Posted: January 17, 2007

P: All right. Let's get down to basics. What ever made you write a full-scale war story anyway? There was no sign this was coming in the earlier books, certainly not on such a scale.

TWC: It was an inevitable development in the evolution of the Martian settlement. Human nature drove the people in the story to war, and technology made it possible.

P: But weren't you worried that it would be dismissed as just some me-too Star-Wars story?

TWC: No. This is definitely not a Stars Wars story.

P: You don't sound all that enthusiastic about Stars Wars stories.

TWC: I've nothing against Stars Wars stories, apart from their tendency to break many of the fundamental Laws of Nature to make the plot work, and maybe their tendency to glorify war too much. The wars in Star Wars movies are just make-believe war, of course, but they come with loads of fun and plenty of entertaining action--the usual Good Guys versus the Very Bad Guys, where the Good Guys never get hurt because the Bad Guys can't shoot straight, and nobody ever worries about all the Bad Guys who get killed.

P: You think real war is something very different.

TWC: I certainly do. Real war is unbelievably horrible. In real war, even innocent children suffer and die, as they do in Glory Be To Mars.

P: But wouldn't you say Glory Be To Mars has just as much military action as any Star-Wars story?

TWC: Perhaps. Edward Russell, the desert fox in the story, certainly knows how to keep the fireworks going, and General Oliver Derk knows how to prosecute a war. At least the story doesn't break the Laws of Nature anywhere, not as far as I know anyway. But on another level, the story forces you to face the truly horrific nature of war.

P: Can you give us an example of that?

TWC: You see it in the anguish of Phil Erway, the Martian tank commander, for example, during one of Edward's lightning attacks on a French Foreign Legion base. Phil witnesses coalition soldiers he has come to know being killed by predator drones, right in front of his eyes; he swears at Edward, and shouts: "My God! No, Edward! There's no need to do this! You've killed enough of them!" [See the quotation from Chapter 14 (page 326), on the Glory Be To Mars Quotations Web Page.]

P: Any others?

TWC: Maybe I should just say the story also lets us experience the powerful emotions that push a people to war, in spite of its horrors. [See the quotations from both Chapter 7 (page 166) and Chapter 17 (page 401), on the Glory Be To Mars Quotations Web Page.]

P: And you don't think it's just a Good Guys versus Bad Guys story?

TWC: Definitely not. The troops on both sides fervently believe in the justice of what they're fighting for, like during the American Civil War.

P: The story also has something very different--the secret Martian machine. Do you really believe such a machine is possible?

TWC: Yes I do. I'm convinced of it, although it's not possible at present.

P: How come nobody's talking about such a machine? You never come across anything like that.

TWC: Because such a machine would have absolutely no use here on Earth, other than as a scientific curiosity.

P: In the book, you also have the extreme religious right getting very upset about the Martian machine.

TWC: In the real world, I think even the moderate religious right would get very upset about such a machine. But in the story, that was incidental to the plot. The machine does trigger the war, but I don't put the blame on the religious right for it.

P: Because it was the Derk brothers that were the true instigators.

TWC: Right. Harold Derk and his paid political collaborators essentially deceived the American people, and the Europeans too. You have to read the story to understand how and why.

P: I noticed that once the war gets going, in Chapter Two, the Martian machine plays no direct part.

TWC: I'm not sure I'd agree with that. It's true that the machine's well hidden from the coalition when the war starts, but the implications of the Martians' possession of it are powerful and direct, as far as the war is concerned.

P: Especially in the activities of the desert fox, I suppose.

TWC: Yes. The military activities of the desert fox are a direct consequence of the Martians' possession of the machine, and are central to the plot.

P: Did you always have the idea of a Martian desert fox in your head for this third Mars story, or was it something that came to you while you were writing the story?

TWC: I always had that idea, right from the start. The existence of a desert fox on Mars during the war is no accident. Anyone who reads the story will see it was something that had to happen.

P: Some of the military actions of your desert fox against the coalition are pretty vicious, yet he can be compassionate too.

TWC: I think the desert fox in the story--Edward Russell--just does what a genuine desert fox would do in a war, if he were an honorable man, as the original desert fox, World War II's Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, was reputed to have been. The important thing for the plot is that Edward has the same tactical ability that Rommel had, and in the end this has tragic consequences. Remember this story is fundamentally a tragedy. You recall that one of your reviewers, who very much liked the story, got quite upset about that.

P: Yes, I do. So how would you actually want readers to see this Mars story? As the story of a war over a powerful machine that could one day be built on Mars, or the story of a Martian desert fox, or what?

TWC: Neither, I think. There's a lot more to the story than the Martian machine and the tactics of the desert fox.

P: How would you prefer that readers see the story then?

TWC: Probably as a story that speaks to a new constituency.

P: You had better explain that.

TWC: All right. As far as Mars is concerned, there are two communities in America: the case-for-Mars supporters, led by Dr. Robert Zubrin, President of the Mars Society; and the case-against-Mars supporters, with no clear leader. Let's say the Zubrin people are one percent of the population, and the case-against-Mars people are 99 per cent, which is probably about right.

Glory Be To Mars speaks to the values and interests of a third community, currently with little or no constituency on Earth. The book shows us Mars through the eyes of people committed to living out their lives there, people whom circumstances have placed on Mars for the long term. They're people who have toiled to build something wonderful out of what most Americans currently think is a worthless cold desert--the legendary gleaming city on the hill--and they have a necessarily very different, Martian point of view. They passionately care about their planet for one thing, and will not let anybody harm it.

P: Martian patriots, in other words?

TWC: Yes, I suppose you could say that. The story's sympathies are with the Martians, although there are exceptions, like the American war correspondent on Mars, Beverly Kerrigan; or the religious American President during the war, trapped between his duties and his conscience; or the American and European generals on Mars, with the exceptions of General Derk and a certain psychopath who plays a big part in the story.

P: I noticed Glory Be To Mars doesn't denigrate either America or Europe, even though they're on the coalition side

TWC: It certainly doesn't, and shouldn't, in spite of the war. Don't forget both sides are fighting for what they believe is right, even if Oliver Derk is a rogue general. In fact, in telling us about Beverly's great grandfather, Senator Kerrigan, the book exhalts the enlightened values and principles on which America was founded--even if ordinary experience tells us that not every administration in Washington lives up to them. [See the second quotation from Chapter 5 (page 100), on the Glory Be To Mars Quotations Web Page.]

P: How come you think you know what the Martian point of view is?

TWC: I can't know for sure. But when I created the circumstance and the Martian characters in Glory Be To Mars, I did my best to put myself in the characters' shoes and uncover how they would think and feel. But maybe time will prove me wrong. We'll see.

P: There's an awful lot of story in Glory Be To Mars. Have you any comment on that?

TWC: Even if it's a big story, it's still easy to follow, according to the reviewers. Events are always in chronological order, even when parallel threads are active. And you don't have to read the earlier Mars stories to follow this one easily and enjoy it. It's meant as a stand-alone story. Relevant information about the early days of the Martian settlement is included where you need it. And there are five good maps to help the reader keep track: one overall map and four detail maps.

P: Thank you very much for this.

TWC: You're very welcome.

P: And by the way, we're sure you're wrong about Glory Be To Mars appealing mainly to Martians. A lot of people are very excited about it. And one last question. Are you going to write any more Mars stories?

TWC: I've two more beginning to hatch in my imagination, but for now I've no plans to write them.

P: Thank you again.

The conversation is copyrighted, but may be published freely, in whole or in part, by anyone wishing to discuss the novel, or draw attention to it, provided the source (Tharsis Books) is acknowledged, and no attempt is made is misrepresent the opinions expressed--Tharsis Books.