March 11, 2025

253. How Do Classic Sci-Fi Novels Explore the Planet Mars?

1 hour 6 minutes

The planet Mars. Named after the Roman/Greek god of war. Fourth from our sun. A frigid desert, with gravity 38 percent Earthen level, and many secrets lurking in its frozen rock. This world looms large in the public imagination, thanks in part to the many fantastical stories orbiting this alien land. From princesses and Tharks, to inspiration for Arrakis, and from high fantasy and hard sci-fi, how and why does this crimson circle shine bright in our skies?

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1. Early myths: glimpses of the Red Planet

Mars got created, with other planets, likely on day 4 (Gen. 1:16).

It’s famously a “throwaway line”: “He also made the stars” (NIV).

Later, Mars was named after the Romans’ version of the Greek god Ares

It’s one of those “wandering stars” that flummoxed early sky-watchers

Telescopes finally opened the sky to better theories of the solar system

Astronomers found features of Mars, making little “fiction” on the way

Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877 first observed Martian “canali” or channels

Some mistranslated his Italian as “canals,” assuming they were manmade

That led to a lot of fun speculation about the civilizations on Mars

2. Pulp adventure: Man’s first steps on Mars

British author Percy Greg actually beat Burroughs there by 30 years

His novel Across the Zodiac portrayed an 1830 hero’s journey to Mars

He’s credited him for effectively creating the “swords and planets” genre

Greg actually seems to have invented the very term “astronaut”!

His book also features alternative energy, a spaceship, and alien beings

Other tropes originated: likely the first alien language in all of fiction

1889: Camille Flammarion’s Urania got mystical about Mars

1898: H. G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds about evil Martians

Then, in 1912, Burroughs began publishing his Barsoom stories

They were originally serialized in The All-Story Magazine that year

John Carter first “projects” himself to the planet in A Princess of Mars

Burroughs wrote at least 10 Barsoom novels from 1912 to 1941

An eleventh book, John Carter of Mars, included work from his son

3. Deeper on Mars: literary, scientific, beyond

From here, other authors decided to get deeper about Martian stories.

1938: C. S. Lewis explored Mars (“Malacandra”) in Out of the Silent Planet

1949: Robert A. Heinlein wrote the boys’ adventure novel Red Planet

His take features a more “libertarian” take on Mars, emphasizing humans

1950: Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles stories also got more artful

1951: Arthur C. Clarke “terraformed” the planet in The Sands of Mars

Alas, the 1960s space race overthrew some romantic notions about Mars

1965: Mariner 4’s photos exposed a lot of our happy Martian mythology

Authors largely turned toward this view of Mars, without native Martians

Others, like Frank Herbert with Dune (1965), created other desert planets

1992: Ben Bova’s Mars about a joint American/Soviet colony project

1992–1996: Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars, Blue Mars, Green Mars

Martian fiction’s popularity faded during the late ’90s and 2000s

Two movies, Mission to Mars and Red Planet (both in 2000) bombed

Disney even dropped “of Mars” from John Carter of Mars (2012)

2011: Some interest in Mars returned thanks to Andy Weir’s The Martian

Ridley Scott’s 2015 film adaptation broke the “curse” of Martian movies

2014–present: Pierce Brown’s far-future Red Rising series, involving Mars

Com station

What’s your favorite planet in science fiction, real or fictional?

Zack Hindes has also felt the ‘vibe shift’ (episode 251)

Been thinking in this for a couple years now and have certainly felt a shift in the churches and circles I run in saying much of the same thing. Definitely online as well.

Next on Fantastical Truth

What if you woke up in a crumbling mountain castle with the beast of your nightmares? Then discovered this kindly dragon speaks like a man and reads books? And, whether literary or not, how would such a dragon—the mascot of traditional fantasy—fare in a battle against spaceships? That’s the burning question behind next week’s book “battle” between E. Stephen Burnett and author Rachelle Nelson, author of next week’s Enclave release: Embergold.

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