The Romance of Mars

The Curiosity rover has landed safely on Mars, evading the "Mars Curse" that so often seems to plague spacecraft sent to that planet. Great news (especially at a moment when so much other news has been dreadful) and I look forward to years of new findings and images.

There was a time when it seemed as if the exploration of Mars, however exciting, had snatched away the romantic desert world of Burroughs, Brackett, Bradbury and others and replaced it with something barren and lifeless. I suppose Mars as we see it today still qualifies as "barren and lifeless," but once we started getting imagery of the surface, the romance started creeping back in.

Image taken by Viking 2 lander in 1976. Source: Wikimedia Commons

And then came these brave-seeming robotic characters -- Sojourner, Opportunity, Curiosity. They're not exactly John Carter of Mars, but they do inspire a sense of adventure. Good luck, Curiosity (and all the dedicated human beings behind you.)

EDIT: Removed hypertext link to Viking 2 image and added the actual picture to the post.

New Story and Interview

Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night (via Wikimedia Commons)

Just a note to say the September 2012 Asimov's is out now, including my new story "Star Soup," a new Great Ship series tale from Robert Reed, a time-travel character drama by Dale Bailey, and many other cool-looking things.

There is also a short interview with me at the F&SF blog about my story "Grand Tour." The questions were asked by Stephen Mazur.