“The Film-makers of Mars” is a 2008 science fiction short story by Geoff Ryman. It is about a film journalist who views an outstanding 1911 silent movie and learns the amazing secret of where it came from.
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“Mars: A Traveler’s Guide” is a 2008 science fiction short story by Ruth Nestvold. It is about a person desperately trying to access a space suit’s computerized help system.

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“We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” is a 1966 science fiction novelette by Philip K. Dick. It is about a man who desperately wants to go to Mars but can’t afford it, so he gets vacation memories implanted instead.

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Wouldn’t it be cool if Mars once held a civilization similar to our own? That is the premise of H. Beam Piper’s 1957 science fiction novelette “Omnilingual” where a group of specially trained scientists travel to the Red Planet to uncover an ancient Martian city. The scientists find themselves stumped by the aliens’ language until one dedicated and tenacious archaeologist finds a “Rosetta Stone” that opens the proverbial floodgates.

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“A Martian Odyssey” is a 1934 science fiction novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum. It is about an astronaut who walks several hundred miles across the Martian landscape, and the amazing life forms he encounters.

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“The Hunted Heroes” is a 1956 science fiction short story by Robert Silverberg. It is about a team of uranium miners who are captured by a madman on Mars.

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“The Empress of Mars” is a 2003 science fiction novella by Kage Baker. It is about a woman who overcomes all sorts of obstacles to build an empire on Mars.

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A Rose for Ecclesiastes

by Roger Zelazny

• Word count: 12431
• Page count: 29

“A Rose for Ecclesiastes” is a 1963 science fiction novelette written by Roger Zelazny. It is about a gifted linguist who is the first human allowed to read sacred Martian texts.

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Falling Onto Mars

by Geoffrey A. Landis

• Word count: 2296
• Page count: 4

Falling Onto Mars is an award winning science fiction short story by Geoffrey A. Landis. It is a story about violent and non-reforming prisoners who are sent to Mars rather than sentenced to death on Earth. Falling Onto Mars won the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

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The Day the Martians Came

by Frederik Pohl

• Word count: 2579
• Page count: 6

The Day the Martians Came is an interestingly abstract science fiction short story by Frederik Pohl. First published in 1967 it explores the social ramifications of humans discovering an alien race.

The story follows one night of a hotel manager as he struggles to deal with all the reporters in his establishment on the eve of NASA’s returning Algonquin Nine – an expediton to Mars.
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