Under the Moons of Mars Read online

  UNDER THE

  MOONS of MARS

  NEW ADVENTURES ON BARSOOM

  Edited by John Joseph Adams • Foreword by Tamora Pierce • Glossary by Richard A. Lupoff

  STORIES BY

  Peter S. Beagle

  Tobias S. Buckell

  Chris Claremont

  Theodora Goss

  Austin Grossman

  David Barr Kirtley

  Joe R. Lansdale

  Jonathan Maberry

  L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

  Garth Nix

  S. M. Stirling

  Catherynne M. Valente

  Genevieve Valentine

  Robin Wasserman

  ILLUSTRATIONS BY

  Daren Bader

  Jeremy Bastian

  Jeff Carlisle

  Mike Cavallaro

  Molly Crabapple

  Tom Daly

  Meinert Hansen

  Michael Wm Kaluta

  Gregory Manchess

  John Picacio

  Misako Rocks!

  Joe Sutphin

  Charles Vess

  Chrissie Zullo

  This book is not licensed or authorized by, or in any way affiliated with, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., or any other entity associated with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate.

  Watch videos, get extras, and read exclusives at

  TEEN.SimonandSchuster.com

  EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS’S classic stories of John Carter’s adventures on Mars have thrilled and compelled readers for a century. Now acclaimed editor John Joseph Adams brings you fourteen all-new escapades from some of today’s most adventurous talent, including Garth Nix, Jonathan Maberry, Robin Wasserman, Peter S. Beagle, and many more. These stories are illustrated by Michael Wm Kaluta, Molly Crabapple, and others, with a foreword by Tamora Pierce and a glossary of Martian terms by Richard A. Lupoff.

  Within these pages lurk an encounter with the terrifying Metal Men of Mars, a glimpse into the workings of the savage Thark culture, and a game of human chess—with deadly consequences. Daring readers will meet old friends, bitter enemies, and begrudging allies, as well as heroes of breathtaking bravery. The red planet contains a multitude of adventures, and at long last, here are fourteen new ones that are sure to delight.

  In honor of the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of A Princess of Mars, this collection of brand-new stories will thrill old fans and enchant new readers.

  JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS is the bestselling editor of many anthologies, such as Wastelands, The Living Dead, The Living Dead 2, By Blood We Live, Federations, The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Brave New Worlds, The Way of the Wizard, and Lightspeed: Year One. Forthcoming anthologies include The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination and Armored. Barnes & Noble named him “the reigning king of the anthology world,” and in 2011 he was nominated for two Hugo Awards and two World Fantasy Awards. He is also the editor of Lightspeed magazine and is the cohost of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, which airs on io9.com. John lives in California. Learn more at johnjosephadams.com.

  Jacket design by Lizzy Bromley & Hilary Zarycky

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2012 by Mark Zug

  Simon & Schuster

  New York

  This book is not licensed or authorized by, or in any way affiliated with, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.,

  or any other entity associated with the Edgar Rice Burroughs estate.

  An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

  1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020

  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are

  used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination,

  and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Title page illustration copyright © 2012 by Mark Zug. • Foreword copyright © 2012 by Tamora Pierce. • Introduction and compilation copyright © 2012 by John Joseph Adams. • “The Metal Men of Mars” copyright © 2012 by Joe R. Lansdale. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Gregory Manchess. •“Three Deaths” copyright © 2012 by David Barr Kirtley. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Charles Vess. • “The Ape-Man of Mars” copyright © 2012 by Avicenna Development Corporation. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Jeremy A. Bastian. • “A Tinker of Warhoon” copyright © 2012 by Tobias S. Buckell. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Chrissie Zullo. • “Vengeance of Mars” copyright © 2012 by Robin Wasserman. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Misako Rocks! • “Woola’s Song” copyright © 2012 by Theodora Goss. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Joe Sutphin. • “The River Gods of Mars” copyright © 2012 by Austin Grossman. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Meinert Hansen. • “The Bronze Man of Mars” copyright © 2012 by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Tom Daly. • “A Game of Mars” copyright © 2012 by Genevieve Valentine. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Molly Crabapple. • “A Sidekick of Mars” copyright © 2012 by Garth Nix. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Mike Cavallaro. • “The Ghost That Haunts the Superstition Mountains” copyright © 2012 by ClearMountain Creatives LLC. Illustration copyright © 2012 by John Picacio. • “The Jasoom Project” copyright © 2012 by S. M. Stirling. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Jeff Carlisle. • “Coming of Age on Barsoom” copyright © 2012 by Catherynne M. Valente. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Michael Wm Kaluta. • “The Death Song of Dwar Guntha” copyright © 2012 by Jonathan Maberry. Illustration copyright © 2012 by Daren Bader. • Appendix: A Barsoomian Gazetteer, or, Who’s Who and What’s What on Mars copyright © 2012 by Richard A. Lupoff. • Story Notes copyright © 2012 by John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley.

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

  The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information

  or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049

  or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

  Book design by Tom Daly

  The text for this book is set in Berthold Baskerville Book.

  The illustrations for this book are rendered in various media.

  2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Under the moons of Mars : new adventures on Barsoom / edited by John Joseph Adams. — 1st ed.

  v. cm.

  Summary: An anthology of original stories featuring the Edgar Rice Burroughs character John Carter,

  an Earthman who suddenly finds himself on a strange new world, Mars.

  Contents: The metal men of Mars / by Joe R. Lansdale — Three deaths / by David Barr Kirtley — The ape-man of Mars / by Peter S. Beagle — A tinker of Warhoon / by Tobias S. Buckell — Vengeance of Mars / by Robin Wasserman — Woola’s song / by Theodora Goss — The river gods of Mars / by Austin Grossman — The bronze man of Mars / by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. — A game of Mars / by Genevieve Valentine — A Sidekick of Mars / by Garth Nix — The ghost that haunts the Superstition Mountains / by Chris Claremont — The Jasoom project / by S. M. Stirling — Coming of age on Barsoom / by Catherynne M. Valente — The death song of Dwar Guntha / by Jonathan Maberry.

  ISBN 978-1-4424-2029-8 (hardcover)

  1. Carter, John (Fictitious character)—Juvenile fiction. 2. Mars (Planet)—Juvenile fiction. 3. Science fiction,

  American. 4. Short stories, American. [1. Mars (Planet)—Fiction. 2. Science fiction.] I. Adams, John Joseph.
II.

  Burroughs, Edgar Rice, 1875-1950.

  PZ5.U574 2012

  [Fic]—dc23

  2011034391

  ISBN 978-1-4424-2031-1 (eBook)

  For

  Christie,

  my Dejah Thoris,

  and

  Edgar Rice Burroughs,

  Jeddak of Jeddaks

  CONTENTS

  Foreword by Tamora Pierce

  Introduction by John Joseph Adams

  § § §

  “The Metal Men of Mars” by Joe R. Lansdale

  Illustration by Gregory Manchess

  “Three Deaths” by David Barr Kirtley

  Illustration by Charles Vess

  “The Ape-Man of Mars” by Peter S. Beagle

  Illustration by Jeremy Bastian

  “A Tinker of Warhoon” by Tobias S. Buckell

  Illustration by Chrissie Zullo

  “Vengeance of Mars” by Robin Wasserman

  Illustration by Misako Rocks!

  “Woola’s Song” by Theodora Goss

  Illustration by Joe Sutphin

  “The River Gods of Mars” by Austin Grossman

  Illustration by Meinert Hansen

  “The Bronze Man of Mars” by L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

  Illustration by Tom Daly

  “A Game of Mars” by Genevieve Valentine

  Illustration by Molly Crabapple

  “A Sidekick of Mars” by Garth Nix

  Illustration by Mike Cavallaro

  “The Ghost That Haunts the Superstition Mountains” by Chris Claremont

  Illustration by John Picacio

  “The Jasoom Project” by S. M. Stirling

  Illustration by Jeff Carlisle

  “Coming of Age on Barsoom” by Catherynne M. Valente

  Illustration by Michael Wm Kaluta

  “The Death Song of Dwar Guntha” by Jonathan Maberry

  Illustration by Daren Bader

  § § §

  Appendix: A Barsoomian Gazetteer, or, Who’s Who

  and What’s What on Mars

  by Richard A. Lupoff

  About the Contributors

  Acknowledgments

  FOREWORD

  BY TAMORA PIERCE

  John Carter, Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom.

  These words still raise goose bumps on my arms. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Mars books, with their dramatic landscapes and rich cast of characters, were my first experience of a complete, fully imagined setting like nothing in my family’s World Book Encyclopedia. They were like nothing in the small coal town where I lived, like nothing I saw on television.

  They were miraculous.

  I was a kid when my father, tired of hearing my complaint that I had nothing to read, handed me A Princess of Mars. I then gorged on at least five of the books, one right after the other, before I moved on to Burroughs’s other work. While I liked many of them, none of them had the same effect of reshaping my world as did the Barsoom titles. Burroughs’s vivid world was easy for me to see in my head. From the moment John Carter awakens on Mars—from his description of the ochre moss to that of the native people—I had a clear view of an alien place. Every page introduced a new aspect of the culture, a different kind of interaction among the natives, or between the natives and John Carter, or a new beast. Different peoples ate, slept, and entertained themselves differently. I watched it all through the eyes of a man born before our American Civil War, and turned every aspect over in my thoughts long after I was supposed to have been asleep.

  This was something Burroughs would always do for me, from Barsoom to the London and Africa of the Tarzan books, to the equally strange landscape of Venus, to the savage subterranean land of Pellucidar. He had that happy author’s gift of painting entire pictures with only a few sentences, bringing alien horses, commanding princesses, and giant apes vividly to life. I wanted a calot—a Martian dog—like John Carter’s, more than anything. (I was convinced they had to be available somewhere.) I wanted to be a telepath, so I would never have to deal with my lisp again. And from Burroughs, I first lit onto the idea that a single moon was not an absolute, that different moons were features of different worlds.

  Burroughs did one thing more, something that has had a lifelong effect on my view of my own planet and on my career: Burroughs’s women were strong. The women of the Tharks were weapons-makers and reserve troops who backed up their fighting men. Sola fights valiantly to defend Dejah Thoris, and Dejah herself was a leader of her people, willing to act in her realm’s diplomatic interests even when it brought her into peril. In later books, the Red Woman Thuvia proves herself a willing fighter. The women of his other universes were the same, able to defend themselves and their families with weapons and tenacity. Burroughs probably didn’t intend it, but he made the books deemed by my teachers to be fit for my age and gender lackluster and unsatisfying. For a very long time, I found women like his nowhere else in fiction, and I missed them. Deeply.

  For years, I knew no one else who felt the same way about the Mars books that I did. Now I discover there are writers who also heard that thrilling call. Some of their stories are here. I hope you enjoy them, and that you, too, will come to dream of the ochre mosses, dangerous rivers, and heroic citizens of Barsoom.

  INTRODUCTION

  BY JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS

  When Edgar Rice Burroughs published A Princess of Mars in 1912 (originally published as a serial in the magazine All-Story, as Under the Moons of Mars), he gave birth to the iconic character John Carter and his wondrous vision of Mars (or as the natives call it, Barsoom). With this setting and character, Burroughs created something that has enthralled generation after generation of readers. Now, a hundred years after the series first debuted in print, new generations of readers—thanks, in part, to the new Disney/Pixar film—are still finding and discovering the adventures of John Carter for the first time.

  Edgar Rice Burroughs—who also authored the Tarzan and Pellucidar series, and dozens of other books—wrote only ten Barsoom novels (plus one collection of two stories). Yet anyone who’s read the novels cannot help but imagine the plentiful adventures of John Carter and his ilk that were never cataloged by Burroughs. The last Barsoom story written by Burroughs (“Skeleton Men of Jupiter”) was published in the magazine Amazing Stories in 1943, intended to be one of a series of short stories that would later be collected into book form. It was the last ever published by Burroughs, however, and legions of fans have been left waiting for the new adventures of John Carter ever since.

  Until now.

  This anthology depicts all-new adventures set in Edgar Rice Burroughs’s fantastical world of Barsoom. Some of the stories in this volume, such as Joe R. Lansdale’s “The Metal Men of Mars” and “The River Gods of Mars” by Austin Grossman, imagine the new or lost adventures of John Carter, while others focus on the other characters and niches not fully explored by Burroughs. So if you’ve ever wanted to find out what happens to the villainous Thark Sarkoja after her encounter with John Carter, Robin Wasserman’s tale “Vengeance of Mars” delivers. Or if you’ve ever wanted to know more about John Carter’s calot companion Woola, then Theodora Goss’s “Woola’s Song” fills in those gaps. Catherynne M. Valente’s story “Coming of Age on Barsoom,” unveils some hidden truths about the Green Men of Mars, and details how John Carter might not have understood their culture as well as he thought he did.

  Some of the stories, meanwhile, deal with John Carter and Dejah Thoris’s descendants . . . such as Genevieve Valentine’s tale, “A Game of Mars,” which has John Carter’s daughter Tara playing Barsoom’s deadliest game—Jetan! We also have two tales exploring the adventures of the children of Llana of Gathol and the Orovar Pan Dee Chee; L. E. Modesitt, Jr.’s, story, “The Bronze Man of Mars,” has one of John Carter’s great-grandsons returning to the ancient city of Horz, while S. M Stirling’s story, “The Jasoom Project,” has another great-grandson endeavoring to find a way to travel to Earth (Jasoom) via spaceship.

&
nbsp; Authors David Barr Kirtley and Tobias S. Buckell deliver plenty of action and adventure in their tales; in “Three Deaths,” after losing a duel with John Carter, Kirtley’s Warhoon warrior Ghar Han swears revenge, and in “A Tinker of Warhoon,” Buckell presents us with a Green Martian like we have never seen—one whose greatest weapon is his brain, not his brawn.

  Two of our stories examine what would happen should John Carter encounter new visitors from Earth on Barsoom. Peter S. Beagle’s story, “The Ape-Man of Mars,” speculates what might have happened if John Carter had encountered Tarzan, Burroughs’s other most famous literary creation, in the sands of Barsoom. Garth Nix’s tale, “A Sidekick of Mars,” imagines the possibility that John Carter had an irascible sidekick throughout most of his adventures who was never mentioned in any of the write-ups of Carter’s adventures published by Burroughs. Chris Claremont’s story, “The Ghost That Haunts the Superstition Mountains,” meanwhile, imagines John Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Tars Tarkas are instead transported to Earth, and there encounter not only the great Indian chief Cochise, but weapons of mysterious origin as well.

  And then we have “The Death Song of Dwar Guntha,” which shows us a distant future in which John Carter is poised to finally bring an end to the endless cycles of warfare that have rocked Barsoom . . . but gives us one last epic battle for the ages to remember it by.

  Whether you’re a longtime fan, or you’re new to Barsoom, I hope you enjoy these all-new adventures of John Carter of Mars.

  In the novel The Gods of Mars, John Carter finds himself transported to the Valley Dor, which the Barsoomians believe to be a heavenly paradise, a place to which they willingly travel at the end of a long, full life. He finds instead that the place is a fiendish trap, and he is immediately set upon by hordes of monstrous plant-men—savage, faceless creatures who bound after their prey and strike with wicked tentacles. And this is hardly an isolated incident. Carter just seems to have a knack for stumbling upon hidden corners of Mars in which undreamt-of horrors lurk. Many of these horrors involve wondrous Martian technology, which is far advanced beyond what we know on Earth. The most visible examples of Martian technology are the fliers and airships of the Red Men of Mars, but more grotesque examples abound. Perhaps the most vivid example of Martian science occurs in the novel The Master Mind of Mars, in which we are introduced to the mad scientist Ras Thavas, who runs a business transplanting the brains of wealthy clients into healthy young bodies. In Synthetic Men of Mars, Carter visits Morbus, city of Ras Thavas, where the scientist is engaged in other strange experiments, such as growing men from a single cell. So it would seem that with Martian science, anything is possible. In the tale that follows, John Carter once again stumbles upon a secret realm, and finds himself face-to-face with some new technology that’s visceral and terrifying even by Barsoomian standards.