Even the most forgiving person would probably admit that when it comes to our planet, we’ve maybe (and that’s a generous “maybe”) not always done the best job with it. That may be why ever since Galileo Galilei first glimpsed Mars in his telescope in 1609, the red planet has not just drawn our curiosity, but our hope. Maybe up there we can start again, if we can just get there.
Slowly, getting there is becoming a reality. Soon the rovers kicking up red dust on Mars could be replaced by human feet. NASA hopes to send manned expeditions throughout the 2030s. Elon Musk’s Space X wants to get crewed missions underway by 2024. The entrepreneurs behind Mars One want to send humans on a one-way settlement mission sometime after 2027.
But while those initiatives are looking to make colonizing Mars a reality, others have already beaten them to it in their imaginations. For over a century, writers have envisioned human beings onto that big red orb up there. No Marvin the Martians or War of the Worlds tripods, but humans who experience adventures and dystopias, escapes from humanity’s foibles, and cruel repetitions of them. In other words, while Mars may be just one color, stories set on it come in many hues.
That’s what’s so great about Mars lit: the way writers use the planet to mirror us — both what can be great about us, and, well, maybe not so great about us. It’s a subgenre of sorts that can deftly navigate stories about mankind being worthy of second chances or doomed to waste them, and in the process, can tell us a lot about who we are and perhaps should be.
Here, then, are seven great examples of Mars lit that can preview what may be in store for us when we make it up there someday.
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future....
Bradbury’s science-fiction classic The Martian Chronicles is high-concept enough to be set on Mars, but what distinguishes it is how wonderfully small and intimate it feels — especially considering the big themes it tackles. That’s probably because it’s inspired by Winesburg, Ohio (a book we love), which Bradbury read and thought, according to his preface for the 1997 edition of Martian Chronicles, “If I could write a book half as fine as this, but set it on Mars, how incredible that would be!”
Spanning twenty years in the mid-21st century, the novel features interconnected stories that take us chronologically through early expeditions of Mars, then colonization, then … well, we won’t spoil it. Throughout it all, the novel possesses an aching melancholy as it uses Mars to consider grief, loneliness, the inevitability of mankind’s self-destruction, and the potential hope that it can save itself. There’s also a pretty unique take on Martians in here, too.
Philip K. Dick always possessed the ability to smash the mundane with the really, really weird, and Martian Time-Slip is no exception. On the one hand, you have our hero Jack Bohlen, a (mostly) everyday repairman going about his duties and dealing with union woes on a colonized Mars. And then you also have time travel, psychics, and reality presented as nothing more than a thin veil to be continually punctured. But for all the strangeness — and again, there’s a lot of that here — Dick uses Mars to really address Earthly matters: the evils of capitalism, the interdependency of people, and the struggles of mental illness. It all comes together to embody what Dick always did well: write books that make you think at some point, “This is weird, but so good,” with a smile and maybe an occasionally furrowed brow of confusion.
For those looking to Mars as humanity’s fresh start, Red Mars (the first novel in a trilogy) is a sobering (and borderline dystopian) rebuke. Robinson’s science- and ecology-heavy book is about the first 100 people who colonize Mars and who quickly get bogged down in the infighting we’re all too familiar with from Earth. Ideological pro- and anti- factions emerge around terraforming, the desire for (human) Martian independence from Earth, and dependency on corporate interests. Then there’s mankind’s proclivity for war, too. It’s an often cynical book, and while it isn’t without its intrigue and action, it’s ultimately a look at how mankind may be able to escape Earth, but it can’t escape itself.
There’s a good chance you’ve seen the film adaptation of this "Robinson Crusoe on Mars” story about Mark Watney, an astronaut who is accidentally stranded on Mars in the near future and has to — to use his words — “science the shit” out of his situation (including eat potatoes grown from, um, DIY fertilizer). But the best-selling novel is still worth seeking, especially if you want more of the real-world science in which Weir grounds his thrilling survival story. But don’t worry, you don’t need a PhD to understand it. He makes it all very accessible, and chases it with the charm and wise-assery of Watney’s voice — greatly accentuated by narrator RC Bray’s reading, which won him several Audie Awards.
Arguably the grandfather of Mars lit, Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1917 novel is a pulp-fiction delight about a Civil War veteran named John Carter who is suddenly transported to the surface of Mars and is given superheroic agility because of the different gravity. And like the best of pulp-science fiction, there’s a lot of uninhibited imagination here that gives us a fantastical vision of Mars, complete with bare-chested heroism, swashbuckling adventure, exotic aliens, and even some political intrigue. The novel may be a centenarian now, but it’ll make you feel like a little kid again, ready to run around your backyard pretending to be John Carter.
If you’ve ever found yourself thinking about those volunteering to participate in future Mars expeditions and wondered, “What are the people like who would choose that?” it seems Meg Howrey has, too. Her novel offers a fictional and deeply literary glimpse at that question. With chapters alternating between the perspectives of three astronauts undergoing a 17-month Mars expedition simulation on Earth, as well as some of their loved ones, The Wanderers is an Earthbound Mars novel that’s not so much about the science of the journey. Instead, it’s an intimate look at its potential explorers and all their human foibles, imperfections, and baggage. Be sure to especially relish the wonderful life and distinct voices that narrator Mozhan Marno brings to the complexity of the novel’s characters.
