''Rainbow Mars'' is a 1999

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

short story collection A short story collection is a book of short stories and/or novellas by a single author. A short story collection is distinguished from an anthology of fiction, which would contain work by several authors (e.g., '' Les Soirées de Médan''). Th ...

by American writer

Larry Niven Laurence van Cott Niven (; born April 30, 1938) is an American science fiction writer. His best-known works are '' Ringworld'' (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards, and, with Jerry Pournelle, '' The Mote in God's ...

. It contains six stories of Hanville Svetz, five previously published and the longest, "Rainbow Mars", written for the collection. The setting of the Svetz stories is Earth in the distant future. The hereditary leader of the Earth, known as the Secretary General, is an inbred imbecile. In order to maintain the interest of the Secretary, different factions in the capitol use their advanced science to amuse him. Svetz's section uses time travel in an attempt to bring back long extinct animals from Earth's past. Unbeknownst to Svetz and his team, they are actually travelling back into fictional pasts, and returning with

mythical creatures A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), but may be featured in historical accounts ...

*"Rainbow Mars". With a new Secretary General who is interested more in space travel than animals, Svetz uses his time machine to visit Mars, which he finds populated by the creations of Edgar Rice Burroughs,

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univer ...

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Stanley G. Weinbaum. The story began as a collaboration with

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comic fantasy, comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchet ...

; a number of his ideas remain in the final draft, mainly the use of

Yggdrasil Yggdrasil (from Old Norse ), in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the '' Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier tradition ...

. *"Get a Horse!", first published in ''

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

'', October 1969. Svetz is sent back in time to capture a horse, but brings back a unicorn instead. *"Bird in the Hand", first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', October 1970. Svetz is sent to get a roc, but returns with an ostrich, which he reverse engineers into a roc. A co-worker swipes a prototype of the very first automobile, causing a dangerous problem in the present. *"Leviathan!", first published in ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'', August 1970. Svetz is sent to capture the largest mythical creature that was ever imagined,

Leviathan Leviathan (; he, לִוְיָתָן, ) is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Amos, and, according to so ...

. *"There's a Wolf in My Time Machine", first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', October 1970. Svetz falls in love with a woman who evolved from a wolf. *"Death in a Cage", first published in Niven's collection ''The Flight of the Horse'' (Ballantine, 1973). Svetz encounters the

archetype The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis. An archetype can be any of the following: # a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...

of the

Grim Reaper Death is frequently imagined as a personified force. In some mythologies, a character known as the Grim Reaper (usually depicted as a berobed skeleton wielding a scythe) causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul. Other b ...

. *"Svetz and the Beanstalk", an afterword in which Niven discusses the fictional sources for ''Rainbow Mars''.

Notes

External links

Annotations of the stories
{{The War of the Worlds 1999 short story collections Barsoom Short stories set on Mars War of the Worlds written fiction Short story collections by Larry Niven Werewolf written fiction Adaptations of works by Edgar Rice Burroughs Adaptations of works by H. G. Wells Tor Books books Short stories about parallel universes Water scarcity in fiction Roc (mythology) Short stories set in the future Short fiction about time travel

Contents

See also

Notes

External links