Recommended novels from a 2002 reference book

In 2002, the American Library Association published
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers' Advisory: the Librarian's Guide to Cyborgs, Aliens, and Sorcerers, a 230-page reference book by Derek M. Buker.

Buker detailed five books in a short chapter titled “Mars”:

• Climbing Olympus (1994), by Kevin J. Anderson

• Moving Mars (1993), by Greg Bear

• Mars (2000), by Ben Bova

• Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), by Robert A. Heinlein

• Red Mars (1992), by Kim Stanley Robinson

And listed 28 “other recommended titles”:

• White Mars; or, The Mind Set Free (1999), by Brian Aldiss

• The Greening of Mars (1984), by Michael Allaby and James Lovelock

• Hard Sell (1990), by Piers Anthony

• Total Recall (1989), by Piers Anthony

• Solis (1994), by A. A. Attanasio

• Voyage (1996), by Stephen Baxter

• The Martain Race (1999), by Gregory Benford

• Voyage to the Red Planet (1990), by Terry Bisson

• The Martian Chronicles (1950), by Ray Bradbury

• Martian Time-Slip (1964), by Philip K. Dick

• The Far Call (1978), by Gordon R. Dickson

• Mars Prime (1992), by William Dietz

• Semper Mars (1998), by Ian Douglas

• Jesus on Mars (1979), by Philip Jose Farmer

• Article 23 (1998) by William R. Forstchen

• Double Star (1956), by Robert A. Heinlein

• Podkayne of Mars (1963), by Robert A. Heinlein

• Red Planet (1949), by Robert A. Heinlein

• Mars Crossing (2000), by Geoffrey Landis

• Out of the Silent Planet (1938), by C. S. Lewis

• Red Dust (1993), by Paul J. McAuley

• Man Plus (1976), by Frederik Pohl

• Mining the Oort (1992), by Frederik Pohl

• Icehenge (1984), by Kim Stanley Robinson

• Man O’ War (1996), by William Shatner

• Frontera (1984), by Lewis Shiner

• Labyrinth of Night (1992), by Allen M. Steele

• Martian Viking (1991), by Tim Sullivan

With “Derek’s Pick”:

• Red Mars (1992), by Kim Stanley Robinson

And “Best Pick for the Reluctant Reader”:

• Climbing Olympus (1994), by Kevin J. Anderson

Interesting choices, with about half from the 1990s!

“First Contact,” a short story by E. S. Strout

I just learned about “First Contact” (© 2008), a short story by author E. S. Strout that was published online in the February 2009 issue of Aphelion: The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Here’s a short description of the story:

“The Mars lander found something that didn't belong -- an object that looked artificial among the worn and irregular Martian rocks.”

An earlier version of Strout’s “First Contact” (© 2003) was published online in the November 2003 issue of Demensions.

E. S. Strout is a medical doctor. His stories have appeared in Planet Magazine, Anotherealm, Millennium F&SF, Beyond-sf, Static Movement, and Bewildering Stories.

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

Author John Scalzi on forthcoming The Martian Chronicles: the Definitive Edition

There’s an awesome discussion going on over at John Scalzi’s blog Whatever about the forthcoming limited edition of The Martian Chronicles: the Definitive Edition (late 2009). This “massively expanded new edition of the Ray Bradbury magnum opus” from Subterranean Press and PS Publishing contains the original book (with an introduction by John Scalzi), 22 previously uncollected or unpublished Martian stories by Ray Bradbury (with
an introduction by author Joe Hill), two previously unpublished screenplays of The Martian Chronicles (1964, 1997), an essay by
Ray Bradbury, and illustrations by Edward Miller.

The book isn’t cheap ($300 for the signed, limited edition; $900 for the signed, lettered edition housed in a custom traycase), but you can buy the signed, limited edition for $225 (a savings of $75 off the regular price of $300) if you pre-order it from Subterranean Press by February 20, 2009. If you're a serious Bradbury fan, check it out!

Cover art: “The Ark of Mars” by Leigh Brackett

Here’s some cool magazine cover art that I’ve never seen before: Author Leigh Brackett’s novella “The Ark of Mars” (1953) as depicted by artist Stan Pitt on the cover of the June 1954, #26, issue of Australia’s American Science Fiction Magazine.

And here’s a description of Brackett's novella, taken from the website of SciFi at Dark Roasted Blend: “Last manned spaceship is launched by free men, hunted by sinister robotic spaceships; great adventure and atmosphere; the first part (chase to the nearest star) simply sizzles, desperation mixes with hope, great emotion there. The second part after the landing is a bit of a let-down, but still contains big depictions of truly alien mind processes, cuddly ESP alien herd, and pretty cool people politics.”

10 Stories you wouldn’t know are Martian Science Fiction, Volume 3

This is Volume 3 of a project whose goal is to compile a long list of stories you wouldn’t know are about Mars or Martians by simply reading the titles. (See Volume 1 for stories #1 through #10 and Volume 2 for stories #11 through #20)

For example, stories such as “The Enchanted Village” (1950), by
A. E. van Vogt, and “Hellas is Florida” (1977), by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford, will be included on the list, while stories such as "The Raid from Mars"(1939), by Miles J. Breuer, and “The Day the Martians Came” (1967), by Frederik Pohl, will not.

Some of the stories you can read online or purchase through sites such as Fictionwise, but most you cannot. The Locus Index to Science Fiction and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database are good tools for obtaining citations that you can take to your local library. If your library does not have the anthology or magazine mentioned in the citation, ask your librarian about an “Interlibrary Loan Request.” I’ve been able to borrow old anthologies and get photocopies of stories from old pulp magazines with few problems.

Here are the next ten stories:

21. “Via Etherline” (1937), by Eando Binder
“Radio bulletins from the first expedition unfold the terrors of huge Martian insect foes, ruled by still larger creatures.”

22. “Dark Mission” (1940), by Lester del Rey
A man with amnesia wakes up inside the wreckage of a crashed spaceship and later discovers he is a Martian.

23. “Lady Killer” (1952), by Chad Oliver
“An expedition is mounted to Mars in the hopes of finding humanoid females there who are interfertile.”

24. “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” (1963), by Roger Zelazny
A poet and linguist stationed on the Red Planet falls in love with a Martian after being invited into an ancient temple to study their sacred texts.

25. "Sad Solarian Screenwriter Sam" (1972), by Frederik Pohl
The discovery of Martians on the Red Planet has screenwriter Sam Harcourt dreaming of a movie titled Barsoom.

26. “The Catharine Wheel” (1984), by Ian McDonald
“Alternates between the last voyage of the Catharine of Tharsis, the famous locomotive of the Bethlehem-Ares line on Mars, and the last days of the life of that engine's namesake.”

27. “Soft Clocks” (1989), by Yoshio Aramaki
“Story of a surreal Mars ruled by a latter-day [Salvador] Dali, whose cyborg daughter, Vivi, is afflicted with anorexia.”

28. "Heinlein's Children" (1995), by Arlan Andrews
“SF writers, hackers, and others of that ilk, intercept and modify the signals from the Mars probe to make it appear that the Face and other structures on Mars are real and evidence of an alien civilization.”

29. “Ulla, Ulla” (2002), by Eric Brown
“About an expedition to Mars, finding the truth behind H. G. Wells’ novel.”

30. “La Malcontenta” (2005), by Liz Williams
An imprisoned woman known as the Malcontent of Calmaretto is let out for the festival of Ombre in the city of Winterstrike on Mars.

Enjoy!

Pictured above: Artwork by Bob Eggleton

Definitive edition of The Martian Chronicles to include previously unpublished tales

Fans of Ray Bradbury and his The Martian Chronicles (1950) will not be disappointed with the publication of The Martian Chronicles: the Definitive Edition (late 2009) by Subterranean Press and PS Publishing, which recently acquired the rights to co-publish this long-delayed book. Comprised of the classic The Martian Chronicles, previously uncollected and unpublished tales, two screenplays, an essay by Bradbury, an introduction by SF author John Scalzi, and illustrations by Edward Miller, the publication of this book will bring closure to the saga involving the original publisher, Hill House.

For a detailed description of The Martian Chronicles: the Definitive Edition and a complete listing of the Table of Contents, check out the website of Subterranean Press.

More cheers to Bill Schafer of Subterranean Press and Peter Crowther of PS Publishing. This looks like an awesome book!!!

Footprints in the Sand: Dr. Manhattan on Mars

I’m probably one of the few SF fans who owns but hasn’t read the acclaimed graphic novel Watchmen (1986-1987), a tale about superheroes written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons that is partially set on Mars. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to the Warner Bros. film adaptation, which is scheduled to open in theaters on March 6th.

Meanwhile, here's some food for thought: According to Elizabeth K. Rosen's book Apocalyptic Transformation: Apocalypse and the Postmodern Imagination (2008), the footprints Watchmen character Dr. Manhattan leaves in the sands of Mars are “surely meant to recall” Footprints in the Sand (1936), the famous religious poem penned by Mary Stevenson. Here are the opening lines of the poem:

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
  Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
    In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
      Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
        other times there were one set of footprints.

Visit the "Official Website for Footprints in the Sand operated by the estate of Mary Stevenson" for the full text of the poem.

Results of poll: Should Oprah’s Book Club read the classic Burroughs novel A Princess of Mars?

Here are the results of the recent poll I conducted as to whether Oprah’s Book Club should read A Princess of Mars (1912/1917), the classic novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

• 55% of those who answered the question chose the answer "Absolutely, it would be a great opportunity for SF to attract new readers"

• 25% chose the answer "No, that would be sacrilegious and disrespectful to the memory of author Edgar Rice Burroughs"

• 20% chose the answer "Yes, but only if Oprah invites Burroughs fan, SF author, and fellow Chicagoan Mike Resnick on the show"

• 0% chose the answer "Maybe, if Oprah doesn't treat the novel as marketing fodder for the film John Carter of Mars"

Thanks to the 20 people (including me) who participated!

New poem: "First Beer on Mars" by David Lunde

“First Beer on Mars,” a new poem written by David Lunde, appears in the March 2009 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine. Comprised of six stanzas, the poem is about the Sky Mountain Brewery, “now hailed as Mars’ first native industry, and the thing that made life on Mars palatable.” As someone who often has difficulty understanding poetry, I had no problem here.

Friday the 13th: I Turned into a ... Martian!

Thanks to a recent post by Dave Tackett of the blog QuasarDragon, I just read I Turned into a ... Martian! by Steve Ditko, a monstrosity from the September 1960 issue of Journey into Mystery. Here are the opening lines from the first panel of this comic:

“Man had taken a giant step into space when I became the first person to land on Mars! After a week of exploring I seemed to be the only living thing on the whole planet, and yet ...”

Thanks Dave!

Limited edition of The Martian Chronicles offers expensive lesson in pre-ordering books

Bill Schafer of Subterranean Press and Pete Crowther of PS Publishing have announced the latest news on the long-delayed limited edition of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles (1950) that was supposed to have been published by Hill House. The good news is that Subterranean and PS have acquired the rights to co-publish the book and will be offering a substantial discount on the numbered version for a short period of time. The bad news is that fans who pre-ordered the book through Hill House have lost money, in some cases as much as several hundred dollars. Read the announcement for more details.

Cheers to Bill Schafer of Subterranean Press and Pete Crowther of PS Publishing for helping to resolve a complicated matter.

Pictured above: 1951 paperback by Bantam Books

National Federation of the Blind enters debate over Amazon's Kindle 2, opposes Authors Guild

In a bold move that has broadened the debate over the text-to-speech technology in Amazon’s Kindle 2
e-reader, the National Federation of the Blind, the largest organization of blind people in the United States, issued a press release Thursday rejecting the argument of the Authors Guild that "the reading of a book out loud by a machine is a copyright infringement unless the copyright holder has specifically granted permission for the book to be read aloud."

Furthermore, while acknowledging that Kindle 2 is “a step in the right direction," the National Federation of the Blind asserted that:

“the device itself cannot be used independently by a blind reader because the controls to download a book and begin reading it aloud are visual and therefore inaccessible to the blind. We urge Amazon to rectify this situation as soon as possible in order to make the Kindle 2 a device that truly can be used both by blind and sighted readers. By doing so, Amazon will make it possible for blind people
to purchase a new book and begin reading it immediately, just as sighted people do."

NASA honored for tweets from Mars

NASA Honored for 'Tweets' from Mars
CNN.com
February 12, 2009

NEW YORK (CNN) -- NASA was honored Wednesday for its efforts to inform the public through the popular social-networking Web site Twitter.

More than 38,000 people followed NASA's "tweets" of the Mars Phoenix Lander mission.

NASA received the "Shorty Award" for documenting the mission of the Mars Phoenix Lander. The Mars Phoenix Lander spent nearly five months in 2008 on the red planet conducting research. ...

Read the entire article on CNN’s website.

Although the article notes that NASA beat out several science bloggers, I’m of the opinion that the more than 600 tweets from
“Mars Phoenix” were not only science, but a brilliant form of science fiction, as the tweets were really generated not by the spacecraft on Mars, but by Veronica McGregor, a NASA spokesperson on Earth.

Liz Williams’ novel Winterstrike makes 2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award long list

Torque Control, a blog maintained by the British Science Fiction Association, has published the long list of works that have been submitted for the 2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award, the United Kingdom’s premier prize for science fiction literature. Among the 46 works is Winterstrike (2008), a novel by Liz Williams that is set on Mars. The award shortlist is scheduled to be announced in March.

No word yet on when the novel Winterstrike will be released in the States. Meanwhile, check out Williams' short story "La Malcontenta" (2005), which is set in the city of Winterstrike on Mars.

The Valley Where Time Stood Still, a novel by Linwood Vrooman Carter

The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974), a novel by Lin Carter

At left: Paperback (New York: Popular Library, 1976), 222 p., $1.25. Cover art by Carlos Ochagavia. Here’s the blurb from the back cover:

“Together M'Cord and the others descended the great stone steps carved out of the rock incalculable aeons ago. It was only as they approached the valley floor that they saw that the desert seen from above was an illusion created by the thick mist masking what lay below. Ahead of M'Cord, the wolf-like Martian outlaw who had brought the expedition this far hesitated a moment. Then he plunged through the mist and disappeared. Now it was M'Cord's turn to follow ... to discover and master the ultimate secret of Mars and the universe ... or else be destroyed by the dark forces that ruled -- The Valley Where Time Stood Still.”

Extracts from three books precede Chapter 1 of the novel: The Bible (King James version, Philadelphia, 1947), The Book of the Dead (Wallis Budge version, London, 1923), and The Book (Martinez-Schuster translation, Syrtis, 2031).

The Valley Where Time Stood Still is part of Lin Carter’s Mysteries of Mars series. The novel is considered the first book in the chronology of the series, even though it was the second book published. The other books are The City Outside the World (1977), Down to a Sunless Sea (1984), and The Man Who Loved Mars (1973).

Authors Guild to new Kindle 2: You don't have the right to read a book out loud

An article in today’s The Wall Street Journal states that some authors and publishers are concerned about a text-reading feature in Amazon’s new Kindle 2 electronic book reader:

“... Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice.

‘They don't have the right to read a book out loud,’ said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. ‘That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.’

An Amazon spokesman noted the text-reading feature depends on text-to-speech technology, and that listeners won't confuse it with the audiobook experience. Amazon owns Audible, a leading audiobook provider. ...”

Is this the opening volley in another class-action lawsuit?