'Old Mars', George R R Martin & G Dozois (eds)

Best-selling author George R.R. Martin and award-winning editor Gardner Dozois join forces to bring readers fifteen new stories from some of the best writers of modern science fiction, each cast in the distinctly red-tinged light of Mars as we once thought of it.

Martin and Dozois have intentionally taken Mars back to basics, and commissioned a series of stories which celebrate the Golden Age of Science Fiction. This deliberately retro anthology could have been penned in the 1960s, before the advent of long range telescopes and Mars Rovers, when we thought Mars was our most likely location for local alien life. It includes strong stories from S.M. Stirling, Mike Resnick, and Ian McDonald, a swath of impressive female writers, including Mary Rosenblum, Liz Williams, and Phyllis Eisenstein, and even a tale from seminal 1960s author Michael Moorcock. Throughout, the green of bug-eyed aliens blends with the red Martian sand in ways that Flash Gordon would have recognised instantly. More good reads than bad, but that presumes you can suspend modern knowledge along with a smidgeon of disbelief - great fun if you can!

'Old Mars' is scheduled for release in Australia by New South Books in December 2015.

Please note: a version of this review appeared in Issue No 503 of The Big Issue (Australia) on 22 January 2016.