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I wasn't sure where to post this, but it seems this is the most likely area.
I'm trying to find a book for someone, but I have very limited information.
It's from the 50's or 60's or around that period. A first mission arrives on Mars, only to find a dead astronaut already there.
I'm afraid that's all I know. If anyone out there has an idea of what book this might be, please let me know.
Thanks!
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I wasn't sure where to post this, but it seems this is the most likely area.
I'm trying to find a book for someone, but I have very limited information.
It's from the 50's or 60's or around that period. A first mission arrives on Mars, only to find a dead astronaut already there.
I'm afraid that's all I know. If anyone out there has an idea of what book this might be, please let me know.
Thanks!
*Hello. Sorry, I don't know. It sounds vaguely familiar but an author name or title isn't coming to mind.
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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That's really all you know? rather vague, but could it be The Martian Chronicles from Bradbury?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/055327 … e&n=283155
There the first mission is killed...
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The 50's and 60's were a renaissance of sorts for Martian themed fiction. It was a time before science and technology killed the last dreaming Martian. [sigh]
Without more information, it will be impossible to accurately determine which story you are looking for. The motif you reference is a common theme.
Try Bradbury. You will have to sift through a lot of short-stories, as Mars themed fiction from that era is generally of the pulp-magazine variety.
Review Amazing Stories, Absolutely Weird.
Do you have a sense if the story is long, or short? That might help narrow the possibilities.
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Please try to find out if the story was a novel or short story. Also, if you can get any idea of whether the story was written before or after Mariner 4, we could narrow down the time it was published.
I did do a quick database search for you. So far, mixed news: In spite of the plethora of stories about resurrected spacemen from that period (wierd! :shock: ), I found no plot summaries that matched what you're describing. Most of the bibliographic databases available only track these stories back to about 1980, so it proves nothing by itself, but does show that this particular dramatic device is at least rare. So, the point about believing they're the first expedition and finding a dead astronaut when they get there might actually be sufficient to identify the story.
This is not a Ray Bradbury story. (Bradbury's stuff has apparently been catalogued to death, and, preferring resurrected spacemen, he never wrote a story along those lines.) It's probably not a Robert Heinlein story, either.
"We go big, or we don't go." - GCNRevenger
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The closest to this one I know is the story "A Smaller Step," from the anthology 'Dimensions' from Adventure Books of Seattle.
However, the story takes place on the moon, not Mars. Two cosmonauts arrive under much secrecy at the new lunar station recently built by NASA. They ask two American astronauts to drive them out forty miles from the station.
At first, the astronauts balk, saying it is too far to risk, but a letter (basically orders) from the White House that the cosmonauts carry give them no choice.
After a dangerous drive across the lunar landscape, the cosmonauts tell the Americans they will go over a certain ridge alone, and that they need no assistance.
What they find on the other side is the key to the story, and a very surprising ending!
You can see this book at www.lulu.com/adventurebooks
Don't give up reaching for the stars...
just build yourself a bigger ladder.
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Has anyone ever attempted a counterfactual Martian Chronicals. I mean start with the Mars we know and then make the minimum changes to its environment so that the planet supports intelligent life and has canals on it. Suppose it were possible to breath the atmosphere and survive without a space suit? If we attempted to make astronomical Mars consistant with this fact, what would it look like? Would it still be the red planet name after the God of War or would it look different? Would it need an ocean or would canals suffice?
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:oops: I just saw that post I made back there in May. My apologies for that one. I forget there are other things besides science fiction writing and publishing. Wait...is there? 8) My wife Gayla keeps saying yes, there is. One of these days I should listen to her...maybe.
Tom Kalbfus: No, but I did write a book recently called 'The 13th Day of Christmas,'about a first manned mission to Mars. No canals, but it's illustrated with 30 hi-res images. You can see it at the web link below. I won't hawk the address here. :oops:
Don't give up reaching for the stars...
just build yourself a bigger ladder.
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