''Stowaway to Mars'' is a

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 British writer

John Wyndham John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names ...

. It was first published in 1936 as ''Planet Plane'' (

George Newnes Ltd George Newnes Ltd is a British publisher. The company was founded in 1891 by George Newnes (1851–1910), considered a founding father of popular journalism. Newnes published such magazines and periodicals as ''Tit-Bits'', ''The Wide World Magazi ...

, London), then serialised in ''The Passing Show'' as ''Stowaway to Mars'' and again in 1937 in ''

Modern Wonder ''Modern Wonder'' was a largely factual magazine aimed at boys and young men. It had many articles and pictures on science, engineering and warfare etc. In some of the magazines, the Flash Gordon comic strip is printed in colour on the back cov ...

'' magazine as ''The Space Machine''. The novel was written under one of Wyndham's early

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

s, John Beynon. It was published by

Coronet Books Coronet Books was established in 1966 as the paperback imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. The imprint was closed in 2004 but then relaunched in 2010, publishing fiction and non-fiction in hardback and paperback, including works by Chris Ryan, Lorna ...

in 1972 as "''Stowaway to Mars'' by John Wyndham".

Groff Conklin Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...

reviewed the first American edition, issued in 1954 as ''Stowaway to Mars'' as by John Benyon, with no mention that "Benyon" was really much better known as John Wyndham. Conklin criticized several plot elements, and a "faintly distasteful emphasis on British nationalism", but labelled the work as "an interesting adventure story." The title novella of the collection '' Sleepers of Mars'' was a sequel.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stowaway To Mars 1936 British novels 1936 science fiction novels British science fiction novels English novels Novels set on Mars Fiction set in 1981 Fiction set in 1982 Novels by John Wyndham Space exploration novels George Newnes Ltd books