''No Man Friday'' (also known in the United States as ''First on Mars'') is a British

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

novel by

Rex Gordon Stanley Bennett Hough (25 February 1917 – February 1998) was a British author of science fiction, for which he used the pseudonym Rex Gordon. He also published several novels under his own name. Hough was a wireless operator on merchant and pass ...

(Stanley Bennett Hough). published in 1956. The reference in the original title is to '' Robinson Crusoe'', and the story can be described as a science fiction

robinsonade Robinsonade () is a literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 novel ''Robinson Crusoe'' by Daniel Defoe. The success of this novel spawned so many imitations that its name was used to define a genre, which is sometimes described simply a ...

set on Mars. The similarity is made explicit by the first edition cover.

Plot summary

A British rocket, developed at minimal cost and kept secret from officialdom, lifts off from the

Woomera rocket range The RAAF Woomera Range Complex (WRC) is a major Australian military and civil aerospace facility and operation located in South Australia, approximately north-west of Adelaide. The WRC is operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a di ...

on a mission to Mars. During the voyage, an accident in the airlock kills the entire crew except for engineer Gordon Holder, the novel's narrator, who was returning from an

EVA Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...

and still in his space suit. The rocket reaches Mars but crash-lands. There, Holder learns how to produce

oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

and

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

, also discovering more about Martian species and nourishment. Eventually, he starts cooperating with the titanic inhabitants of the planet to survive. After fifteen years, an American mission lands, thinking themselves the first to reach Mars. Holder contacts the Americans, and then tries to return to the dominant Martian beings, but is prevented from reaching them. He returns to Earth with the Americans.

Martian creatures

In his book, Rex Gordon describes Mars as a planet inhabited by different kinds of life forms. ; Minerals : Highly energetic flower-shaped mineral formations that grow in Martian valleys. Humidity disintegrates them. ; Plants : Photosynthetic organisms growing throughout the Martian surface. They bloom and produce hard fruits. ; "Ants" : Social insect-like bugs that pollinate the plants' flowers. ; "Humans" : Humanoid creatures are not the

dominant species Ecological dominance is the degree to which one or several species have a major influence controlling the other species in their ecological community (because of their large size, population, productivity, or related factors) or make up more of ...

on Mars. These animals eat the plants' fruits, live in groups and have limited intelligence. ; Dominant beings : Gigantic nocturnal living beings that eat Martian humanoids. They use their body lights for communication. The book also suggests they have the capacity to distort

spacetime In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differen ...

References

External links

Review of ''No Man Friday'': "An obscure British sf masterwork?"
by

Ian Sales Ian Sales is a British science fiction writer, editor and founder of the SF Mistressworks website. Although born in the UK, he grew up in the Middle-East, in Qatar, Oman, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Biography In the 1990s he was joint editor of ''The L ...

, September 22, 2010 1956 British novels 1956 science fiction novels British science fiction novels Castaways in fiction Novels set on Mars Novels about survival skills Space exploration novels Heinemann (publisher) books {{1950s-sf-novel-stub