Perfect Summer reading! That’s what Fourth Planet from the Sun (2005) turned out to be for me. Gordon Van Gelder collects some of the best Mars stories first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and provides catchy introductions.
What would a Mars anthology be without a Ray Bradbury story? Or an Arthur C. Clarke story? And, who could resist Leigh Brackett’s “Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon”?
Roger Zelazny’s “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1964. John Varley’s “In the Hall of the Martian Kings” was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1977. “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” morphed in the Arnold Schwarzenegger hit, Total Recall.
I also got a kick out of Van Gelder putting Robert F. Young’s “The First Mars Mission” next to Michael Casutt’s “The Last Mars Trip.” All together, Fourth Planet from the Sun delivers a dozen stories that will delight you! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION — xi
| The Wilderness | – | Ray Bradbury — 1 |
| Mars Is Ours | – | Alfred Coppel — 13 |
| Crime on Mars | – | Arthur C. Clarke — 27 |
| Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon | – | Leigh Brackett — 35 |
| A Rose for Ecclesiastes | – | Roger Zelazny — 57 |
| We Can Remember It For You Wholesale | – | Philip K. Dick — 101 |
| Hellas is Florida | – | Gordon Eklund & Gregory Benford — 127 |
| In the Hall of the Martian Kings | – | John Varley — 149 |
| The First Mars Mission | – | Robert F. Young — 199 |
| The Last Mars Trip | – | Michael Cassutt — 213 |
| The Great Martian Pyramid Hoax | – | Jerry Oltion — 233 |
| Pictures from an Expedition | – | Alex Irvine –251 |
Leigh Brackett indulging in a bit of self-parody, as I recall. But, then, PLANET STORIES was long-dead by then.
The Dick is VASTLY better than the film adaptation-of-sorts. Not too difficult, but I think it should be noted.
The Dick, the Zelazny (como no?) and the Varley were the ones that stirred me the most upon initial reading, and not solely because I was young, but it didn’t hurt. The one I’m most curious about at the moment is the Coppel, as a relatively busy contributor to sf magazines in the ’50s who came to wider note with such suspense novels as THIRTY-FOUR EAST in the ’70s.
I might or might not have this volume in a storage box, from the relatively chaotic but steadily-paid days at TVG.
Todd, I ran across this volume in a thrift store about a month ago. I had never seen it before…or knew of its existence. Well worth the quarter I paid for it!