Martian Dreams Books

BULLFIGHTING  MADE EASY

by Victoria d'Ore

There are three major principles involved in bull-fighting. I like to call these The Courage, The Love, and The Truth. The Courage is mastering your fear: know that the bull will not harm you. The Love consists of compassion for the bull as well as the audience: you must respect the bull, seeking not its destruction but the entertainment of your audience. The Truth consist of one important fact: the bull is easily distracted, and will follow the waving red cape whenever it sees it. In fact with no cape to follow a bull will seek whatever waving red thing it finds.

ÿ Operation of the Power Generation System

The new Automatic Power Generation System uses mechanical Martians to operate it so we do not have to leave the sunlight as often. The first mechanical Martian is called Coker, and its task is to mine coal and bring it back to the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt brings the coal to the furnace room, where the second mechanical Martian, called Stoker, feeds it to the furnaces. Oxygen is extracted for the furnaces from the Oxium Collection Facility, which is documented elsewhere. Once the system is running, only maintenance is necessary, but since the pieces of coal normally fed to the furnaces are too large for a Martian to carry, several smaller pieces of coal will have to be hand-fed to the furnace to restart the system if it is shut down.

ÿ Maintenance of the Power Transmission System

All the various mechanisms of Martian civilization are powered from central stations that broadcast energy from special towers. Occasionally the cable in the broadcast system, on a tower or strung between them, will wear out. This presents little problem, as there is some redundancy in the system. If the system is ever shut down, however, it must be restarted slowly to avoid a surge that would overload the cables all at once. A cable segment can be replaced without shutting down the system, but great care must be taken to insulate the worker and his pliers to avoid electrocution. ÿ If sumbody reads this, that scalywag Raspootin probably got me. He got all high an mighty, tellin me to give him my oxyum map, but I hid it, an now I'm goin to give him what four! ÿ Mister McGee:

If you do not comply immediately with my order to reveal the sites where you obtain Oxium, the consequences will be dire. Meet me at the cave in the middle of Coprates Chasma, and bring your map!

R. ÿ Martian Creatures Apparently, the Martian race were some kind of plantlike form. No mammals, or other animal forms other than worms, seem to have existed here. Plants occasionally devoured other plants, and worms almost always were predators. Martian Reproduction Apparently, for ritual or biological reasons, the Martians held the soil where a Martian grew to be at least as important in determining its capabilities as its genetic heritage. The gentlemen of the expedition who are more gifted than myself in interpreting the artifacts for social structures are in fact convinced that genetic heritage was operative only in determining physical capacities, while mental and spiritual development came almost purely from the soil. I have reconstructed the techniques the Martians used to cultivate themselves. Their reproduction was by alternation of generation, with a sessile, nonsentient generation and a motile, sentient generation. It is my hope that some seeds somewhere survived whatever disaster befell the race. I believe that a newly-planted seed was watered and then fertilized with a nitrogen compound, a phosphorous solution, and a potash mixture. Not surprisingly, the areas where young Martians were growing were kept safe and visited only by specialists, but there appears also to have been a belief that community leaders should come to visit the growing pods every few days. ÿ The Book I Never Wrote

By Mark Twain This is a book that will never be published, for I never wrote it. ÿ These calculations have convinced me, as I am sure they would convince any intelligent reader, that there is a ninth planet somewhere beyond Neptune. I thus have no choice but to visit there in person and bring back evidence to convince the masses. ÿ Manners, Discipline, and Correct Conduct by Mildred Grantz

"...Properly starched, the Eton collar should resist folding or bending... ...Cravats should be tightened so as not to admit a pinky... ...Sit up straight, hands folded... ...Sneeze only when alone...& ÿ Shakespeare's Sonnets

"My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun... ...And yet, by God, I think my love as rare As any she belied by false compare.&

ÿ A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

This book is about a miser haunted by ghosts. After being traumatized by scenes of poverty, death, and self- revelation, he reforms. He ends up spending Christmas with his nephew Bob. ÿ  The Book of the Sword

by Richard Burton

"...I have only one wish that reader and reviewer can grant: namely, a fair field and no favour for certain 'advanced views' of Egyptology... ...It is my conviction that this study, still in its infancy, will greatly modify almost all our preconceived views of archaeological history...& ÿ The Aeneid

by Virgil This book is in Latin:

"...Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem.& ÿ Voyage au centre de la terre

(Journey to the Center of the Earth)

by Jules Verne This book is in French.

It is obviously some kind of speculative fiction. ÿ Infierno

by Dante Alighieri

This book is in Italian, with an English trans- lation appended. In the story, a poet goes on an allegorical journey through Hell, guided by the wonderful and muse-like lady Beatrice. ÿ The Three Musketeers

by Alexandre Dumas

Young and spirited D'Artagnan hopes to join the Queen's Musketeers. Porthos, Athos, and Aramis befriend him and together they save the Queen's honor. ÿ Catherine the Great, an informal biography

by Roger Aucourant This well-read book is full of scandal and political maneuvering. The innocent and pretty Sophia grows up to be the notorious and brilliant Czarina of Russia. ÿ Le Morte d'Arthur

by Sir Thomas Malory This is a popular book because it compiles most of the many legends of the Knights of the Round Table. Lists of jousts and other dull bits have been mercifully left out. ÿ Tables of Logarithms

by Charles Babbage This copy was signed by the author! It reads, "To my good friend, George Peacock.

Until we find a better way.

Charles Babbage 1822.& ÿ The Prince

by Machiavelli This little book seems to be advice on how to be ruthless. ÿ (This scroll is a volume of Martian love poetry by Chaketesh the Fifth.) "Little buttermoth

Alighting on my shoulder,

Whisper my love

With a flutter of your wings;

Shower her with my promises

And kisses.& ÿ (This scroll is a volume of Martian love poetry by Ketshaf of Hellas.) "The Blue-white Planet smiles  upon you.

The sun, it warms you and gleams.

The two moons above

Give their blessings as well,

And I drink to your Martian Dreams.& ÿ (This scroll contains a record of the cultivation traditions and rituals of a grove known as "Moonsspeakers&, which apparently was absorbed into this grove after some kind of disaster.) It was the tradition of the Moonsspeakers to always cut the pod from the plant before opening it, and to open the pod with a single stroke from stem to tip. As our old tradition was to leave the pod on the plant and to use the Wormsword to open it (which was of course anathema to the Moonsspeakers, the only serious problem with their choice of ourselves to merge with) our compromise tradition is to use the normal ritual pod-knife but to leave the pod on the plant. ÿ (This scroll is a tract on the "anthropological& history of Martian jewelry customs.) Jewelry has been a particularly female-related ["feminine& would be a bad translation] ornamentation since the dawn of Martian civilization. Early examples bear extremely concrete similarity to motile female Martians' flowers, and are believed to be badges of accomplishment for those whose seeds were chosen to propagate the grove. Later jewelry retained more symbolic connection to flowers, and acquired various other meanings, similar in many cases to Earthly jewelry customs. ÿ (This scroll seems to be from early research on the psychic effects of various berries.) One strain of berries in particular, colored purple, showed consistent conference of strong telekinetic abilities - the ability to get, drop, move, and use objects at a distance. Other strains mentioned, but not as readily identifiable to you, provided clairvoyance (the ability to sense or "see& one's entire surroundings, without need for light and without obstruction by opaque objects. There is also mention of severely poisonous effects of certain strains, resulting in many Martians requiring hospitalization and even a few fatalities. ÿ The First Grove [apparently a Martian myth] The first Martians were the fruit of the love of the Sun and the Blue-green Planet [Earth?]. The Planet, pining for the Sun during one of his long absences, grew flowers that dropped seeds on Mars. These seeds grew, and bore pods containing the First Cultivator, the First Gatherer, the First Arborist, and of course the First Agrarian. Knowledge of these professions and their divine origin was granted the First Grove by their divine parents and the glorious rays of the Sun warming Mars in those early days. The moons, jealous of the offspring of the greater gods, created worms to feed on their seeds and pods. Thus the First Grove learned the need for new professions, and the brave offspring of the First Agrarian and the First Arborist became the first Wormsbane, and travelling Mars to learn of worms created the profession of Explorer. The First Cultivator put a wall around the sacred soil of the First Grove to keep small worms out even as the First Explorer slew the larger worms. ÿ The Flight of the Blue Planet [apparently a Martian myth] When Mars was young and the Sun and the Blue-green Planet had given life to the First Grove, and the moons had failed to destroy the offspring of the gods by creating worms, they developed a new plan. Since the Sun had to stand his rounds travelling the heavens to tend other children, the evil moons waited until he was away to assault the Planet. While one moon distracted her with a masterful and intricate tale of strange creatures who wove webs between the stars, the other moon gathered great stones to hurl from the heavens at Mars. The great Planet saw the impacts of the stones on her beloved Mars, and grew so angry she blew on the lesser moon with all her might. The lesser moon was sent spinning about Mars too fast for it to ever slow down again. But the force of her breath sent her far from Mars herself, and she could not return. When the Sun returned, he came to take vengeance on the greater moon for the assault on his beloved's offspring and her estrangement from them. The greater moon fled before the Sun, faster and faster, with the blows of the Sun's mighty arms carving great chunks off of it at every stride. Eventually it moon escaped the Sun's wrath, but only by running even faster than its sibling had been knocked spinning, and only after being reduced (by the Sun's blows) to smaller than its sibling. ÿ (This scroll is a history of Mars' Industrial Revolution.) The Martians never forgot the image of their planet as a love-garden of the gods, even when they began to reject old myths on rational grounds. (Apparently the powerful ancestral memory of Martian groves via their soil created some interesting tensions not known to humans' weaker and less direct traditions.) When industrial technology began to develop, the introduction of machines and furnaces on the surface of Mars offended this sensibility, recalling a myth (only alluded to in this volume) about evil forces hurling stones at the planet. The decision was made to put all the machinery underground, and to develop mechanical Martians to maintain it under the cruel lightlessness of that place. What mechanisms were necessarily on the surface were made as beautiful and nonintrusive as possible, and were powered by broadcast electricity generated underground. ÿ This is a volume listing the genealogy of some five hundred Martian groves. The exact circumstances under which a grove grew too big and decided to split are listed in every such case. A few cases of groves merging after a physical (or once, political) disaster rendered one nonviable are recorded, but recording the details of such disasters was apparently taboo. ÿ (This scroll appears to contain research notes from early in the development of the Dream Machines. Nothing of later developments is included for some reason.) Dream Machine research developed from research into the Mind-Body problem, which for Martians was a problem in biology rather than philosophy. Martians acquired their purely- physical abilities from their genetic heritage; thus seeds from physically-adept Martians and groves were prized by Agrarians and Cultivators. Memories, knowledge of Martian culture and their groves' history, and such items came from the ground the pod was grown in and the leaves, other sheddings, and dead bodies used as mulch. The questions raised were about the development of individuals' personalities and distinctive traits, and about why certain memories were stronger for some Martians than for grovemates raised in the same soil. In this early work, researchers discovered a psychic fluid, like phlogiston or the luminiferous ether or electricity, which carried mental abilities and thoughts. Certain plants and plantimals attracted or interacted with this fluid, especially the berries other researchers were investigating for the conference of psychic powers. The goal was to develop a machine which would allow extraction or transference of patterns in this "Animistic ether&, intact, from or between living Martians. ÿ The Canal Worm Problem (This is a paper about the problem of a troublesome form of worm which had adapted rapidly to the newly-created Martian canal system. No solution is offered. Canals and cisterns, larger bodies of water than are natural on Mars, provide a perfect habitat for what was once a marginally successful form of worm. These creatures are mobile but have a sessile stage. The writer speculates that canal worms might share the sentient Martians' otherwise unique two-stage reproductive process, but reaches no conclusion.)