My passion for Mars began when I stumbled upon an old newspaper article from 1926 about a lawyer who was in telepathic communication with a Martian woman named Oomaruru. How could I not be intrigued? As I dug into the story, I learned about his attempts to send telegrams to Mars, his disappointment at our scientists for not being smart enough to receive their responses, and the many other interesting beliefs about intelligent Martians that were prevalent at the time. The more I learned about this early history of Martians, the more fascinated I became. It all led me on the path to what became The Big Book of Mars.
Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since ancient civilizations observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war. But it wasn't until 1877, when "canals" were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there's life on Mars. In The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells suggested that we wouldn't need to make contact with Martians—they'd come for us—while a year later Nikola Tesla claimed that he did make contact.
Filled with entertaining history, archival images, pop culture ephemera, and interviews with NASA scientists, The Big Book of Mars is the most comprehensive look at our relationship with Mars—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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The beauty of The Martian is how its simple premise—man gets stuck on Mars and needs to find a way to live and get home—can include so much science yet be so accessible to a mass audience. Following Mark Watney’s plans for survival from growing potatoes from poop to rebooting Pathfinder is an endlessly entertaining journey.
Bradbury’s classic explores a future in which we populate Mars, but being the conquerors we are, we end up killing off all the native Martians. From there, Bradbury reminds us that even if we can escape Earth, we can’t escape ourselves. We face the same old human problems, they just happen to occur on a new planet.
This is the one non-fiction book on my list. Zubrin wrote The Case for Mars in the mid-1990s with a plan to get to the Red Planet, utilize its natural resources, terraform the planet, and build a society. That idea may sound like science fiction, but Zubrin lays out specific scientific details on how it could all be possible.
The first book of Robinson’s trilogy follows the first hundred settlers of Mars. Similar to Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles, we see how humanity’s baggage can never be left behind. But Robinson goes much deeper into the issues and the science, and creates a remarkable vision of what may come to be.
There are so many science fiction books about Mars, so I wanted to choose at least one of the more obscure ones. This one is particularly interesting because it explores the idea of a universe in which the many famous Martian tales that came before it, like John Carter of Mars, were based on actual beings and events—the details were just embellished and perhaps misremembered a bit by the authors.
5,888 authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about Mars, survival, and extraterrestrial life.
We think you will like Contact, The Lord of the Rings, and A Clockwork Orange if you like this list.
From David's list on humans taking the next big step into space.
Carl Sagan's PBS series Cosmos influenced my decision to pursue a career in astronomy, but I have always been a science fiction fan. When Sagan released a science fiction novel, I knew I needed it. He doesn't disappoint. He roots his story in the real Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence and imagines what could happen if we actually did contact life among the stars and they gave us a way to travel to them. I also love that much of the story is set at the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, where I worked during my senior year of college. His protagonist Ellie Arroway reminds me of many women I've worked with in the field.
From D.'s list on lyrical writing that will make you swoon.
This book holds a special place in my heart. I didn’t enjoy reading as a kid. I associated books with classroom classics and the painful scrawling of book reports. It wasn’t until I was thirteen that I picked up The Hobbit. Tolkien literally changed my life. The Lord of the Rings drew me deeply into the beauty of language. I lost myself in the trilogy and felt a deep sense of loss when I finished the last page. Fortunately, my foray into fantasy books had only begun. The Lord of the Rings opened a magical doorway that never closed and initiated a lifelong love of books.
From Dave's list on short sci-fi no one needs 1100 pgs of worldbuilding.
Burgess blew me away with how he used the number of chapters to tell a story in and of itself.
There are 21 chapters in Clockwork, and Burgess revealed in interviews that that number is quite purposeful; the book is about a boy maturing into a man, and Burgess used 21 chapters since that is the age at which people are legally considered adults in his homeland of England.
This book taught me that restricting myself on purpose (the way Burgess limited himself to exactly 21 chapters) would enhance my creativity, not hinder it. I also liked how he created his own slang for his characters and used it without explanation in the book, allowing his readers to suss it out from context. I liked that confidence.
