Lost Mars

Editor Ashley (Out of This World) dusts off 10 enchanting stories of Mars by famous and forgotten British and American writers from the late 19th century to the 1960s for this nostalgic retrospective collection. The extensive introduction chronicles Mars as the subject of early influential stories by writers who used the red planet as an allegory for religion, evils of colonization, environmental disaster, and lack of resources. In H.G. Wells’s jaunty “The Crystal Egg” (1897), an antiques dealer’s artifact allows him to view the mysterious red planet and its winged citizens. One of the first writers to mention Mars’s supposed canals, W.S. Lach-Szyrma, presents “Letters from Mars” (1887), in which a Venusian traveler chastises humans for being less technologically advanced than the Martians. The only woman in the collection, Marion Zimmer Bradley, contributes “Measureless to Man” (1962), which exploits the planetary romance of Mars with the souls of a Martian race yearning for bodies to inhabit or else become extinct. Readers fond of classic science fiction imbued with romance, exotic settings, and whimsical scenarios will treasure these evocative stories. (Oct.)