Under the Moons of Mars

by John Joseph Adams

  AUSTIN GROSSMAN

  Austin Grossman is a video game design consultant and a doctoral candidate in English Literature at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of the novel, Soon I Will Be Invincible. His second novel, You, is forthcoming from Mulholland Books in 2012, and his short fiction is also slated to appear in John Joseph Adams’s anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination.

  MEINERT HANSEN

  Meinert has a long list of credits in film, television, and games. He has worked in animation, visual effects, and production design, in both traditional and digital media. He worked as production illustrator and concept artist on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Leatherheads, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and 300. As a visual effects concept artist and matte painter, he worked on such films as Silent Hill, Across the Universe, and Stranger Than Fiction. Meinert also worked as an art director on the computer game Myst: Revelation. His television credits include The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Inside the Space Station, and Alien Planet. As an animation director, Meinert’s credits include Bad Dog, Bob Morane, and his own cartoon short for Hanna-Barbera, The Adventures of Captain Buzz Cheeply. He is currently the senior concept artist at Warner Bros. Games in Montreal.

  MICHAEL WM KALUTA

  Michael Wm Kaluta began his career in comic book illustration, working for Charlton Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and some smaller firms. He later illustrated for science fiction magazines such as Amazing Stories and Fantastic Stories. During his early professional years, he was knee-deep in art for the Mystery comics—House of Mystery, House of Secrets, and the like—and began doing covers for both Detective Comics and Batman. In 1973 he illustrated the DC Comics revival of The Shadow. Along with various Shadow projects through the years, his career highlights include: the comic book adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Carson of Venus for DC Comics, the art for the 1994 J. R. R. Tolkien calendar, illustrating two Robert E. Howard books (The Lost Valley of Iskander and The Swords of Shahrazar), and his dream project, illustrating Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis, the novelization of Fritz Lang’s famous silent science fiction film. The pinnacle of his science fiction/adventure/comics efforts is the ongoing comic Starstruck.

  DAVID BARR KIRTLEY

  David Barr Kirtley’s short fiction appears in books such as New Voices in Science Fiction, Fantasy: The Best of the Year, The Dragon Done It, The Living Dead, and The Way of the Wizard, and in magazines such as Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, Intergalactic Medicine Show, and Lightspeed. He’s the cohost (along with John Joseph Adams) of The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast on io9, for which he’s interviewed dozens of authors and scientists, including George R. R. Martin, Orson Scott Card, Robert Kirkman, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. He holds an MFA in fiction and screenwriting from the University of Southern California, and for the past eight summers has taught at the Pittsburgh-area Alpha Young Writers Workshop. He lives in New York.

  JOE R. LANSDALE

  Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over thirty-five novels and twenty short story collections. He is also an editor and coeditor of several anthologies of fiction and nonfiction. He has sold numerous screenplays and comics. He has received the Edgar Award, seven Bram Stoker Awards, the British Fantasy Award, and numerous others. Two of his stories, “Bubba Ho-Tep” and “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” have been filmed. He writes regularly for The Texas Observer and is Writer in Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He is also a member of The Texas Institute of Letters.

  RICHARD A. LUPOFF

  Richard A. Lupoff first discovered the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs at the age of nine when he came across a copy of Tarzan and the Ant-Men. That was all it took, although it was many years before he found himself, at Canaveral Press in New York, working with the previously unpublished manuscripts of the famous author. After editing Tarzan and the Madman, Tarzan and the Castaways, Tales of Three Planets, and John Carter of Mars, Lupoff wrote two of the earliest and most important books about ERB—Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure and Barsoom: Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Martian Vision—as well as editing and publishing The Reader’s Guide to Barsoom and Amtor. Lupoff has written many novels and short stories. His recent books include The Emerald Cat Killer, Rookie Blues, Killer’s Dozen, and the trilogy Terrors, Visions, and Dreams.

  JONATHAN MABERRY

  Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer. His novels include Rot & Ruin, Dead of Night, Patient Zero, Dust & Decay, The King of Plagues, Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man’s Song, Bad Moon Rising, and The Wolfman. His nonfiction books include They Bite, Zombie CSU, Wanted Undead or Alive, Vampire Universe, and The Cryptopedia. He is the cofounder of the Liars Club and founder of the Writers Coffeehouse. Jonathan is also a career martial artist specializing in Jujutsu and Kenjutsu, and has worked as a bodyguard and chief-instructor for a company that provided advanced defense workshops to all aspects of law enforcement including SWAT. In 2004, he was inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Visit him online at jonathanmaberry.com.

  GREGORY MANCHESS

  Creating a moment that communicates emotionally with the viewer is the essence of Gregory Manchess’s artwork. He combined his love for fine art and science fiction and began his freelance career painting for OMNI magazine. His versatility and broad range of interests allowed him to cross over to mainstream illustration. There he was able to expand his work to include covers for Time, Atlantic Monthly, National Geographic; spreads for Playboy, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and Smithsonian; and numerous book covers, including sixty covers for Louis L’Amour. He is one of a few illustrators to have a painting on the cover of National Geographic magazine. Widely awarded within the industry, Manchess exhibits frequently at the Society of Illustrators in New York, where he won the coveted Hamilton King Award. He painted the Oregon coast for the 2009 Oregon Statehood Stamp for the USPS, and a 2011 portrait stamp of Mark Twain. Gregory is included in Walt Reed’s latest edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860–2000.

  L. E. MODESITT, JR.

  L. E. Modesitt, Jr., is the author of more than sixty science fiction and fantasy novels, including the Saga of Recluce, the Corean Chronicles, and the Spellsong Cycle, a number of short stories and technical and economic articles. He has the unusual distinction of never having been nominated for a SF/F award, despite numerous starred reviews in many review publications, and five nominations and two awards from romance-oriented reviewers even if in only one of his books did he even write a semi-graphic sensual scene. His novels have been translated into German, Polish, Dutch, Czech, Russian, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, and Swedish. He has been a U.S. Navy pilot; a market research analyst; a real estate agent; director of research for a political campaign; legislative assistant and staff director for U.S. Congressmen; Director of Legislation and Congressional Relations for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; a consultant on environmental, regulatory, and communications issues. His first story was published in Analog in 1973, and his latest book is Princeps (Tor, November 2011), the fifth book of The Imager Portfolio.

  GARTH NIX

  Garth Nix was born in 1963 in Melbourne, Australia. A full-time writer since 2001, he has worked as a literary agent, marketing consultant, book editor, book publicist, book sales representative, bookseller, and as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve. Garth’s books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen; and the cult favorite young adult SF novel Shade’s Children. His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence, and The Keys to the Kingdom series. His most recent book is Troubletwisters, cowritten with Sean Williams. More than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world, his books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Guardian, and The Australian, and his work has been translated into thirty-eight languages. He lives in a Sydney beach s
uburb with his wife and two children.

  JOHN PICACIO

  John Picacio is one of the most prolific American cover artists for science fiction, fantasy, and horror of the last ten years. His body of work includes covers for books by Dan Simmons, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, L. E. Modesitt, Jr., Mark Chadbourn, Ian McDonald, Joe R. Lansdale, Jeffrey Ford, Frederik Pohl, James Tiptree, Jr., and many, many more. He has produced acclaimed artwork for franchises such as Star Trek and the X-Men, as well as major epics such as George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Michael Moorcock’s Elric saga. Accolades include the World Fantasy Award, the Locus Award, four Chesley Awards, and two International Horror Guild Awards, two Asimov’s Poll Awards for Best Cover Art, and seven Hugo Award nominations in the Best Professional Artist category. His website is www.johnpicacio.com.

  TAMORA PIERCE

  Tamora Pierce is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and has written over two dozen fantasy novels for teenagers. Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales, her most recent book, was published in February of 2011. Tammy was born in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania into a long, proud line of hillbillies. While her family didn’t have much money, they did have plenty of books, and books continue to be the main yardstick by which she measures true wealth.

  Crediting her fans with her success, Tammy loves the chance to go on tour and thank them in person. “Struggling along as a kid and even through my twenties, it’s the kind of life I dreamed of but never believed I would get. And I never take it for granted.” She hopes her books inspire her readers with the feeling that they, too, can do anything if they want it badly enough.

  Tammy now lives in Syracuse with her beloved Spouse-Creature Tim Liebe, and their numerous cats, two parakeets, and whatever freeloading wildlife takes up residence in their backyard.

  MISAKO ROCKS!

  Misako Rocks! is a Japanese graphic novelist from New York City. Her first break came when The Onion decided to use her illustrations for their now famous “Savage Love” column, which runs every week. Shortly thereafter, Misako scored a two-book deal with Hyperion, a three-book deal with Henry Holt, and a writing gig for Archie comics. Recently Misako published a Japanese children’s book, Kodomo Eigojuku, with Japanese publisher Meijishoin. Also, she is now running a monthly comic column in Aera English Magazine in Japan.

  S. M. STIRLING

  S. M. Stirling was born in France in 1953, to Canadian parents—although his mother was born in England and grew up in Peru. After that he lived in Europe, Canada, Africa, and the U.S., and visited several other continents. He graduated from law school in Canada but had his dorsal fin surgically removed, and published his first novel (Snowbrother) in 1984, going full-time as a writer in 1988, the year of his marriage to Janet Moore of Milford, Massachusetts, who he met, wooed, and proposed to at successive World Fantasy Conventions. In 1995 he suddenly realized that he could live anywhere and they decamped from Toronto, that large, cold, gray city on Lake Ontario, and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He became an American citizen in 2004. His latest books are The Council of Shadows (May 2011) and The Tears of the Sun (Sept. 2011), from Roc/Penguin. His hobbies mostly involve reading—history, anthropology, archaeology, and travel, besides fiction—but he also cooks and bakes for fun and food. For twenty years he also pursued the martial arts, until hyperextension injuries convinced him he was in danger of becoming the most deadly cripple in human history. Currently he lives with Janet and the compulsory authorial cats.

  JOE SUTPHIN

  Illustrator and designer Joe Sutphin has been drawing creatures and creating stories about them since he was very young. He spends as much time as possible in nature observing and picking up little critters to draw in his sketchbook. He is an avid collector of kids’ books and possibly addicted to black licorice and root beer. Joe does not live on the Red Planet, but he does live in a big red barn along with his family in Carroll, Ohio. You can visit him at joesutphin.com.

  CATHERYNNE M. VALENTE

  Born in the Pacific Northwest in 1979, Catherynne M. Valente is the author of over a dozen works of fiction and poetry, including Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series, Deathless, and the Andre Norton Award-winning, crowdfunded phenomenon The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. She also is the winner of the Tiptree Award, the Mythopoeic Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Million Writers Award. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Spectrum Awards, and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award in 2007 and 2009. She lives on an island off the coast of Maine with her partner and two dogs.

  GENEVIEVE VALENTINE

  Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, Mechanique: a Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, was published by Prime Books in 2011. Her short fiction has appeared in Running with the Pack, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Teeth, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Escape Pod, and more. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog at genevievevalentine.com.

  CHARLES VESS

  Charles Vess was born in 1951 in Lynchburg, Virginia. His award-winning work has graced the covers and interior pages of many comic books from publishers including Marvel (Spider-Man, Raven Banner) and DC (Books of Magic, Swamp Thing, Sandman). His recent work is found more in book illustration, such as The Ladies of Grace Adieu, The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, A Circle of Cats, and Peter Pan. Charles’s awards include the Inkpot Award, three World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, two Spectrum Annual Awards—a Gold and a Silver—two Chesley Awards, a Locus Award for Best Artist, and two Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. Charles’s most recent publications include two New York Times bestselling picture books penned by Neil Gaiman, Blueberry Girl and Instructions. He has resided on a small farm in Washington County, Virginia, since 1991, and works from his studio, Green Man Press, in Abingdon. For visual treats and updates, visit his website: greenmanpress.com.

  ROBIN WASSERMAN

  Robin Wasserman is the author of several books for children and young adults, including The Book of Blood and Shadow, Hacking Harvard, and the Cold Awakening Trilogy (Frozen, Shattered, and Torn). She lives and writes in Brooklyn, New York, and is impatiently awaiting the day she wakes up on Mars.

  CHRISSIE ZULLO

  Chrissie Zullo is an artist and illustrator best known for her cover work on DC/Vertigo’s Eisner-nominated Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love and Cinderella: Fables are Forever. She has also done work for Topp’s Star Wars trading cards, a variant cover for Hack/Slash, and interior work on DC/Vertigo’s Madame Xanadu and Fables. She is currently working on interior work for the upcoming Womanthology comic book. Her work has been featured twice in Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. Chrissie currently resides in New York City, a city quite far from Barsoom. Her weekly progress in art can be found at her blog: chrissiez.blogspot.com.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Many thanks to the following:

  Edgar Rice Burroughs for creating this wonderful world and peopling it with these incredible characters, and for firing the imagination of the generations of science fiction writers who have followed in his footsteps.

  David Gale at Simon & Schuster for publishing this anthology, and to him and his assistant, Navah Wolfe, for shepherding the book through the publication process. Jenica Nasworthy for her copyediting prowess, Lizzy Bromley and Tom Daly for their work designing the book, and Michelle Kratz for guiding the book through production.

  A special thank-you to Tony DiTerlizzi, for helping us connect with several of our artists even though, in the end, he couldn’t participate himself.

  My agent, Joe Monti, for finding a good home for this project, and for the incredible amount of support he’s provided since taking me on as a client—he’s gone above and beyond the call of duty. To any writers reading this: You’d be lucky to have Joe in your corner.

  Gordon Van Gelder, who, like John Carter, is immortal and forever young. Or maybe he just seems that way bec
ause he’s so full of wisdom and has taught me so much. Truly, he is the Jeddak of Editors.

  David Barr Kirtley for his assistance wrangling the header notes, and for our continuing friendship.

  Richard A. Lupoff for writing the wonderful gazetteer found in this volume, and for being a vast font of knowledge of all things Barsoomian.

  My amazing wife, Christie Yant, for all her love and support and for hugging me while I write this. Also, for the chicken chili, which doesn’t really have anything to do with this book, but is so good that it really deserves acknowledgment.

  My mom for her endless enthusiasm for all my new projects.

  My dear friends Robert Bland, Desirina Boskovich, Christopher M. Cevasco, Douglas E. Cohen, Jordan Hamessley, Andrea Kail, and Matt London for enduring endless conversations about possible anthology projects and hearing me go on at length about Barsoom while I was working on this one.

  The readers and reviewers who loved my other anthologies, making it possible for me to do more.