Please comment and let me know if you like this. I’ll try to get more stuff drawn for you.

“Evening, John.” John turned to face the bartender, who was holding a bottle of whiskey and a glass.

“Good evening Frank.” John said. “Good business tonight.”

“Indeed it is.” Frank said, pouring a shot into the glass.

“Hey old timer.” Both John and Frank looked at the new speaker. It was the red haired youngster. Looking at him, John could see he was barely twenty years old if a day.

“What do you want boy?” John said, irritated. He didn’t like being the entertainment for town visitors.

“That gun of yours.” Redhead said pointing at John’s sidearm. “It’s mighty fancy.”

“What of it?” John’s voice grated. But the young man ignored him and called his friends over.

“Hey guys! Come look at this old fella’s gun.” Two got up and shambled over. One looked to be in his mid-twenties, a face full of stubble and scars. The other was probably still in his teens, but sported an eyepatch. John ignored their gawking and downed a shot of whiskey. Frank refilled the glass without a word.

“That sure is a nice gun.” Scarface said, almost drooling on himself in envy.

“Yeah it is,” Redhead said, “I wanna buy it old man. How much?” His smile was too cocky, John thought.

“It’s not for sale.” John said, looking away. He didn’t like where this was going. Redhead leaned in close to John, his breath stank of the rank beer Frank sold to stupid rich tourists.

“I been nice up till now old man, but you’re trying my patience. I want that gun. Now anyone can see why you would have an attachment to it. But-”

“My attachment has nothing to do with looks.” John interrupted. “This gun is special for other reasons.”

“Your poppa give it to you or something?” Scarface quipped. That got chuckles from Eyepatch and Redhead.

“No, what’s special about this gun,” John pulled it from its holster and held it up. Redhead backed off and Scarface put a hand on his own weapon. A tense moment passed. John carefully put his pistol on the bar and everyone relaxed. “Is that it’s one of a very select production run. This gun was made to give to high up officers in the Saturn Republic Army.” Scarface and Eyepatch looked at each other, uncertain. Redhead just snorted.

“I’ve never met a Saturn Man before.”

“You still haven’t. I’m Mars born.” John said.

“Then how’d you get that gun?” Scarface asked.

“I have a general’s gun because I took it from him. He didn’t object because he was dead. He was dead because I killed him. And I killed him because he was the only one left to kill.” John sighed. “But this was all many years ago, on Rhea.” That got their attention, even Redhead. They will have heard of the battle of Rhea, or even been taught about it at school. The bloodiest battle in a generation. John might be able mention it and sound casual, but it still gave him nightmares. Some things don’t fade. “Now if you boys don’t mind,” John downed his whiskey and holstered his pistol. “I’ll be on my way.” He walked towards the door, Eyepatch stepping aside for him. He was halfway there when Redhead called out.

“I wanna see you pull that gun old man.” John stopped in his tracks, but didn’t turn around. “Pull it out and put it on the table there. If you won’t sell it I’ll just have to take it from you.”

“Don’t do it boy.” Frank said from behind the bar. “Around here he’s called-“

“Crazy Old Coot or somethin’ like that. Rhea was a long time ago.” John turned slowly. Redhead was standing ready, hand hovering over his pistol. “Too long to keep up your skills. Even if that story’s true there’s no way you’re still able to shoot. So put the gun down peaceful like and I won’t have to put a hole in you.” John stared hard into Redhead’s eyes. The cockiness was still there. Kids these days, John thought.

“No.” John said finally. Redhead went for his gun, but John was faster. In a blur it was clear of the holster, the trigger squeezed, the hammer pulled back and thrown forward, the miniature explosion that sent the bullet flying across the room straight into Redhead’s chest. The young man shuddered, tried to take a step back but instead fell against the bar and slid down it into a sitting position. He looked at John, a face full of fear, his mouth moving but no sound coming out, then slumped, dead. John stared at the body a moment. He realised he’d killed the boy without thinking, the old instincts had kicked in. Scarface looked from Redhead, to John and back again. He put a hand on his pistol and nodded at Eyepatch, who did likewise.

“I tried to warn him. Your friend was overconfident.” Frank said, peering over the bar at the body. It broke the spell, Scarface and Eyepatch dropped their hands from their guns, defeated.  John turned to go again. “Most people look and see a broken old codger, but under that skin is a gunfighter, through and through. The number of people that have tried to kill him, I don’t dare count.” John stepped into the airlock and put his helmet on. “See lads, in these parts, they call him Old Man Death.” The airlock cycled and John stepped outside. He walked to his mechanical horse with the red dust from the storm swirling around him. His ghosts followed.

First off I read a few of the John Carter Chronicles of Mars books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This is a little while ago, I was getting excited about the (then upcoming) film, so thought the books would be worth a look. These are almost a hundred years old now, so the first thing I noticed was the language. Even a short a time as 1917 people wrote very differently to how they do now. Once you get over that hurdle, you get into a straight forward (and now very cliché) adventure tale. Carter is an ex-soldier, he fought in the American civil war – strangely for a hero he thought on the Confederate side – and at the start of the story he’s a gold prospector. Whilst prospecting he comes across a cave and is inexplicably (and as far as I read without explanation) transported to Mars. On Mars he discovers an old society of red humanoids and green six armed aliens locked in unending war. Using his brilliant wits, dashing good looks and unbending sense of honour Carter wins victory, status and more as he rights wrongs across the planet. He’s the classic hero in every sense.  His stories might hold up to today, if not for two things. First, the characters are very black and white. Everyone Carter meets is either an instant friend, find upstanding person who is honourable and just, or an instant enemy, a vile treacherous snake who constantly snubs their noses at society for personal gain. Second, the constant cliff hangers. The end of each book is a cliffhanger leading into the next one. At the end of the third book there’s a clear set up for another, with a big chase and Carter is running after the villains and they’re getting in an airship and casting off and Carter forgets he can jump then trips on a rock and I almost threw my Kindle against a wall in frustration. It got too much. If you can get over all this stuff, you could enjoy the series. But I won’t be finishing it.

The next book on Mars is called the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. What he did with this book is very inventive. It’s not one story, but a collection of shorts, that read together all weave together into a saga told from many different viewpoints. The idea is that humanity gets off Earth and sends expeditions to Mars. The first few attempts go wrong for different reasons, but when a successful landing happens, the explorers find a planet filled with the bodies of the recently deceased Martian race. Of course, Earth immediately sets up colonisation of Mars and people head out in droves. Things develop from there. A lot of the stories are pretty much filler, but there’s a few with hard-hitting lessons about racism, materialism, importance of history, destruction of war and surviving into the future. Also, a  big theme in the stories if the threat of nuclear war; it was written in the 1950s when everyone was doing nuclear tests. It’s not such a big issue now, but it still exists. Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot. It’s pure science fiction, where the setting is a just a backdrop against incredible human stories.

Last, but not least is Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. This is the first in a trilogy of books, I’ll get around to reading the second and third later. This one is much more real-world science than fiction, with some very good technology extrapolation thrown in. Set in the near future, the story is about the first colony of humans sent to Mars. Referred to as the first hundred, they are a collection of scientists that go through rigorous screening to be allowed on the trip. They are followed on the trip through space, landing, building the colony, beginning terraforming, seeing more landings, then mass political problems as emigrations continue and various issues arise. This is told from the perspectives of a handful of the firs hundred, the leaders, builders, the psychologist and a geologist. So there’s lots of room for science-talk in several fields. The geology sections made Mars a major character in the story, something none of the other books have done. These sections are needed because of the overall theme of the story, an allegory of today’s world: commercialism versus environmentalism. Large corporations, called ‘transnats’ put profits before law, greed over the greater good. It’s an impressive read, in length, research (to me at least, a layman) and subject. The only big drawback for me was that the book starts with a scene from much later in the story, then 70% of it is flashback leading up to that point. This was done purely because otherwise the start would have been boring, so a shock was need to draw in readers; there was no narrative reason behind it. But otherwise, it’s a good book. I’ll read the rest of the trilogy at some point.

The fascinating thing about all of these books is the contrast between them. They’re all set in the same place, but are so drastically different. In style, theme, language and overall lesson. They meet different tastes and target different demographics. These certainly aren’t generic ‘Mars books’. Read them all or just read one, I’ll leave it up to you.