financing to fund the operating costs of Sea Launch Co., a bankrupt satellite launcher, possibly with the intention of purchasing the California-based company. About $19 of the $30 million will replace funding that Sea Launch was expected to receive from Space Launch Services LLC and the Heinlein Prize Trust.

Space Launch Services LLC is a mysterious company alleged to include Arthur “Art” M. Dula, a Houston attorney and CEO of Excalibur Almaz, a private spaceflight company based in Isle of Man. A longtime commercial space enthusiast, Dula is also executor of the literary estate of legendary science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein and one of three trustees who oversee the Heinlein Prize Trust. A second Heinlein trustee, Buckner Hightower, is also a top executive at Excalibur Almaz.

British SFF Masterclass to read Liz Williams’ 2008 novel Winterstrike

Niall Harrison of Torque Control, a blog affiliated with the British Science Fiction Association, recently posted the reading list for the Science Fiction Foundation’s fourth annual Masterclass in Science Fiction Criticism, which will be held 11th June to 13th June, 2010, at Middlesex University in London. One of the items on the list: British SF&F author Liz Williams’ 2008 novel Winterstrike, which features the blustery city of Winterstrike on a colonized Mars governed by matriarchs.

Dejah fails to crack Top 1000 popular baby names for 9th consecutive year

According to data for 2009 just released by the U.S. Social Security Administration, the female name Dejah failed to make the list of the Top 1000 popular baby names for the ninth consecutive year. Here’s all the info on Dejah, going back 100 years:

Year of birth / Rank in Top 1000

• 2000 -- #927
• 1999 -- #672
• 1998 -- #784
• 1996 -- #983

Wonder what’s going to happen in 2012!

“Star of Blue,” a 1941 military short story by Milton Kaletsky

Thanks to Doc Mars of the amazing French-language website Mars & la Science Fiction, you can download and read writer Milton Kaletsky’s short story “Star of Blue” (pdf) as it was originally published in the March 1941 issue of Science Fiction magazine. The plot revolves around Marshal Hughes, leader of Earth’s fighting men, who finds himself faced with surrender to the heartless ruler of Mars. Here are the opening lines:

“AND so, my dear marshal, you have no choice but to surrender unconditionally.”

Generalissimo Ankeen, commander-in-chief of the battle forces of Mars, paused to note the effect of this declaration on his prisoner of war, Marshal Hughes, leader of Earth’s fighting men.

The Earthman’s look of cold contempt did not change. Over his pale, lined features, his bushy gray eyebrows rose a little as he returned the Martian’s stare. But he said nothing ...

Thank you, Doc Mars!

“Sunrise,” a 2009 vignette by Steffen Koenig

The free science fiction story site 365 tomorrows has an enlightening piece of flash fiction titled "Sunrise" (2009), by Steffen Koenig. Originally published on the blog Barsoomian Dreams, it’s about a dying astronaut who sees the sunrise break over the outer rim of the Valles Marineris. Here is the opening line: “The ice from last night was melting on the rocky plateau that lay before him.”

[via Tinkoo Valia of Variety SF]

Just bought the new John Carter of Mars: The Jesse Marsh Years comic book collection

If you can believe this, my local comic book shop actually had a copy of the new Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars: The Jesse Marsh Years (May 2010) comic book collection. Published by Dark Horse Comics, this beautiful, hardcover book reprints all three issues of the Four Color Comics: John Carter of Mars series, which was written by Paul S. Newman, illustrated by Jesse Marsh, and originally published in the 1950s by Dell Publishing. Considering the cost of buying the originals, $30 seemed like a good deal. Plus, I got to listen to “Ape Man” by the Kinks, free of charge. Thank you, Newbury Comics!