Prisoner of the Vampires of MarsRobert Darvel, a young and penniless French engineer at the turn of the twentieth century, is an amateur astronomer obsessed with the planet Mars. Transported by a combination of science and psychic powers to Mars, Robert must navigate the dangers of the Red Planet while trying to return to his fiancée on Earth. Through his travels, we discover that Mars can not only support life but is also home to three different types of vampires. This riveting combination of science fiction and the adventure story provides a vivid depiction of an imagined Mars and its strange, unearthly creatures who might be closer to earthly humans than we would care to believe. Originally published in French as two separate volumes, translated as The Prisoner of the Planet Mars (1908) and The War of the Vampires (1909), this vintage work is available to English-language audiences unabridged for the first time and masterfully translated by David Beus and Brian Evenson. |
Contents
A Mysterious Message | 5 |
Ralph Pitchers Home | 14 |
Missing | 31 |
Yarmouth Street | 34 |
The Castle of Energy | 41 |
Marvels | 50 |
The Catastrophe | 58 |
The Awakening | 63 |
Captain Wads Experiment | 112 |
The Martian Village | 129 |
Public Festivities | 135 |
War with the Idols | 140 |
Nocturnal Battle | 147 |
Explorations | 155 |
Progress | 161 |
The Crystal Mountain | 164 |
Part | 73 |
The Wilderness | 75 |
Dead from Joy | 82 |
The Conquest of Fire | 92 |
White Beast | 99 |
The Vampire | 107 |
The Photographs | 173 |
robert darvel | 178 |
Darkness | 188 |
Translators Note | 191 |