I know I ask for a lot of recommendations and I apologize for that but this community has given me a massive list of books/manga/anime to check out and I’ll probably be going through it all til I die.
My question is if anyone has any recommendations on sci-fi that is Mars related. I’ve always had a fascination with Mars and enjoy stories whether it is from the golden era or more modern. I have some books called Red/Green/Blue Mars that I haven’t read and I really want to get Jack Kirby’s The Face on Mars.
I have the Martian Chronicles but haven’t read it yet. One great Bradbury story is Mars is Heaven if you haven’t read it check it out.
Anyway, any recommendations would be appreciated
Never read one myself but John Carter of Mars sounds like a bit of well regarded classic pulp sci-fi
Oh yea! Heinlein is my favorite author and I know he loved the John Carter books. I have one in my mountain of books. I hear the movies didn’t do it justice
it's like conan on an alien planet, pretty much zero science and is actually action adventure fantasy (the techs work mostly like magic)
Finished the complete Robert E Howard Conan back in October so sounds like I’d enjoy it
Considering half the shit that gets posted here your asking for things to read/watch are nowhere near annoying and will also help to guide others to the material as well.
Thanks. I think so too and gets people to discuss mangas, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, gaming, etc in comments with each other
ARIA
(In all seriousness, you probably won't like it. But it technically is. Technically. And so is Cowboy Bebop.)
Why wouldn’t I like it?
ARIA is a manga series from the early 2000's set on a far future Mars that is so inundated with water from terraforming that the only inhabited city is Neo Venezia, and the main character is a girl named Akari who immigrates there to become a gondola helmsman. In manga circles its often mentioned along with Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Record of a Yokohama Shopping Trip) as a story that takes a fuck long time to go basically nowhere at a walking pace.
If you think it’s worth a read I’ll add it to my list
I sincerely do not think you'd like it.
I loved Aria. It is such a sweet story.
John Varley wrote a series of books starting with Red Thunder where the premise is that some ordinary young adults cross paths with a former astronaut and his oddball Cajun cousin and start building a spaceship to beat the Chinese to landing on Mars.
Interesting. Never heard of that author
I have it but have t tread it yet. I heard it was better than the movie
In terms of a hard sci-fi take on the mechanics of actually getting to Mars, setting up a colony and terraforming it, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is unparalleled. The quality of the writing if also top notch. However, Robinson is also a frothing-at-the-mouth leftist and the commentary on how his colonists create a new society on a new planet is infused with his own politics, so that's a huge drawback.
Ok. Well I have them but I’ll get around to reading them eventually
Counter argument against that book series, it's mostly about the politics and interpersonal dramas of the new (diverse) colony, very litte action, story starts when the colony was already established so none of that initial set up hardships/sciences, long passages about boring landscapes of long drives on Mars and according to the goodreads reviews, he even got some of the basic sciences not directly pertaining to space engineering wrong. Dropped after the first couple chapters after realizing it's not something I want to listen.
Thanks for the heads up
Does the end of Total Recall [1990] let it count as a Mars scifi?
True. Plus Total Recall is based on We Can Remember for You Wholesale by Phillip K Dick. I gave it in my stack to read so not sure if it’s on Mars at all
SM Stirling's long abandoned The Lords of Creation series' second book, In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, probably fits your bill.
It's a setting where the golden age sci-fi was right about Venus and Mars. The Martian Book has a fallen high Martian Culture, which the Cold War Superpowers start interacting with.
Stirling's Emberverse series gets a pass from me, but this book was good stuff.
Sounds great!!
This is a pretty good one "Moving Mars"
Hardish Sci Fi. It is part of a shared universe but all the books in it are standalone. I read books 3 and 4 of the series and both were good.
Generally Greg Bear is a pretty good author.
Thanks! I have read one book by Greg Bear about finding a space habitat orbiting earth that came from a more advanced parallel earth. Been meaning to get more of his work
it's not explicitly about Mars, but the anime Iron Blooded Orphans explores an interesting dynamic between people living on Mars and people living on Earth.
Aldnoah Zero also explores the same topic.
Cool! Thanks!
Stranger in a Strange Land is about a human returning from Mars after being raised in Martian culture.
Fosterite Church of the New Revelation described in the book seems prescient.
I love that book. Not sure why so many fake woke sci-fi fans today hate it
I only know mars daybreak and gundam ibo. But the latter is waterworld with robots and the former is mari okada makes a trainwreck.
Sounds kinda cool
Life on Mars is a bunch of short stories.
There is a book being edited called Our Life on Mars, but it's not out yet. The main character is a scout for a construction project on Mars. He sets up the camps, places all the needed equipment, and runs an arcade for the crew. Internet characters have decided to mess with the construction, and he is trying to figure out the trick to everything. I was an alpha reader for it, and enjoyed the read.
Thanks! Sounds really good
I should also add a City on Mars by Zach Weinersmith.
https://www.acityonmars.com/
It's not hard sci-fi, but I'll add the 2002-2007 webcomic Miracle of Science to the list. Short description is a Mad Scientist hunting cop gets teamed up with a psychiatrist from Mars (which, in the setting, is populated by humans who figured out how to connect human minds in a group consciousness) to track down a mad scientist trying to turn the entire solar system into a robot-run society.
Thanks!!
Andy weir the Martian?
The one where the guy is stranded on Mars right?
yeah has a movie starring Matt damon