Mars in fiction

1877

The ideas of Mars as science fiction would first start with Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877.

1890

The narrator flies his craft, the Astronaut, to visit diminutive beings on Mars. Uranie (1889, translated as Urania in 1890) by Camille Flammarion.

1903

At the end of the book, it is disclosed that the Martians' ancestors had possessed the technology to build spaceships and invade Earth, but renounced that possibility and stoically resigned themselves to dying out. =====1940s===== What Mad Universe (1949) by Fredric Brown depicts an alternate history where humans discovered anti-gravity in 1903 and launched a war to conquer Mars, which is inhabited by creatures with a culture equal to that of Earth, but militarily weaker.

1910

Early science fiction about Mars often involved the first voyages to the planet, sometimes as an invasion force, more often for the purposes of exploration. =====Early works to 1910===== Across the Zodiac (1880) by Percy Greg.

1920

The narrator is taken to Mars, which is imagined as a Socialist utopia. =====1910s and 1920s===== Le Mystère des XV (1911) by Jean de La Hire.

1924

The 1924 movie (Aelita) followed. Les Navigateurs de l'Infini (1925) by J.-H.

1930

Voyages to Mars in the Burroughs style, but set on a Mars of the past (in Kline's original work, his Mars and Venus stories were set in contemporary [1920s and 1930s] times; only the reprints from the 1960s state the tales are set in the distant past). "A Martian Odyssey" (1934), a short story by Stanley G.

Describes a comparatively realistic Mars landing, without any Martians. ====Living on Mars==== By the 1930s, stories about reaching Mars had become somewhat trite and the focus shifted to Mars as an alien landscape.

1933

A satirical novel about early Communist China set in a fictional country of cat-like people on Mars. The Swordsman of Mars and Outlaws of Mars (both 1933) by Otis Adelbert Kline.

1940

All that is long in the past of the series' 30th century plot, where Mars is an established human-settled planet, humans living mainly "in the fertile canal areas" while most of the planet is desert. =====1940s===== The Secret of Sinharat, People of the Talisman and another 11 stories published between 1940 and 1964 by Leigh Brackett.

1949

Later, Martians are drawn into Earth's war with Arcturus. A Technical Tale (written 1949, published 2006) by Wernher von Braun is a novel about the first human mission to Mars and their encounter with Martians on the planet; it includes a technical specification for the expedition to Mars. =====1950s===== The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury.

1960

Voyages to Mars in the Burroughs style, but set on a Mars of the past (in Kline's original work, his Mars and Venus stories were set in contemporary [1920s and 1930s] times; only the reprints from the 1960s state the tales are set in the distant past). "A Martian Odyssey" (1934), a short story by Stanley G.

The Fascist Mars is one of the main powers contending for control of the mineral wealth of the Asteroid Belt. =====1950s and early 1960s===== Genesis (1951) by H.

1964

Inspired the 1964 movie Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Phobos, the Robot Planet (a.k.a.

All that is long in the past of the series' 30th century plot, where Mars is an established human-settled planet, humans living mainly "in the fertile canal areas" while most of the planet is desert. =====1940s===== The Secret of Sinharat, People of the Talisman and another 11 stories published between 1940 and 1964 by Leigh Brackett.

2006

Later, Martians are drawn into Earth's war with Arcturus. A Technical Tale (written 1949, published 2006) by Wernher von Braun is a novel about the first human mission to Mars and their encounter with Martians on the planet; it includes a technical specification for the expedition to Mars. =====1950s===== The Martian Chronicles (1950) by Ray Bradbury.




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