Mars, the fourth planet from theSun, has appeared as asetting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances inplanetary science. It became the most popularcelestial object in fiction in the late 1800s, when it became clear that there was no life on theMoon. The predominant genre depicting Mars at the time wasutopian fiction. Around the same time, the mistaken belief that there arecanals on Mars emerged and made its way into fiction, popularized byPercival Lowell's speculations of an ancient civilization having constructed them.The War of the Worlds,H. G. Wells's novel about analien invasion ofEarth by sinister Martians, was published in 1897 and went on to have a major influence on thescience fiction genre.
Life on Mars appeared frequently in fiction throughout the first half of the 1900s. Apart from enlightened as in the utopian works from the turn of the century, or evil as in the works inspired by Wells,intelligent and human-like Martians began to be depicted as decadent, a portrayal that was popularized byEdgar Rice Burroughs in theBarsoom series and adopted byLeigh Brackett among others. More exotic lifeforms appeared in stories likeStanley G. Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey".
The theme ofcolonizing Mars replaced stories about native inhabitants of the planet in the second half of the 1900s following emerging evidence of the planet being inhospitable to life, eventually confirmed by data fromMars exploration probes. A significant minority of works persisted in portraying Mars in a nostalgic way that was by then scientifically outdated, includingRay Bradbury'sThe Martian Chronicles.
Terraforming Mars to enablehuman habitation has been another major theme, especially in the final quarter of the century, the most prominent example beingKim Stanley Robinson'sMars trilogy. Stories of the firsthuman mission to Mars appeared throughout the 1990s in response to theSpace Exploration Initiative, and near-future exploration and settlement became increasingly common themes following the launches of other Mars exploration probes in the latter half of the decade. In the year 2000,science fiction scholarGary Westfahl estimated the total number of works of fiction dealing with Mars up to that point to exceed five thousand, and the planet has continued to make frequent appearances across several genres and forms of media since. In contrast, themoons of Mars—Phobos andDeimos—have made only sporadic appearances in fiction.
Before the 1800s,Mars did not get much attention in fiction writing as a primarysetting, though it did appear in some stories visiting multiple locations in theSolar System.[2][3] The firstfictional tour of the planets, the 1656 workItinerarium exstaticum byAthanasius Kircher, portrays Mars as a volcanic wasteland.[4][5][6] It also appears briefly in the 1686 workEntretiens sur la pluralité des mondes (Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds) byBernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle but is largely dismissed as uninteresting due to its presumed similarity to Earth.[4][7] Mars is home to spirits in several works of the mid-1700s. In the anonymously published 1755 workA Voyage to the World in the Centre of the Earth, it is a heavenly place where, among others,Alexander the Great enjoys a second life.[8][9] In the 1758 workDe Telluribus in Mundo Nostro Solari (Concerning the Earths in Our Solar System) byEmanuel Swedenborg, the planet is inhabited by beings characterized by honesty and moral virtue.[4][8][10] In the 1765 novelVoyage de Milord Céton dans les sept planètes (The Voyages of Lord Seaton to the Seven Planets) byMarie-Anne de Roumier-Robert, reincarnated soldiers roam a war-torn landscape.[8][10][11] It later appeared alongside the other planets throughout the 1800s. In the anonymously published 1839 novelA Fantastical Excursion into the Planets, it is divided between theRoman godsMars andVulcan.[4] In the anonymously published 1873 novelA Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Paul Aermont among the Planets, it is culturally rather similar to Earth—unlike the other planets.[2][12] In the 1883 novelAleriel, or A Voyage to Other Worlds byW. S. Lach-Szyrma, a visitor fromVenus relates the details of Martian society to Earthlings.[13] The first work ofscience fiction set primarily on Mars was the 1880 novelAcross the Zodiac byPercy Greg.[14]
Mars became the most popular extraterrestrial location in fiction in the late 1800s as it became clear that theMoon was devoid of life.[2][15][16] A recurring theme in this time period was that ofreincarnation on Mars, reflecting an upswing in interest in theparanormal in general and in relation to Mars in particular.[2][15][17] Humans are reborn on Mars in the 1889 novelUranie byCamille Flammarion as a form ofafterlife,[10][15] the 1896 novelDaybreak: The Story of an Old World byJames Cowan [Wikidata] depictsJesus reincarnated there,[2][15] and the protagonist of the 1903 novelThe Certainty of a Future Life in Mars byLouis Pope Gratacap [Wikidata] receives a message inMorse code from his deceased father on Mars.[2][15][17][18] Othersupernatural phenomena includetelepathy in Greg'sAcross the Zodiac andprecognition in the 1886 short story "The Blindman's World" byEdward Bellamy.[8]
Several recurringtropes were introduced during this time. One of them is Mars having a differentlocal name such as Glintan in the 1889 novelMr. Stranger's Sealed Packet byHugh MacColl, Oron in the 1892 novelMessages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant by Robert D. Braine, andBarsoom in the 1912 novelA Princess of Mars byEdgar Rice Burroughs. This carried on in later works such as the 1938 novelOut of the Silent Planet byC. S. Lewis, which calls the planetMalacandra.[19] Several stories also depict Martians speaking Earth languages and provide explanations of varying levels of preposterousness. In the 1899 novelPharaoh's Broker byEllsworth Douglass [Wikidata], Martians speakHebrew as Mars goes through the same historical phases as Earth with a delay of a few thousand years, here corresponding to the captivity of the Israelites inBiblical Egypt. In the 1901 novelA Honeymoon in Space byGeorge Griffith, they speak English because they acknowledge it as the "most convenient" language of all. In the 1920 novelA Trip to Mars by Marcianus Rossi, the Martians speakLatin as a result of having been taught the language by aRoman who was flung into space by theeruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79.[20] Martians were often portrayed as existing within aracial hierarchy:[21] the 1894 novelJourney to Mars byGustavus W. Pope features Martians with different skin colours (red, blue, and yellow) subject to strictanti-miscegenation laws,[20] Rossi'sA Trip to Mars sees one portion of the Martian population described as "our inferior race, the same as your terrestriannegroes",[20] and Burroughs'sBarsoom series has red, green, yellow, and black Martians, a white race—responsible for the previous advanced civilization on Mars—having become extinct.[22][23]
The question of how humans would get to Mars was addressed in several ways: when not travelling there via spaceship as in the 1911 novelTo Mars via the Moon: An Astronomical Story by Mark Wicks,[24] they might use aflying carpet as in the 1905 novelLieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation byEdwin Lester Arnold,[14][18][20] aballoon as inA Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Paul Aermont among the Planets,[2] or an "aeroplane" as in the 1893 novelUnveiling a Parallel: A Romance byAlice Ilgenfritz Jones andElla Robinson Merchant [ca] (writing jointly as "Two Women of the West").[24] They might also visit in a dream as in the 1899 playA Message from Mars byRichard Ganthony,[24]teleport viaastral projection as in Burroughs'sA Princess of Mars,[25][26] or use a long-range communication device while staying on Earth as in Braine'sMessages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant and the 1894 novelW nieznane światy (To the Unknown Worlds) byPolish science fiction writerWładysław Umiński.[2][13][27][28]Anti-gravity is employed in several works including Greg'sAcross the Zodiac, MacColl'sMr. Stranger's Sealed Packet, and the 1890 novelA Plunge into Space byRobert Cromie.[8][18][29] Occasionally, the method of transport is not addressed at all.[24] Some stories take the opposite approach of having Martians come to Earth; examples include the 1891 novelThe Man from Mars: His Morals, Politics and Religion by Thomas Blot (pseudonym of William Simpson) and the 1893 novelA Cityless and Countryless World byHenry Olerich.[2][24]
Aclement twilight zone on a synchronously rotating Mercury, aswamp-and-jungle Venus, and a canal-infested Mars, while all classic science-fiction devices, are all, in fact, based upon earlier misapprehensions by planetary scientists.
During theopposition of Marsin 1877, Italian astronomerGiovanni Schiaparelli announced the discovery of linear structures he dubbedcanali (literallychannels, but widely translated ascanals) on the Martian surface.[2][13] These were generally interpreted—by those who accepted their disputed existence—as waterways,[31] and they made their earliest appearance in fiction in the anonymously published 1883 novelPolitics and Life in Mars, where the Martians live in the water.[24] Schiaparelli's observations, and perhaps the translation ofcanali as "canals" rather than "channels", inspiredPercival Lowell to speculate that these were artificial constructs and write a series of non-fiction books—Mars in 1895,Mars and Its Canals in 1906, andMars as the Abode of Life in 1908—popularizing the idea.[10][32][33][34] Lowell posited that Mars was home to an ancient and advanced but dying or already dead Martian civilization who had constructed these vast canals for irrigation to survive on an increasingly arid planet,[2][10][33] and this became an enduring vision of Mars that influenced writers across several decades.[2][32][33][35]Science fiction scholarGary Westfahl, drawing from the catalogue ofearly science fiction works compiled byE. F. Bleiler andRichard Bleiler in the reference worksScience-Fiction: The Early Years from 1990 andScience-Fiction: The Gernsback Years from 1998, concludes that Lowell thus "effectively set the boundaries for subsequent narratives about an inhabited Mars".[32]
Canals became a feature of romantic portrayals of Mars such as Burroughs'sBarsoom series.[2][35][36] Early works that did not depict any waterways on Mars typically explained the appearance of straight lines on the surface in some other way, such assimooms or large tracts of vegetation.[13] Although they quickly fell out of favour as a serious scientific theory, largely as a result of higher-quality telescopic observations by astronomers such asE. M. Antoniadi failing to detect them,[31][35][36] canals continued to make sporadic appearances in fiction for a while in works such as the 1936 novelPlanet Plane byJohn Wyndham, the 1938 novelOut of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, and the 1949 novelRed Planet byRobert A. Heinlein.[2][10][19][35] Said Lewis in response to criticism from biologistJ. B. S. Haldane, "The canals in Mars are there not because I believe in them but because they are part of the popular tradition."[19][35] Eventually, theflyby of Mars byMariner 4 in 1965 conclusively determined that the canals were mereoptical illusions.[2][10][33]
Becauseearly versions of thenebular hypothesis ofSolar System formation held that the planets were formed sequentially starting at the outermost planets, some authors envisioned Mars as an older and more mature world than the Earth, and it became the setting for manyutopian works of fiction.[14][15][25][31] This genre made up the majority of stories about Mars in the late 1800s and continued to be represented through the early 1900s.[2][10] The earliest of these works was the 1880 novelAcross the Zodiac by Percy Greg.[15] The 1887 novelBellona's Husband: A Romance byWilliam James Roe portrays a Martian society where everyone ages backwards.[13][37] The 1890 novelA Plunge into Space by Robert Cromie depicts a society that is so advanced that life there has become dull and, as a result, the humans who visit succumb to boredom and leave ahead of schedule—to the approval of the Martians, who have come to view them as a corrupting influence.[13][15] The 1892 novelMessages from Mars, By Aid of the Telescope Plant by Robert D. Braine is unusual in portraying a completely rural Martian utopia without any cities.[13] An early work offeminist science fiction, Jones's and Merchant's 1893 novelUnveiling a Parallel: A Romance, depicts a man from Earth visiting twoegalitarian societies on Mars: one where women have adopted male vices and one where equality has brought out everyone's best qualities.[15][38] The 1897 novelAuf zwei Planeten (Two Planets) byGerman science fiction pioneerKurd Lasswitz contrasts a utopian society on Mars with that society'scolonialist actions on Earth. The book was translated into several languages and was highly influential inContinental Europe, including inspiring rocket scientistWernher von Braun, but did not receive a translation into English until the 1970s, which limited its impact in theAnglosphere.[2][15][24] The 1910 novelThe Man from Mars, Or Service for Service's Sake byHenry Wallace Dowding [Wikidata] portrays a civilization on Mars based on a variation on Christianity where woman was created first, in contrast to the conventionalGenesis creation narrative.[24]Hugo Gernsback depicted a science-based utopia on Mars in the 1915–1917serialBaron Münchhausen's New Scientific Adventures,[32] but by and large,World War I spelled the end for utopian Martian fiction.[19]
InRussian science fiction, Mars became the setting forsocialist utopias and revolutions.[39][40] The 1908 novelRed Star (Красная звезда) byAlexander Bogdanov is the primary example of this, and inspired many others.[39]Red Star portrays a socialist society on Mars from the perspective of a RussianBolshevik invited there, where thestruggle between classes has been replaced with a common struggle against the harshness of nature.[15][24] The 1913 prequelEngineer Menni (Инженер Мэнни), also by Bogdanov, is set several centuries earlier and serves as anorigin story for the Martian society by detailing the events of the revolution that brought it about.[15][24][39][41] Another prominent example is the 1922 novelAelita (Аэлита) byAleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy—along with its1924 film adaptation, the earliest Soviet science fiction film—which adapts the story of the1905 Russian Revolution to the Martian surface.[15][25][42]Red Star andAelita are in some ways opposites.Red Star, written between the failed revolution in 1905 and the successful1917 Russian Revolution, sees Mars as a socialist utopia from which Earth can learn, whereas inAelita the socialist revolution is instead exported from the earlySoviet Russia to Mars.Red Star depicts autopia on Mars, in contrast to thedystopia initially found on Mars inAelita—though both aretechnocracies.Red Star is a sincere and idealistic work of traditional utopian fiction, whereasAelita is aparody.[19][39][41]
The 1897 novelThe War of the Worlds byH. G. Wells, which depicts analien invasion ofEarth by Martians in search of resources, represented a turning point in Mars fiction. Rather than being portrayed as essentially human,Wells's Martians have a completely inhuman appearance and cannot be communicated with. Rather than being noble creatures to emulate, the Martians dispassionately kill and exploit the Earthlings like livestock—a critique of contemporaryBritish colonialism in general and its devastating effects on theAboriginal Tasmanians in particular.[2][8][15][16] The novel set the tone for the majority of the science-fictional depictions of Mars in the decades that followed in portraying the Martians as malevolent and Mars as a dying world.[2][10][25] Beyond Martian fiction, the novel had a large influence on the broader science fiction genre,[2][43][44][45] and inspired rocket scientistRobert H. Goddard.[1][46] According to science fiction essayistBud Webster, "It's impossible to overstate the importance ofThe War of the Worlds and the influence it's had over the years."[18]
An unauthorized sequel—Edison's Conquest of Mars byGarrett P. Serviss—was released in 1898,[2][10][47] as was a parody byCharles L. Graves [Wikidata] andE. V. Lucas titledThe War of the Wenuses [Wikidata].[13][48] Wells's story gained further notoriety in 1938 whena radio adaptation byOrson Welles in the style of a news broadcast was mistaken for a real newscast by some listeners in the US, leading to panic;[2][10][14][22] less famously, a 1949 broadcast inQuito, Ecuador, also resulted in a riot.[29][43][49] Severalsequels and adaptations by other authors have been written since, including the 1950Superman comic book story "Black Magic on Mars" byAlvin Schwartz andWayne Boring where Orson Welles tries to warn Earth of an impending Martian invasion but is dismissed,[3][32] the 1968 novelThe Second Invasion from Mars (Второе нашествие марсиан) bySoviet science fiction writersArkady and Boris Strugatsky where the Martians forgo military conquest in favour of infiltration,[32] the 1975 novelSherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds byManly Wade Wellman andWade Wellman [Wikidata] and the 1976 novelThe Second War of the Worlds byGeorge H. Smith which both combine Wells's story withArthur Conan Doyle'sSherlock Holmes characters,[14][50][51] the 1976 novelThe Space Machine byChristopher Priest which combines the story ofThe War of the Worlds with that of Wells's 1895 novelThe Time Machine,[14][50][52] the 2002 short story "Ulla, Ulla" byEric Brown which reframes the invasion as a desperate escape by a peaceful race from a dying world,[14][53] and the 2005 novelThe Martian War byKevin J. Anderson where Wells himself goes to Mars and instigates aslave uprising.[54] The authorized 2017 sequel novelThe Massacre of Mankind byStephen Baxter is set in 1920 in analternate timeline where the events of the original novel caused World War I never to happen by making Britain war-weary and isolationist, and the Martians attack yet again after inoculating themselves against the microbes that were their downfall the first time.[55][56][57]
The termMartians typically refers to inhabitants of Mars that are similar to humans in terms of having such things aslanguage andcivilization, though it is also occasionally used to refer toextraterrestrials in general.[58][59] These inhabitants of Mars have variously been depicted as enlightened, evil, and decadent; in keeping with the conception of Mars as an older civilization than Earth, Westfahl refers to these as "good parents", "bad parents", and "dependent parents", respectively.[3][25][32]
Martians have also been equated with humans in different ways. Humans are revealed to be the descendants of Martians in several stories including the 1954 short story "Survey Team" byPhilip K. Dick.[53][60] Conversely, Martians are the descendants of humans from Earth in some works such as the 1889 novelMr. Stranger's Sealed Packet by Hugh MacColl, where a close approach between Mars and Earth in the past allowed some humans to get to Mars,[2][13][18] and Tolstoy'sAelita where they are descended from inhabitants of the lost civilization ofAtlantis.[19] Human settlers take on the new identity of Martians in the 1946 short story "The Million Year Picnic" byRay Bradbury (later included in the 1950fix-up novelThe Martian Chronicles), and this theme of "becoming Martians" came to be a recurring motif in Martian fiction toward the end of the century.[25][35][61][62]
The portrayal of Martians as superior to Earthlings appeared throughout theutopian fiction of the late 1800s.[2][3][15][25] In-depth treatment of the nuances of the concept was pioneered by Kurd Lasswitz with the 1897 novelAuf zwei Planeten, wherein the Martians visit Earth to share their more advanced knowledge with humans and gradually end up acting as an occupying colonial power.[2][14][15][47] Martians sharing wisdom or knowledge with humans is a recurring element in these stories, and some works such as the 1952 novelDavid Starr, Space Ranger byIsaac Asimov depict Martians sharing their advanced technology with the inhabitants of Earth.[3][25] Several depictions of enlightened Martians have a religious dimension:[8] in the 1938 novelOut of the Silent Planet byC. S. Lewis, Martians are depicted as Christian beings free fromoriginal sin,[3][25] the MartianKlaatu[a] who visits Earth in the 1951 filmThe Day the Earth Stood Still is aChrist figure,[32][63][64] and the 1961 novelStranger in a Strange Land byRobert A. Heinlein revolves around a human raised by Martians who brings a religion based on their ideals to Earth as aprophet.[2][8][65] Incomic books, the superheroMartian Manhunter first appeared in 1955.[2][3] In the 1956 novelNo Man Friday byRex Gordon, an astronaut stranded on Mars encounterspacifist Martians and feels compelled to omit the human history of warfare lest they think of humans as savage creatures akin tocannibals.[61] On television, the 1963–1966sitcomMy Favorite Martian—later adapted tochildren's animation in 1973 and tofilm in 1999—portrayed a Martian comedically; the contemporaneous science fictionanthology seriesThe Twilight Zone andThe Outer Limits also occasionally featured Martian characters,[32] such as in "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" where they find disappointment in human lack of altruism[49] and "Controlled Experiment" where murder is a foreign concept to them.[66]
There is a long tradition of portraying Martians as warlike, perhaps inspired by the planet's association with theRoman god of war.[48][54] The seminal depiction of Martians as evil creatures was the 1897 novelThe War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, wherein the Martians attack Earth.[2][3][10] This characterization dominated thepulp era of science fiction, appearing in works such as the 1928 short story "The Menace of Mars" byClare Winger Harris, the 1931 short story "Monsters of Mars" byEdmond Hamilton, and the 1935 short story "Mars Colonizes" byMiles J. Breuer.[2][3][32] It quickly became regarded as acliché and inspired a kind ofcountermovement that portrayed Martians as meek in works like the 1933 short story "The Forgotten Man of Space" byP. Schuyler Miller and the 1934 short story "Old Faithful" byRaymond Z. Gallun.[2][10] The 1946 novelThe Man from Mars byPolish science fiction writerStanisław Lem likewise depicts a Martian mistreated by humans.[27][67]
Outside of the pulps, thealien invasion theme pioneered by Wells appeared inOlaf Stapledon's 1930 novelLast and First Men—with the twist that the invading Martians are cloud-borne and microscopic, and neither aliens nor humans recognize the other as a sentient species.[3][19][25][68] In film, this theme gained popularity in 1953 with the releases ofThe War of the Worlds andInvaders from Mars; later films about Martian invasions of Earth include the 1954 filmDevil Girl from Mars, the 1962 filmThe Day Mars Invaded Earth, a1986 remake ofInvaders from Mars andthree different adaptations ofThe War of the Worlds in 2005.[2][14][22][25] Martians attacking humans who come to Mars appear in the 1948 short story "Mars Is Heaven!" by Ray Bradbury (later revised and included inThe Martian Chronicles as "The Third Expedition"), where they usetelepathic abilities to impersonate the humans' deceased loved ones before killing them.[41][43][62] Comical portrayals of evil Martians appear in the 1954 novelMartians, Go Home byFredric Brown, where they arelittle green men who wreak havoc by exposing secrets and lies;[61] in the form of the cartoon characterMarvin the Martian introduced in the 1948 short film "Haredevil Hare", who seeks to destroy Earth to get a better view of Venus;[2][14][42][49] and in the 1996 filmMars Attacks!, a pastiche of1950s alien invasion films.[2][25][69]
The conception of Martians as decadent was largely derived fromPercival Lowell's vision of Mars.[2][10][33] The first appearance of Martians characterized by decadence in a work of fiction was in the 1905 novelLieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation byEdwin Lester Arnold—variously considered one of the earliest examples of, or an important precursor to, theplanetary romance subgenre.[2][10][70][71] The idea was developed further and popularized byEdgar Rice Burroughs in the 1912–1943Barsoom series starting withA Princess of Mars.[2][3][10] Burroughs presents a Mars in need of human intervention to regain its vitality,[3][25] a place where violence has replaced sexual desire.[20] Science fiction criticRobert Crossley [Wikidata], in the 2011 non-fiction bookImagining Mars: A Literary History, identifies Burroughs's work as the archetypal example of what he dubs "masculinist fantasies", where "male travelersexpect to find princesses on Mars and devote much of their time either to courting or to protecting them".[20] This version of Mars also functions as a kind of stand-in for the bygoneAmerican frontier, where protagonistJohn Carter—aConfederate veteran of theAmerican Civil War who is madesuperhumanly strong by the lowergravity of Mars—encounters indigenous Martians representingNative Americans.[20][22][23]
Burroughs's vision of Mars would go on to have an influence approaching but not quite reaching Wells's,[1] inspiring the works of many other authors—for instance,C. L. Moore's stories aboutNorthwest Smith starting with the 1933 short story "Shambleau".[72] Another author who followed Burroughs's lead in the decadent portrayal of Mars and its inhabitants—while updating the politics to reflect shifting attitudes towardcolonialism andimperialism in the intervening years—wasLeigh Brackett,[22][23][25] the "Queen of the Planetary Romance".[8] Brackett's works in this vein include the 1940 short story "Martian Quest" and the 1944 novelShadow Over Mars, as well as the stories aboutEric John Stark including the 1949 short story "Queen of the Martian Catacombs" and the 1951 short story "Black Amazon of Mars" (later expanded into the 1964 novelsThe Secret of Sinharat andPeople of the Talisman, respectively).[2][10][23]
Decadent Martians appeared in many other stories as well. The 1933 novelCat Country (貓城記) byChinese science fiction writerLao She portrays feline Martians overcome by vices such as opium addiction and corruption as a vehicle forsatire of contemporary Chinese society.[73][74] In the 1950 filmRocketship X-M, Martians are depicted as disfiguredcavepeople inhabiting a barren wasteland, descendants of the few survivors of anuclear holocaust;[22][75][76] in the 1963 novelThe Man Who Fell to Earth byWalter Tevis a survivor of nuclear holocaust on Mars comes to Earth for refuge but finds it to be similarly corrupt and degenerate.[2][65][77] Inverting the premise of Heinlein'sStranger in a Strange Land, the 1963 short story "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" byRoger Zelazny sees decadent Martians visited by a preacher from Earth.[18]
In some stories where Mars is not inhabited by humanoid lifeforms, it was in the past or is inhabited by other types of life. The ruins of extinct Martian civilizations are depicted in the 1943 short story "Lost Art" byGeorge O. Smith where theirperpetual motion machine is recreated and the 1957 short story "Omnilingual" byH. Beam Piper in which scientists attempt todecipher their fifty-thousand-year-old language;[22][25] the 1933 novelThe Outlaws of Mars byOtis Adelbert Kline and the 1949 novelThe Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett employtime travel to set stories in the past when Mars was still alive.[22][61]
The 1934 short story "A Martian Odyssey" byStanley G. Weinbaum contains what Webster describes as "the first really alien aliens" in science fiction, in contrast to previous depictions of Martians as monsters or essentially human.[18] The story broke new ground in portraying an entire Martianecosystem wholly unlike that of Earth—inhabited by species that are alien in anatomy and inscrutable in behaviour—and in depicting extraterrestrial life that is non-human andintelligent without being hostile.[78][79][80] In particular, one Martian creature calledTweel is found to be intelligent but have thought processes that are utterly inhuman.[19][79] This creates an impenetrable language barrier between the alien and the human it encounters, and they are limited to communicating through theuniversal language ofmathematics.[22][78] Asimov would later say that this story met the challengescience fiction editorJohn W. Campbell made to science fiction writers in the 1940s: to write a creature who thinks at least as well as humans, yet notlike humans.[81][82]
Three different species of intelligent lifeforms appear on Mars in C. S. Lewis's 1938 novelOut of the Silent Planet, only one of which is humanoid.[22][83] In the 1943 short story "The Cave" by P. Schuyler Miller, lifeforms endure on Mars long after the civilization that used to exist there has driven itself toextinction throughecological collapse.[2][22] The 1951 novelThe Sands of Mars byArthur C. Clarke features some indigenous life in the form ofoxygen-producing plants and Martian creatures resembling Earthmarsupials, but otherwise depicts a mostly desolate environment—reflecting then-emerging data about the scarcity of life-sustaining resources on Mars.[3][25][32][53] Other novels of the 1950s likewise limited themselves to rudimentary lifeforms such aslichens andtumbleweed that could conceivably exist in the absence of any appreciable atmosphere or quantities of water.[84]
In light of theMariner andViking probes to Mars between 1965 and 1976 revealing the planet's inhospitable conditions, almost all fiction started to portray Mars as a lifeless world.[2][36] The disappointment of finding Mars to be hostile to life is reflected in the 1970 novelDie Erde ist nah (The Earth Is Near) byCzech science fiction writerLuděk Pešek, which depicts the members of anastrobiological expedition on Mars driven to despair by the realization that their search for life there is futile.[2][10][65] A handful of authors still found ways to place life on the red planet:microbial life exists on Mars in the 1977 novelThe Martian Inca byIan Watson, and intelligent life is found inhibernation there in the 1977 short story "In the Hall of the Martian Kings" byJohn Varley.[2][10][36][65] By the turn of the millennium, the idea of microbial life on Mars gained popularity, appearing in the 1999 novelThe Martian Race byGregory Benford and the 2001 novelThe Secret of Life byPaul J. McAuley.[36]
As stories about an inhabited Mars fell out of favour in the mid-1900s amid mounting evidence of the planet's inhospitable nature, they were replaced by stories about enduring the harsh conditions of the planet.[3][25] Themes in this tradition includecolonization,terraforming, and pure survival stories.[2][3][25]
Thecolonization of Mars became a major theme in science fiction in the 1950s.[2] The central piece of Martian fiction in this era wasRay Bradbury's 1950fix-up novelThe Martian Chronicles, which contains a series of loosely connected stories depicting the first few decades of human efforts to colonize Mars.[22][61][85][86] Unlike later works on this theme,The Martian Chronicles makes no attempt at realism (Mars has a breathable atmosphere, for instance, even thoughspectrographic analysis had at that time revealed no detectable amounts ofoxygen); Bradbury said that "Mars is a mirror, not a crystal", a vehicle forsocial commentary rather than attempts to predict the future.[2][35][61] Contemporary issues touched upon in the book includeMcCarthyism in "Usher II",racial segregation andlynching in the United States in "Way in the Middle of the Air", andnuclear anxiety throughout.[61][87] There are also several allusions to theEuropean colonization of the Americas: the first few missions to Mars in the book encounter Martians, with direct references to bothHernán Cortés and theTrail of Tears, but the indigenous population soon goes extinct due tochickenpox in a parallel to thevirgin soil epidemics thatdevastated Native American populations as a result of theColumbian exchange.[22][25][41][61]
The majority of works about colonizing Mars endeavoured to portray the challenges of doing so realistically.[2] The hostile environment of the planet is countered by the colonists bringinglife-support systems in works like the 1951 novelThe Sands of Mars byArthur C. Clarke and the 1966 short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" byPhilip K. Dick,[3][65] the early colonists during the centuries-long terraforming process in the 1953 short story "Crucifixus Etiam" byWalter M. Miller Jr. are dependent ona machine that oxygenates their blood from the thin atmosphere,[53][88] and the scarcity of oxygen even after generations of terraforming forces the colonists to live in adomed city in the 1953 novelPolice Your Planet byLester del Rey.[22] In the 1955 fix-up novelAlien Dust byEdwin Charles Tubb, colonists are unable to return to a life on Earth because inhaling the Martian dust has given thempneumoconiosis and the lower gravity hasatrophied their muscles.[2][10][89] The 1952 novelOutpost Mars byCyril Judd (joint pseudonym ofCyril M. Kornbluth andJudith Merril) revolves around an attempt at making a Mars colony economically sustainable by way of resource extraction.[8]
Mars colonies seeking independence from or outright revolting against Earth is a recurring motif;[2][61] in del Rey'sPolice Your Planet a revolution is precipitated by Earth using unrest against the colony's corrupt mayor as a pretext for bringing Mars under firmerTerran control,[22][54][65] and in Tubb'sAlien Dust the coloniststhreaten Earth with nuclear weapons unless their demands for necessary resources are met.[89] In the 1952 short story "The Martian Way" byIsaac Asimov, Martian colonistsextract water from therings of Saturn so as not to depend on importing water from Earth.[53][54][61] Besides direct conflicts with Earth, Mars colonies get other kinds of unfavourable treatment in several works. Mars is a dilapidated colony and neglected in favour of locations outside of the Solar System in the 1967 novelBorn Under Mars byJohn Brunner,[2] a place where political dissidents and criminals areexiled inPolice Your Planet,[65] and the site of an outrightprison colony in the 1966 novelFarewell, Earth's Bliss byDavid G. Compton.[2][25] The vision of Mars as a prison colony recurs inJapanese science fiction authorMoto Hagio's 1978–1979manga seriesStar Red (スター・レッド), ahomage to Bradbury'sThe Martian Chronicles.[90] The independence theme was adopted by on-screen portrayals of Mars colonies in the 1990s in works like the 1990 filmTotal Recall (a loose adaptation of Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale") and the 1994–1998 television seriesBabylon 5, now both in terms of Earth-based governments and—likely inspired by the emergence ofReaganomics—especially corporations.[91]
Clarke'sThe Sands of Mars features one of the earliest depictions ofterraforming Mars to make it more hospitable to human life; in the novel, theatmosphere of Mars is made breathable by plants that releaseoxygen from minerals in theMartian soil, and theclimate is improved by creating an artificial sun.[14][32] The theme appeared occasionally in other 1950s works like the aforementioned "Crucifixus Etiam" andPolice Your Planet, but largely fell out of favour in the 1960s as the scale of the associated challenges became apparent.[44][53][92] By the 1970s, Martian literature as a whole had mostly succumbed to the discouragement of finding the planet's conditions to be so hostile, and stories set on Mars became much less common than they had been in previous decades.[2][32]
A resurgence of popularity of the terraforming theme began to emerge in the late 1970s in light of data from theViking probes suggesting that there might be substantial quantities of non-liquid and sub-surfacewater on Mars; among the earliest such works are the 1977 novelThe Martian Inca by Ian Watson and the 1978 novelA Double Shadow byFrederick Turner.[2][53][84][93] Works depicting the terraforming of Mars continued to appear throughout the 1980s. The 1984 novelThe Greening of Mars byJames Lovelock andMichael Allaby, a study on how Mars might be settled and terraformed presented in the form of a fiction narrative, was influential on science and fiction alike.[44][93][94][95]Kim Stanley Robinson was an early prolific writer on the subject with the 1982 short story "Exploring Fossil Canyon", the 1984 novelIcehenge, and the 1985 short story "Green Mars". Turner revisited the concept in 1988 withGenesis, a 10,000-lineepic poem written iniambic pentameter, andIan McDonald combined terraforming withmagical realism in the 1988 novelDesolation Road.[2][53][93][96]
By the 1990s, terraforming had become the predominant theme in Martian fiction.[2] Several methods for accomplishing it were depicted, including ancient alien artefacts in the 1990 filmTotal Recall and the 1997 novelMars Underground byWilliam Kenneth Hartmann,[25][53] utilizing indigenous animal lifeforms in the 1991 novelMartian Rainbow byRobert L. Forward,[65] and relocating the entire planet to a newsolar system in the 1993 novelMoving Mars byGreg Bear.[25][97] The 1993 novelRed Dust byPaul J. McAuley portrays Mars in the process of reverting to its natural state after an abandoned attempt at terraforming it.[2][29][65] With a Mars settled primarily by China,Red Dust also belongs to a tradition of portraying a multicultural Mars that developed parallel to the rise to prominence of the terraforming theme. Other such works include the 1989 novelCrescent in the Sky byDonald Moffitt, where Arabs apply their experience with surviving in desert conditions to living in their newcaliphate on a partially terraformed Mars, and the 1991 novelThe Martian Viking byTim Sullivan where Mars is terraformed byGeats led byHygelac.[29][53][93]
The most prominent work of fiction dealing with the subject of terraforming Mars is theMars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (consisting of the novelsRed Mars from 1992,Green Mars from 1993, andBlue Mars from 1996),[2][3][25] ahard science fiction story of aUnited Nations project wherein 100 carefully selected scientists are sent to Mars to start the first settlement there.[98][99] The series explores in depth the practical and ideological considerations involved, the principal one being whether to turn Mars "Green" by terraforming or keep it in its pristine "Red" state.[94][99] Other major topics besides theethics of terraforming include the social and economic organization of the emerging Martian society and its political relationship to Earth and themultinational economic interests that finance the mission, revisiting the earlier themes of Mars as a setting for utopia—albeit in this case one in the making rather than a pre-existing one—and Martian struggle for independence from Earth.[35][94][100][101]
Alternatives to terraforming have also been explored. The opposite approach of modifying humans to adapt them to the existing environment, known aspantropy, appears in the 1976 novelMan Plus byFrederik Pohl but has otherwise been sparsely depicted.[25][98] The conflict between pantropy and terraforming is explored in the 1994 novelClimbing Olympus byKevin J. Anderson, as the humans that have been "areoformed" to survive on Mars do not wish the planet to be altered to accommodate unmodified humans at their expense.[2][99][102] Other works where terraforming is eschewed in favour of alternatives include the 1996 novelRiver of Dust byAlexander Jablokov, where the settlers create a liveable environment by burrowing underground,[10][103] and the 1999 novelWhite Mars, or, The Mind Set Free: A 21st-Century Utopia byBrian Aldiss andRoger Penrose whereenvironmental preservation is prioritized and humans live in domed cities.[99]
Martianrobinsonades—stories ofastronauts stranded on Mars—emerged in the 1950s with works such as the 1952 novelMarooned on Mars by Lester del Rey, the 1956 novelNo Man Friday byRex Gordon, and the 1959 short story "The Man Who Lost the Sea" byTheodore Sturgeon.[2][10] Crossley writes thatNo Man Friday is in some respects an "anti-robinsonade", inasmuch as it rejects the underlying colonialist attitudes and portrays the Martians as more advanced than humans rather than less.[61] Robinsonades remained popular throughout the 1960s; examples include the 1966 novelWelcome to Mars byJames Blish and the 1964 filmRobinson Crusoe on Mars, the latter being significantly if unofficially based onNo Man Friday.[2][25] The subgenre was later revisited with the 2011 novelThe Martian byAndy Weir and its2015 film adaptation,[3] in which an astronaut accidentally left behind by the third mission to Mars uses the resources available to him to survive until such a time that he can be rescued.[104]
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Although most stories by the middle of the 1900s acknowledged that advances inplanetary science had rendered previous notions about the conditions of Mars obsolete and portrayed the planet accordingly, some continued to depict a romantic version of Mars rather than a realistic one.[2][35][61] Besides the stories ofRay Bradbury's 1950fix-up novelThe Martian Chronicles, another early example of this wasRobert A. Heinlein's 1949 novelRed Planet where Mars has a breathable (albeit thin) atmosphere, a diverse ecosystem including sentient Martians, and Lowellian canals.[2][14][35][61]Martian canals remained a prominent symbol of this more traditional vision of Mars, appearing both in lighthearted works like the 1954 novelMartians, Go Home byFredric Brown and more serious ones like the 1963 novelThe Man Who Fell to Earth byWalter Tevis and the 1964 novelMartian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick.[35][65] Some works attempted to reconcile both visions of Mars, one example being the 1952 novelMarooned on Mars by Lester del Rey where the presumed canals turn out to be rows of vegetables and the only animal life is primitive.[65]
As theSpace Age commenced the divide between portraying Mars as it was and as it had previously been imagined deepened, and the discoveries made byMariner 4 in 1965 solidified it.[53][65] Some authors simply ignored the scientific findings, such asLin Carter who included intelligent Martians in the 1973 novelThe Man Who Loved Mars, andLeigh Brackett who declared in the foreword toThe Coming of the Terrans (a 1967 collection of earlier short stories) that "in the affairs of men and Martians, mere fact runs a poor second to Truth, which is mighty and shall prevail".[61][65] Others were cognizant of them and used workarounds:Frank Herbert invented the fictionalextrasolar Mars-like planetArrakis for the 1965 novelDune rather than setting the story on Mars,Robert F. Young set the 1979 short story "The First Mars Mission" in 1957 so as not to have to take the findings of Mariner 4 into account, andColin Greenland set the 1993 novelHarm's Way in the 1800s with corresponding scientific concepts like theluminiferous aether.[65][93] The 1965 novelThe Alternate Martians byA. Bertram Chandler is based on the premise that the depictions of Mars that appear in older stories are not incorrect but reflectalternative universes; the book is dedicated to "the Mars that used to be, but never was".[49] The urge to recapture the romantic vision of Mars is reflected as part of the story in the 1968 novelDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, where the people living on a desolate Mars enjoy reading old stories about the lifeful Mars that never was,[53] as well as in the 1989 novelThe Barsoom Project bySteven Barnes andLarry Niven, where the fantastical version of Mars is recreated as anamusement park.[29]
Following the arrival of theViking probes in 1976, the so-called "Face on Mars" superseded the Martian canals as the most central symbol of nostalgic depictions of Mars.[65] The "Face" is a rock formation in the Cydonia region of Mars first photographed by theViking 1 orbiter under conditions that made it resemble a human face; higher-quality photographs taken by subsequent probes under different lighting conditions revealed this to be a case ofpareidolia.[40][106] It was popularized byRichard C. Hoagland, who interpreted it as an artificial construction by intelligent extraterrestrials, and has appeared in works of fiction including the 1992 novelLabyrinth of Night byAllen Steele, the 1995 short story "The Great Martian Pyramid Hoax" byJerry Oltion, and the 1998 novelSemper Mars byIan Douglas.[2][10][106] Outside of literature, it has made appearances in the 1993 episode "Space" ofThe X-Files, the 2000 filmMission to Mars, and the 2002 episode "Where the Buggalo Roam" of the animated television showFuturama.[10][29]
Deliberately nostalgic homages to older works have continued to appear through the turn of the millennium.[2][10] In the 1999 novelRainbow Mars by Larry Niven, atime traveller goes to visit Mars's past but instead appears in the parallel universe of Mars's fictional past and encounters the creations of science fiction authors such asH. G. Wells andEdgar Rice Burroughs.[2][107] Stories collected inPeter Crowther's 2002 anthologyMars Probes pay tribute to the works ofStanley G. Weinbaum and Leigh Brackett, among others.[2][108] The 2013 anthologyOld Mars edited byGeorge R. R. Martin andGardner Dozois consists of newly written stories in theplanetary romance style of older stories whose visions of Mars are now outdated; Martin compared it to the common practice of settingWesterns in a romanticized version of theOld West rather than a more realistic one.[2][34]
Stories about the firsthuman mission to Mars became popular after US presidentGeorge H. W. Bush announced theSpace Exploration Initiative in 1989, which proposed to accomplish this feat by 2019,[2] though the concept had earlier appeared indirectly in the 1977 filmCapricorn One, whereinNASA fakes the Mars landing.[2][14][109] Among these are the 1992 novelBeachhead byJack Williamson and the 1992 novelMars inBen Bova'sGrand Tour series,[2] both of which emphasize the barrenness of the Martian landscape upon arrival and contrast it with a desire to find beauty there.[35] The idea was spoofed in the 1990 novelVoyage to the Red Planet byTerry Bisson, which posits that a mission like that could only get funding by being turned into a movie.[2][10][97][110] Stephen Baxter's 1996 novelVoyage depicts analternate history where US presidentJohn F. Kennedy was notassassinated in 1963, ultimately leading to the first Mars landing happening in 1986.[2][53][111][112] The 1999 novelThe Martian Race by Gregory Benford adapts theMars Direct proposal byaerospace engineerRobert Zubrin to fiction by depicting aprivate sector competition to conduct the first crewed Mars landing with a large monetary reward attached. Zubrin would later write a story of his own along the same lines: the 2001 novelFirst Landing.[2][97] In a variation on the theme,Ian McDonald's 2002 short story "The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars" (included in the aforementioned anthologyMars Probes) portrays the lingering yearning for Mars in a future where the intended first Mars landing was cancelled and the era of space exploration has come to an end without the dream of a human mission to Mars ever being realized.[2][108]
Beyond the events of the first crewed landing on Mars, this time period also saw an increase in portrayals of the early stages of exploration and settlement happening in the near future, especially following the 1996 launches of theMars Pathfinder andMars Global Surveyor probes.[2] In the 1991 novelRed Genesis byS. C. Sykes [Wikidata], settlement of Mars begins in 2015, though the bulk of the narrative is set decades later and focuses on the social—rather than technical—challenges of the project.[97] The 1997 novelMars Underground by William K. Hartmann also deals with the early efforts of establishing a permanent human presence on the red planet.[2] The members of the third human mission to Mars are forced to trek across the planet's surface in the 2000 novelMars Crossing byGeoffrey A. Landis to reach a return vehicle from a previous mission after theirs is damaged beyond repair.[97]
[Mars] offers an accessible and somewhat-known-but-somewhat-mysterious setting for all kinds of imaginative storylines. For this reason, video games love using Mars-related maps or themes – colonisation, space travel, dying and dystopian societies, scientific research settlements gone wrong, cosmic war, aliens, the unknown.
In the year 2000, Westfahl estimated the total number of works of fiction dealing with Mars up to that point to exceed five thousand.[32] Depictions of Mars have remained common since then, though without a clear overarching trend—rather, saysThe Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Mars fiction has "ramified in several directions".[2]Monster movies set on Mars have appeared throughout this time period including the 2001 filmGhosts of Mars, the 2005 filmDoom (based onthe video game franchise), and the 2013 filmThe Last Days on Mars.[113] In the 2003 novelIlium byDan Simmons and its 2005 sequelOlympos, theTrojan War is reenacted on Mars,[54] and the 2011 animated filmMars Needs Moms revisits the older theme of evil Martians coming to Earth, though with more modest ambitions than launching an all-out invasion.[32] The 2011–2021 novel seriesThe Expanse byJames S. A. Corey (joint pseudonym ofDaniel Abraham andTy Franck), starting withLeviathan Wakes, is aspace opera set in part on Mars that was originally based on arole-playing game and later adapted toa television series starting in 2015.[2][114]Tom Chmielewski's 2014 novelLunar Dust, Martian Sands is a piece ofnoir fiction set partially on Mars.[2][115]The Martian—book and film—ishard science fiction; the film adaptation was described by the production team as being "as much science fact as science fiction".[43] The 100th anniversary of Burroughs'sA Princess of Mars in 2012 saw the release of both the film adaptationJohn Carter and an anthology of newBarsoom fiction:Under the Moons of Mars: New Adventures on Barsoom edited byJohn Joseph Adams.[2] InPolish science fiction,Rafał Kosik's 2003 novelMars [pl] depicts people migrating to Mars to escape an Earth ravaged byoverpopulation, and an anthology of short stories titledMars: Antologia polskiej fantastyki (Mars: An Anthology of Polish Fantasy) was published in 2021.[27][116] Mars has also made frequent appearances invideo games; examples include the 2001 gameRed Faction which is set on Mars and the 2014 gameDestiny where Mars is anunlockable setting.[42] In addition, Mars continues to make regular appearances in stories where it is not the main focus, such asJoe Haldeman's 2008 novelMarsbound.[2][27] Says Crossley, "Where imagined Mars will go as the twenty-first century unfolds cannot be prophesied, because—undoubtedly—improbable, original, and masterful talents will work new variations on the matter of Mars."[108]
Mars has two small moons,Phobos andDeimos, which were both discovered byAsaph Hall in 1877.[10] The first appearance of the moons of Mars in fiction predates their discovery by a century and a half; the satirical 1726 novelGulliver's Travels byJonathan Swift includes a mention that the advanced astronomers ofLaputa have discovered two Martian moons.[b][43][117] The 1752 workMicromégas byVoltaire likewise mentions two moons of Mars;astronomy historianWilliam Sheehan [Wikidata] surmises that Voltaire was inspired by Swift.[117] German astronomerEberhard Christian Kindermann [de], mistakenly believing that he had discovered a Martian moon, described a fictional voyage to it in the 1744 story "Die Geschwinde Reise" ("The Speedy Journey").[8]
The moons' small sizes have made them unpopular settings in science fiction,[c] with some exceptions such as the 1955 novelPhobos, the Robot Planet byPaul Capon and the 2001 short story "Romance with Phobic Variations" byTom Purdom in the case of Phobos, and the 1936 short story "Crystals of Madness" byD. L. James in the case of Deimos.[10] Phobos is turned into a smallstar to provide heat and light to Mars in the 1951 novelThe Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke.[14] The moons are revealed to be alien spacecraft in the 1955juvenile novelThe Secret of the Martian Moons byDonald A. Wollheim.[22]
War of the Worlds is an archetypical piece of science fiction, and one of the most influential books in the canon.
But Mars holds little interest for the Marquise and the philosopher. The few data generated by seventeenth-century science suggest that Mars is so similar to Earth that it "isn't worth the trouble of stopping there". Martians, it would seem, are probably too much like us to afford many of the pleasures of novelty that other habitable worlds promised.
Mars was defined by the ecological constraints dictated by the nebular hypothesis. The planet dominated fantasies of a plurality of worlds during this period [...] If Darwin and Lowell were correct, then the inhabitants of this older world should have evolved beyond nineteenth-century humanity—biologically, culturally, politically, and perhaps morally as well.
But in the last decades of the nineteenth century, a discernible shift of locale took place. Fictional goings and comings between Earth and Mars took precedence over all other forms of the interplanetary romance.
In some cases, however, the method of passage to Mars is ignored altogether.
In Edgar Rice Burroughs's novels, John Carter travels to Barsoom by means of "astral projection," a way of moving the mind without moving the body.
In those days the Solar System was thought to have been born by the accretion of a rotating cloud of gas and dust according to a "nebular hypothesis" proposed by the German Immanuel Kant and developed further by the Frenchman Pierre Simon de Laplace. The main difference with the current theory is that the cloud was thought to have condensed and cooled down starting from the outer edge so that the outer planets are older than the inner ones and thus evolved further.
The three books [of Kim Stanley Robinson'sMars trilogy] indeed enact a forward-moving history, a utopia-in-progress, rather than an achieved ideal state.
a number of popular novels saw Mars as the perfect place for a utopian society. Examples are [...]Bellona's Bridegroom:[sic] A Romance
[...]Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P Serviss which was written as a more upbeat American sequel—unauthorised, naturally—to H G Wells's Martian invasion storyThe War of the Worlds
By the early 1950s, scientific assessments of Mars had made the colonization of an earthlike twin seem unlikely. Although the composition of the atmosphere would not be understood until the Mariner era, best-guess estimates of available water and oxygen placed the inventories of those resources far below what would be necessary to sustain human life.
'Martian', in popular usage, is a metonym for 'alien'
In a way, the word 'Martian' has become synonymous with 'alien'
Klaatu is also a Christ figure
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)This introduced the idea not only that some aliens might be friendly or helpful or even cute, but also that they might just be reallydifferent, neither humanoid nor monstrous—and that some of them might simply be indifferent to us.
Robinson's trilogy is structured ideationally as a series of conflicts between competing visions of terraforming Mars and, therefore, opposing views of politics, economics, and social organization.
At the same time as they attempt to settle this debate, the colonists have to sort out the political relationship between their new home and Earth.
Meanwhile, two recurring themes in SF treating Mars is that of Mars as a locale for building Utopia (James 1996: 64–75) and of Martian societies gaining independence from Earth (Baxter 1996: 8–9).
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