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Mars Probes
Seventeen intriguing science fiction tales journey to the "Red Planet" to explore the mysteries and wonders of Mars, in all original short fiction by Ray Bradbury, Gene Wolfe, Allen Steele, Alastair Reynolds, Michael Moorcock, Brian Aldiss, Stephen Baxter, and other distinguished authors. Original.
- GenresScience FictionFiction
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2002
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About the author
Peter Crowther
194 books40 followersPeter Crowther, born in 1949, is a journalist, anthologist, and the author of many short stories and novels. He is the co-founder of PS Publishing and the editor of Postscripts.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 3, 2025
This is a Greenberg/DAW anthology edited by Peter Crowther of stories concerning Mars. The cover says "all-original," but the Ray Bradbury story was an oft reprinted one, and it also says: "In this fine volume you'll find seventeen imagination-grabbing tales...", but no matter how many times you count them there's only sixteen... and how could you do an anthology titled Mars Probes in 2002 without a story by the inimitable Geoffrey Landis? Anyway, it's an up and down selection of stories, a few forgettable ones and a few gems. I especially liked Michael Moorcock's homage to Leigh Brackett, Scott Edelman's story, and A Walk Across Mars by Allen Steele.
November 1, 2025
While the themed anthology full of original stories has been a mainstay of science fiction ever since the 1960s, the format just hasn't been as popular throughout the 21st-century as it was for the forty years beforehand. That's part of the reason I picked this up at a used bookshop; not only was it in decent condition when a fair number of the books I wanted weren't, but it features a bunch of original short stories from 2002 from a wide variety of authors, from some fluffier ones (like Eric Brown) to a few that I really respect like Reynolds and Wolfe. Sadly, it seems like this collection received some of these authors' lesser works - there's not a lot in here that really stands out, and a lot of it seems to pale in comparison to the authors' more well-known stories. But there were still some really fun times in here, and I'd like to talk about them one-by-one...
--"The Love Affair" was the only story in the collection that had been published previously, although not in the US; it probably won't surprise you that it was a Ray Bradbury tale set in the same universe as *The Martian Chronicles*. It's about a Martian who develops this obsession with a human woman, and while it may have had more thematic relevance or been more satisfying if I'd actually read *The Martian Chronicles*, I'm afraid it just didn't do it for me. I didn't care about the main character and I didn't feel attached to this depiction of Mars; it gets an unfortunate 6/10, but that's Bradbury for ya.
--"Myths of the Martian Future" is actually by first experience with Eric Brown, and it was a fun one. It's about these little Martians with eyestalks that scurry around the surface while taking part in a Martian ritual where the oldest males of a cohort (or something) are sent to make a big journey and come back. Along the way one starts to think that this ritual is really a way of weeding out the population, and while that's interesting, . It's a pretty fun story, with some decent worldbuilding. I wouldn't have minded a little more exploration of this Martian culture, but short n sweet works too. 7.25/10.
--Paul Di Flippo's "A Martian Theodicy" is the first recursive SF story here, and as the informed might be able to guess, it's a follow up to Weinbaum's influential (and very respectable) "A Martian Odyssey." In this story, the main character of its namesake has gone insane and his old comrades, as well as his Earthly girlfriend, are returning to Mars to rescue him. Or, apparently, that sequence feels completely unnecessary and I don't feel like the pivot in scope from the first book says anything important or fleshes anything out satisfyingly. It just... turned me away from Di Flippo, which is unfortunate, because usually he's good. 5/10.
--Alastair Reynolds gets things back on track with "The Real Story," in which a reporter visits Mars to interview a man famous for his past crashlanding on Mars. The catch? . It's the only story in the book that looks at a really realistic depiction of settling Mars, and the character drama is unique enough to pull you in without overstaying its welcome and becoming hand-wringingly melodramatic. This isn't as good as his more cosmically-inclined works, but I'll still give it a 7.5/10.
--"Flower Children of Mars" by Resnick and Bell is another recursive story, this time targeting Buroughs' John Carter series. In this installment, though, he (I think it's meant to be Carter) ends up on the Mars of the future, where polyamorous relations and drug use are the norm. It seemed edgy for no reason except to be edgy, which just... makes me roll my eyes. Pretty uninteresting, but not as offputting as di Flippo's, so... 5.5/10.
--"Out of the Blue, Into the Red" by James Lovegrove is a little slice of family melodrama told through letters sent between a man on Earth and his son, who always wanted to be an astronaut and went to colonize Mars despite his father's wishes against it. It's a sweet story told in a nice way, and if it pushed or boundaries or made things more interesting I'd give it more than a 7.25. But it's kind of a typical resolution, if heartfelt, so again - 7.25.
--Scott Edelman's "Mom, The Martians, and Me" is another slice of family melodrama. In this case, though, the parent is seemingly in the wrong - this small-town guy's mother nearly drives their small-town newspaper into the ground by obsessing about how her husband, who seemingly abandoned their family, was really "abducted by Martians." Is this just a way for her to cope? Her son thinks so. ... it's a weird fiction story as opposed to a science fiction one, but unlike some weird fiction which makes great statements about the world around them, this story... wasn't doing that as far as I could tell. It was just kind of pointless. It's not bad, but not memorable enough to me. 6.5/10.
--On the other hand, Ian McDonald's "The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars" is the standout story of this collection, according both to me and all the real critics. It depicts Mars through the eyes of an old Russian would-be-cosmonaut and a futuristic worker constructing the future through quantum theory, and while I'm not entirely sure how this happened because I was reading this at the wrong time, the level of subtleties and character crafting that happens during this story (in addition to more opaque, considered prose) sets this story apart from every other one here. I need to reread it, because I think it's probably quite good; 8/10.
--I usually like Allen Steele's work, and "A Walk Across Mars," which is set in this alternate-space-flight-development future history he likes to write, is no exception. It covers a feud between two Martian cosmonauts from its inception when they were still friends to the . The story is told through the lens of a ghostwriter interviewing one of these astronauts before his death, and it ends in a potent way. I liked framing the story through a ghostwriter - there's even probably a small shot it's autobiographical - and I liked the story told. Once again, it's a bit melodramatic, but in a way that warmed me. 7.5/10.
--Stephen Baxter brings the gravity of the situation into scope with "Martian Autumn," where a group of people on Earth exposed to these kids who were exposed to something find themselves unable to reproduce. Apparently a similar thing happened on Mars, and now humanity's entire future may be at stake. . Mars feels kind of shoe-horned into this story, almost as an afterthought, and I found the general thrust uninspiring as well; not bad, just not interesting amidst everything else. But I think I'm a little biased?... we'll go 6.5/10.
--Gene Wolfe tends to be a stunningly thoughtful writer, but "Shield of Mars" is a tale about two friends who run an air plant in a dying town and must fight to keep it going. It's kind of cute, but ultimately not memorable, and like a lot of stories here Mars just feels like a thematically convenient place for this tale to be told. 6.5/10.
--If you've ever wondered what it would be like to deal drugs as an employee of a Mars-based theme park, Paul McAuley has you covered - that's right, this story doesn't even bother to take place on Mars, just a theme park with segments dedicated to Burroughs and Wells and other pop culture. The main character is an employee who uses drugs to get through the day and sells it to similar employees to make it through their days, but when . It's a fun chase sequence with a surprisingly more memorable cast of characters than you'd think, but ultimately, it was nothing special. 6.75/10.
--"The War of the Worldviews" by James Morrow is Wells-pastiche in name alone; in all reality, it satirizes philosophy and the like more than anything else after two groups of warring Martians (one being more religion and one being more scientific) land in Brooklyn and go to war with each other there. The cast of pseudo-intellectual characters is able to . The fine points of the story aren't sticking with me, which isn't a good sign, but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. Its quirks are just a little disposable; still, for thinking a bit outside the box, 7/10.
--By the time we reached the end of the book, I think I was just a little ready to be done. "Near Earth Object" by Brian Aldiss should've been an engaging and memorable tale with multiple people posing as visitors from the future and the logic involved as the main characters try and figure out what's true and what's not. But it really didn't make that much of an impact on me. Part can probably be pinned on Aldiss' prose and story structure not being as engrossing and innovative as it was back in the day because this was towards the end of his career, but partially... I don't know. I'll forgo rating this one, but don't take that as a great sign...
--"The Me After the Rock" is genuinely different; it's just the transcript of two cosmonauts talking to each other during decontamination after a stint on Mars. One of them is quite into loving everyone around him now, almost as if the planet imbued him with some special appreciation of the world around him - it's a bit discomforting to the other guy, who eventually ... it's a different kind of format, which I can appreciate, although it's on a similar level of the Weird-fic scale as "Mom, The Martians, and Me." It is a little better than that, though, so... 6.75.
--Last but not least, Michael Moorcock pays tribute to Leigh Brackett with "Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel." Captain John MacShard, legendary tomb raider, gets embroiled looking for a lost woman and winds up ... MacShard is one tough cookie, and I wouldn't have minded reading more about him. The story isn't spectacular, but it hits all the right beats with a level of flavor and a pace that doesn't get boring. 7/10 - I need to read more sword-and-planet stuff...
And that's a wrap with *Mars Probes*. Before rating it, I want to talk about the general feeling I got from the book. To make this short, I'll sum it up in one word: uninspired. These stories are not the colorful of depictions of Mars from folks like Burorugh or Weinbaum, nor are these stories hopeful tales of colonization which culminated in Robinson's Mars trilogy, nor are these even literary stories which cleverly use Mars as a setting like PKD's *Martian Time-Slip*; these stories are all just kind of *there*, with the exception of McDonald's, and I think this drives home the fact that science fiction in the twenty-first century isn't as inspired as what came before it. A lot has already been done, and the field has been slowly sliding into more competently written but shallower works. *Mars Probes* proves that to me, and sadly, it's already twenty-three years out of date... as a book it gets a 6.5 (the average story rating was 6.73, and I think rounding down is fair). It's not *not* worth your time, but there are also better collections and better stories about Mars you could read; either way, thanks for reading me write about other people writing about Mars, and with a little bit of luck I'll see you around later for more competent SF reviews. Until then, remember to look for Mars when you glance upon the night's sky, and try to think about what you can say about it that hasn't already been said...
--"The Love Affair" was the only story in the collection that had been published previously, although not in the US; it probably won't surprise you that it was a Ray Bradbury tale set in the same universe as *The Martian Chronicles*. It's about a Martian who develops this obsession with a human woman, and while it may have had more thematic relevance or been more satisfying if I'd actually read *The Martian Chronicles*, I'm afraid it just didn't do it for me. I didn't care about the main character and I didn't feel attached to this depiction of Mars; it gets an unfortunate 6/10, but that's Bradbury for ya.
--"Myths of the Martian Future" is actually by first experience with Eric Brown, and it was a fun one. It's about these little Martians with eyestalks that scurry around the surface while taking part in a Martian ritual where the oldest males of a cohort (or something) are sent to make a big journey and come back. Along the way one starts to think that this ritual is really a way of weeding out the population, and while that's interesting, . It's a pretty fun story, with some decent worldbuilding. I wouldn't have minded a little more exploration of this Martian culture, but short n sweet works too. 7.25/10.
--Paul Di Flippo's "A Martian Theodicy" is the first recursive SF story here, and as the informed might be able to guess, it's a follow up to Weinbaum's influential (and very respectable) "A Martian Odyssey." In this story, the main character of its namesake has gone insane and his old comrades, as well as his Earthly girlfriend, are returning to Mars to rescue him. Or, apparently, that sequence feels completely unnecessary and I don't feel like the pivot in scope from the first book says anything important or fleshes anything out satisfyingly. It just... turned me away from Di Flippo, which is unfortunate, because usually he's good. 5/10.
--Alastair Reynolds gets things back on track with "The Real Story," in which a reporter visits Mars to interview a man famous for his past crashlanding on Mars. The catch? . It's the only story in the book that looks at a really realistic depiction of settling Mars, and the character drama is unique enough to pull you in without overstaying its welcome and becoming hand-wringingly melodramatic. This isn't as good as his more cosmically-inclined works, but I'll still give it a 7.5/10.
--"Flower Children of Mars" by Resnick and Bell is another recursive story, this time targeting Buroughs' John Carter series. In this installment, though, he (I think it's meant to be Carter) ends up on the Mars of the future, where polyamorous relations and drug use are the norm. It seemed edgy for no reason except to be edgy, which just... makes me roll my eyes. Pretty uninteresting, but not as offputting as di Flippo's, so... 5.5/10.
--"Out of the Blue, Into the Red" by James Lovegrove is a little slice of family melodrama told through letters sent between a man on Earth and his son, who always wanted to be an astronaut and went to colonize Mars despite his father's wishes against it. It's a sweet story told in a nice way, and if it pushed or boundaries or made things more interesting I'd give it more than a 7.25. But it's kind of a typical resolution, if heartfelt, so again - 7.25.
--Scott Edelman's "Mom, The Martians, and Me" is another slice of family melodrama. In this case, though, the parent is seemingly in the wrong - this small-town guy's mother nearly drives their small-town newspaper into the ground by obsessing about how her husband, who seemingly abandoned their family, was really "abducted by Martians." Is this just a way for her to cope? Her son thinks so. ... it's a weird fiction story as opposed to a science fiction one, but unlike some weird fiction which makes great statements about the world around them, this story... wasn't doing that as far as I could tell. It was just kind of pointless. It's not bad, but not memorable enough to me. 6.5/10.
--On the other hand, Ian McDonald's "The Old Cosmonaut and the Construction Worker Dream of Mars" is the standout story of this collection, according both to me and all the real critics. It depicts Mars through the eyes of an old Russian would-be-cosmonaut and a futuristic worker constructing the future through quantum theory, and while I'm not entirely sure how this happened because I was reading this at the wrong time, the level of subtleties and character crafting that happens during this story (in addition to more opaque, considered prose) sets this story apart from every other one here. I need to reread it, because I think it's probably quite good; 8/10.
--I usually like Allen Steele's work, and "A Walk Across Mars," which is set in this alternate-space-flight-development future history he likes to write, is no exception. It covers a feud between two Martian cosmonauts from its inception when they were still friends to the . The story is told through the lens of a ghostwriter interviewing one of these astronauts before his death, and it ends in a potent way. I liked framing the story through a ghostwriter - there's even probably a small shot it's autobiographical - and I liked the story told. Once again, it's a bit melodramatic, but in a way that warmed me. 7.5/10.
--Stephen Baxter brings the gravity of the situation into scope with "Martian Autumn," where a group of people on Earth exposed to these kids who were exposed to something find themselves unable to reproduce. Apparently a similar thing happened on Mars, and now humanity's entire future may be at stake. . Mars feels kind of shoe-horned into this story, almost as an afterthought, and I found the general thrust uninspiring as well; not bad, just not interesting amidst everything else. But I think I'm a little biased?... we'll go 6.5/10.
--Gene Wolfe tends to be a stunningly thoughtful writer, but "Shield of Mars" is a tale about two friends who run an air plant in a dying town and must fight to keep it going. It's kind of cute, but ultimately not memorable, and like a lot of stories here Mars just feels like a thematically convenient place for this tale to be told. 6.5/10.
--If you've ever wondered what it would be like to deal drugs as an employee of a Mars-based theme park, Paul McAuley has you covered - that's right, this story doesn't even bother to take place on Mars, just a theme park with segments dedicated to Burroughs and Wells and other pop culture. The main character is an employee who uses drugs to get through the day and sells it to similar employees to make it through their days, but when . It's a fun chase sequence with a surprisingly more memorable cast of characters than you'd think, but ultimately, it was nothing special. 6.75/10.
--"The War of the Worldviews" by James Morrow is Wells-pastiche in name alone; in all reality, it satirizes philosophy and the like more than anything else after two groups of warring Martians (one being more religion and one being more scientific) land in Brooklyn and go to war with each other there. The cast of pseudo-intellectual characters is able to . The fine points of the story aren't sticking with me, which isn't a good sign, but it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. Its quirks are just a little disposable; still, for thinking a bit outside the box, 7/10.
--By the time we reached the end of the book, I think I was just a little ready to be done. "Near Earth Object" by Brian Aldiss should've been an engaging and memorable tale with multiple people posing as visitors from the future and the logic involved as the main characters try and figure out what's true and what's not. But it really didn't make that much of an impact on me. Part can probably be pinned on Aldiss' prose and story structure not being as engrossing and innovative as it was back in the day because this was towards the end of his career, but partially... I don't know. I'll forgo rating this one, but don't take that as a great sign...
--"The Me After the Rock" is genuinely different; it's just the transcript of two cosmonauts talking to each other during decontamination after a stint on Mars. One of them is quite into loving everyone around him now, almost as if the planet imbued him with some special appreciation of the world around him - it's a bit discomforting to the other guy, who eventually ... it's a different kind of format, which I can appreciate, although it's on a similar level of the Weird-fic scale as "Mom, The Martians, and Me." It is a little better than that, though, so... 6.75.
--Last but not least, Michael Moorcock pays tribute to Leigh Brackett with "Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel." Captain John MacShard, legendary tomb raider, gets embroiled looking for a lost woman and winds up ... MacShard is one tough cookie, and I wouldn't have minded reading more about him. The story isn't spectacular, but it hits all the right beats with a level of flavor and a pace that doesn't get boring. 7/10 - I need to read more sword-and-planet stuff...
And that's a wrap with *Mars Probes*. Before rating it, I want to talk about the general feeling I got from the book. To make this short, I'll sum it up in one word: uninspired. These stories are not the colorful of depictions of Mars from folks like Burorugh or Weinbaum, nor are these stories hopeful tales of colonization which culminated in Robinson's Mars trilogy, nor are these even literary stories which cleverly use Mars as a setting like PKD's *Martian Time-Slip*; these stories are all just kind of *there*, with the exception of McDonald's, and I think this drives home the fact that science fiction in the twenty-first century isn't as inspired as what came before it. A lot has already been done, and the field has been slowly sliding into more competently written but shallower works. *Mars Probes* proves that to me, and sadly, it's already twenty-three years out of date... as a book it gets a 6.5 (the average story rating was 6.73, and I think rounding down is fair). It's not *not* worth your time, but there are also better collections and better stories about Mars you could read; either way, thanks for reading me write about other people writing about Mars, and with a little bit of luck I'll see you around later for more competent SF reviews. Until then, remember to look for Mars when you glance upon the night's sky, and try to think about what you can say about it that hasn't already been said...
Read
April 1, 2015“Lost Sorceress of the Silent Citadel” (Moorcock). A nice homage to Brackett that does a good job of capturing her noir style, but nonetheless a short story that doesn't have a lot of time to gain depth [6+/10].
May 16, 2013
Only read "The Real Story" by Alastair Reynolds
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