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Old Mars (Bantam Books, October 8, 2013). Cover by Stephen Youll
This isn’t a Sword & Planet collection per se but is likely to prove interesting to readers of S&P.
It’s a big book, 548 pages of reading in 15 longish stories and an introduction by Martin. All the tales evoke the kind of Mars that readers of Burroughs, Bradbury, and Brackett will recognize — a red desert world full of mystery.
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Jacket copy for Old Mars
The stories are,
Red Planet Blues, intro by George R.R. Martin
“Martian Blood,” Allen M. Steele
“The Ugly Duckling,” Matthew Hughes (Very Bradburyesque. One of my favorites.)
“The Wreck of the Mars Adventure,” David D. Levine (Captain Kidd sails to Mars; what’s not to love?)
“Swords of Zar-Tu-Kan,” S.M. Stirling (Set in the same universe as Stirling’s wonderful S&P novel In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, and featuring the same main character)
“Shoals,” Mary Rosenblum
“In The Tombs of the Martian Kings,” Mike Resnick
“Out of Scarlight,” Liz Williams (Channeling Brackett. Very good.)
“The Dead Sea-Bottom Scrolls,” Howard Waldrop
“A Mand Without Honor,” James S.A. Corey
“Written in Dust,” Melinda Snodgrass
“The Lost Canal,” Michael Moorcock (Brackettesque)
“The Sunstone,” Phyllis Eisenstein
“King of the Cheap Romance,” Joe Lansdale (Gonzo fiction. Lansdale always good.)
“Mariner,” Chris Roberson (S&P with pirates)
“The Queen of Night’s Aria,” Ian McDonald (A riff off H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds)
Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for Black Gate was review of the Conan: City of the Dead by John C. Hocking.