A little bit of Mars goes a long way.

 It intrigues us. It interests us, fascinates us. Some are obsessed by it. It compels us and lures us. Just as it lured John Carter all those years ago. 

What am I talking about.

Mars.

The planet that is, not the chocolate bar.

As I start to undertake the research for an upcoming novel, I thought it would be great to launch off some of my reading and explore the idea of Mars through the science fiction lens.

Which is easier said than done. What's the problem I hear you ask. Well, we have come a long way since Giovanni Schiaparelli pointed his telescope at the red planet and began to make his now infamous observations.

I thought, well, maybe he was using a poor-quality telescope, with shabby optics. But this doesn't prove to be the case. He was using the 218 mm refracting telescope installed at the Brera Observatory in Milan, which at the time would have been state of the art in optics. The telescope was built by a guy named Georg Merz, who was no slouch in telescope making. His instruments were installed at Cincinnati Observatory, and Harvard College Observatory, as well at Sydney Observatory. These were prestige institutions who would have been after quality. Goes without saying really.

I also wondered about Schiaparelli 's creds as an astronomer, but it seems he was esteemed enough to have held the position of assistant observer at the Pulkovo Observatory in Russia, which he gave up moving across to Milan in 1860. Giovanni became observatory director in 1862. He discovered the asteroid, Hesperia, and worked out that meteor showers had their own orbits. It was Schiaparelli who determined that Mercury and Venus rotated on their axes at the same rate they orbited the sun so that they kept the same face to the sun all the time.

This guy was no slouch.

Then one day he sat down at the eyepiece with pen and paper and started to make his drawings of Mars. This is where the story becomes interesting. This is where the stuff of speculation, and imagination kicks in. This is the stuff that fuels fiction and gives us a deeper sense of romance than the prosaic, day to day routine of astronomical observation. I am not saying that astronomy isn't exciting, it is, however, my focus is on science fiction, emphasis on the fiction.

Any writer worth their salt does their research, which is why I have started doing mine, and well before I have even started writing the novel. But there comes a point where you have to determine how much of the science is going to loom in the background, how much in the foreground, and how important it is against the story you are trying to tell. What is macguffin and what isn't. But I hear you say, without the science there wouldn't be a story. Well, yes, and no. For me, it is important to determine how essential a role the science will play. Is it hard science fiction that would fall apart if you took the science out, or is it that softer kind, with the more human focus, which you can probably guess is where I hang my hat.

It will be interesting as I go along in this series, to see where the line is drawn in the Martian sands. Where the romance of it, in the words of Hugo Gernsback, gave way to the uncompromising science of the thing.

These days, in terms of what we read, and especially what we view, the backdrops must fit in with the idea we have of space travel, of exploring other worlds, staking claim to our own square kilometer of somewhere else, somewhere not on earth, somewhere unknown and most likely dangerous. Otherwise, what would be the point?

The backdrop fades into the background as just somewhere the action happens. Yes, science fiction uses the backdrop as part of the story. But, when you stop and think about it, it's not the mis en scene we are into, unless we are real nerds, and that's OK. I'm not sure I am into the physics of the turbo lifts in Star Trek, but I know some are, and that's cool.

What I am looking for is the development of character, and the out working of a strong plot, how the characters react to the stimulus of conflict, whether with each other or with the environment. Ah, I hear you cry, what are my thoughts on works such as Mars Attacks, or the delicious Moonfall? Let me delve into farce at some later stage. For the moment I'm setting the scene for what follows, a journey through the science fiction of Mars. With a few hints as to the state of scientific awareness as it stood when certain works were gifted to the public to read or to view.

I am keen to see how scientific discoveries help shift our fictive imaginations. Where were we before Mariner 4 sent back those historic 21 images?

So, where do I begin my journey to Mars? Why not start with an all-time classic, before the age of exploration began. I look to the master; Arthur C. Clarke and I commence my journey with the Sands of Mars.

Join me as once again I pass the SciFi.