2013 collection of new SF stories set on pre-space-probe ideas of the
planet Mars.
As with the later Old Venus there are certain themes that
recur: Mars is always dry and old, and usually has canals. (I wonder
how much excavations in Egypt influenced the common SFnal idea that
archaeology is a thing that happens in a hot dry place far from home?)
But it feels as though there's a bit more variation in Marses here
than there was in Venuses in the later volume.
"Martian Blood" by Allen M. Steele has a supposedly sympathetic
narrator who deliberately and reflexively destroys hard-won knowledge.
People other than me may like it.
"The Ugly Duckling" by Matthew Hughes introduces a recurrent theme,
that the Martians are still in some sense present in recorded memory;
alas, let down by stereotyped characters (the intellectual wimp and
the anti-intellectual building crew).
"The Wreck of the Mars Adventure" by David D. Levine prefigures his
Arabella of Mars series; it's not quite in the same universe, I
think, but has a very similar sensibility and is clearly ready for
expansion into something novel-sized. In this case, Captain Kidd is
promised a Royal pardon if he'll lead the first expedition to Mars.
Fun.
"Swords Of Zar-Tu-Kan" by S. M. Stirling is a short prequel to "In the
Courts of the Crimson Kings" written a few years earlier; it's
dispensable and slight, but enjoyable.
"Shoals" by Mary Rosenblum is basically The Ugly Duckling again with
minor variations. Strong message that when your kid says he can see
things nobody else can see you should listen to him rather than try to
get him medical help, 'cos he's right.
"In the Tombs of the Martian Kings" by Mike Resnick deals with the
same characters as "The Godstone of Venus" in the other volume… and
has basically the same plot. Oh well.
"Out of Scarlight" by Liz Williams is great fun, with interesting
people… but it could as easily have been on a purely invented world.
There's no real connection with Mars here.
"The Dead Sea-Bottom Scrolls" by Howard Waldrop is an account of a
recreation, by a human settler on Mars, of a sand-skimmer voyage that
a long-dead Martian wrote about. Mostly travelogue but quite pleasing.
"A Man Without Honor" by James S. A. Corey goes back to historical
piracy, and saving the Earth from invasion. Good action, if very
slight.
"Written in Dust" by Melinda M. Snodgrass is another memory-story,
with relationship drama and too many "oh, I realise I have been wrong
all this time, everything will be fine from now on" moments.
"The Lost Canal" by Michael Moorcock manages to put me out of sympathy
with its protagonist before he's even done anything. Well done, I
guess.
"The Sunstone" by Phyllis Eisenstein is more memory, and death, and
ethics. Rather decent.
"King of the Cheap Romance" by Joe R. Lansdale is an "endurance in
adversity" story, feeling to me like the style of Jack London.
Character-free but good.
"Mariner" by Chris Roberson is one of the few stories here that has
just one Earth-human on Mars rather than large-scale traffic. He's a
pirate sand-skimmer captain (this piracy works very like the
historical system in spite of being on another planet) and… it works,
I guess.
"The Queen of the Night's Aria" by Ian McDonald has the ageing tenor
doing a tour of the front lines of the Martian War (two generations
after Horsell Common). I couldn't help a feeling that McDonald cared
more about the closing scene than about what the characters would do
next, but nonetheless it works rather well.
Nothing profound here, but plenty that's enjoyable.
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