A Martian Odyssey

By Stanley G. Weinbaum

Set on a Mars that never was. Dick Jarvis, one of the members of the first space ship to reach Mars sets out on a solo expedition to photograph the countryside. His Rockets engine gives out 800 miles from the ship and he is forced to walk back. Accompanied by a Martian that he saved from certain death Jarvis must face one danger after another if he is to get back home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilder Publications, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781515450863

Stanley G. Weinbaum

Né dans le Kentucky en 1902, Stanley G. Weinbaum étudie le génie chimique à l'université du Wisconsin à Milwaukee, mais n'en sort pas diplômé, non plus que Charles A. Lindbergh, qu’il y côtoie. À la suite d'un pari, Weinbaum passe un examen à la place d'un ami et est découvert ; il refuse de réintégrer l'université en 1923. À Milwaukee, il participe aux réunions des Milwaukee Fictioneers, un groupe d'écrivains parmi lesquels Robert Bloch, Ralph Milne Farley, Raymond Palmer, qui fut plus tard rédacteur en chef d'Amazing. Sa carrière littéraire est courte, mais influente. La plupart de ses nouvelles sont publiées dans les années trente par Astounding, Wonder Stories Magazine, ou le fanzine Fantasy Magazine. Il écrit également plusieurs romans de science-fiction ou de fantastique : La Flamme Noire (publié en 1939), Le Nouvel Adam, et Le Cerveau Fou, ainsi que plusieurs romances dont une seule, The Lady Dances, fut jamais publiée. Il meurt d’un cancer du poumon le 14 décembre 1935, âgé de 33 ans.

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A Martian Odyssey

by Stanley G. Weinbaum

©2021 Positronic Publishing

A Martian Odyssey is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, locales or institutions is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except for brief quotations for review purposes only.

Hardcover ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-5084-9

Trade Paperback ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-5085-6

E-book ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-5086-3

A Martian Odyssey

Jarvis stretched himself as luxuriously as he could in the cramped general quarters of the Ares.

Air you can breathe! he exulted. It feels as thick as soup after the thin stuff out there! He nodded at the Martian landscape stretching flat and desolate in the light of the nearer moon, beyond the glass of the port.

The other three stared at him sympathetically—Putz, the engineer, Leroy, the biologist, and Harrison, the astronomer and captain of the expedition. Dick Jarvis was chemist of the famous crew, the Ares expedition, first human beings to set foot on the mysterious neighbor of the earth, the planet Mars. This, of course, was in the old days, less than twenty years after the mad American Doheny perfected the atomic blast at the cost of his life, and only a decade after the equally mad Cardoza rode on it to the moon. They were true pioneers, these four of the Ares. Except for a half-dozen moon expeditions and the ill-fated de Lancey flight aimed at the seductive orb of Venus, they were the first men to feel other gravity than earth’s, and certainly the first successful crew to leave the earth-moon system. And they deserved that success when one considers the difficulties and discomforts—the months spent in acclimatization chambers back on earth, learning to breathe the air as tenuous as that of Mars, the challenging of the void in the tiny rocket driven by the cranky reaction motors of the twenty-first century, and mostly the facing of an absolutely unknown world.

Jarvis stretched and fingered the raw and peeling tip of his frost-bitten nose. He sighed again contentedly.

Well, exploded Harrison abruptly, are we going to hear what happened? You set out all shipshape in an auxiliary rocket, we don’t get a peep for ten days, and finally Putz here picks you out of a lunatic ant-heap with a freak ostrich as your pal! Spill it, man!

Speel? queried Leroy perplexedly. Speel what?

"He means ‘spiel’, explained Putz soberly. It iss to tell."

Jarvis met Harrison’s amused glance without the shadow of a smile. That’s right, Karl, he said in grave agreement with Putz. "Ich spiel es!" He grunted comfortably and began.

According to orders, he said, "I watched Karl here take off toward the North, and then I got into my flying sweat-box and headed South. You’ll

Reviews for A Martian Odyssey

[aulsmith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fun ramble across Mars meeting various life forms. Mostly light and fun, but also an excellent commentary on the limitations of human beings in understanding the truly alien.