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The Day the Martians Came

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Examines what happens to a Hollywood screen writer, a Russian emigre, a young man in a cult religion, a couple of flying saucer fakers, a space scientist, and a drug addict when real, live Martians are discovered

248 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 1988

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About the author

Frederik Pohl

1,139 books1,070 followers
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.

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5 stars
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72 (46%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Craig.
6,636 reviews185 followers
February 10, 2021
This is a fix-up novel/collection of stories showing the effect of the discovery of non-terrestrial life has on a wide range of humans. The first published episode was The Day After the Martians Came in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions in 1967, and in the following two decades Pohl revisited the theme again and again and examined it from various views. The characters are quite well drawn, and the book is perhaps his best solo piece of satire. It's a very good, thought-provoking work.
Profile Image for Erik.
322 reviews17 followers
May 12, 2016
The Martian Chronicles, sort of, in Pohl style.

Definitely not your typical martian story, the martians in this book are purposefully not important of themselves, just evolutionary flimflam.

You get a series of interesting, although pulpy at times, vignettes that often have very little to do with the ovearching storyline presente din the first few chapters/storylines. Hit and miss, some are pretty poignant. A satircal tone is strong throughout - theres a particularly biting one about crackpot dictatorships.

Fun, but not great.
Profile Image for Dusty Wallace.
Author 23 books6 followers
December 17, 2015
I really enjoyed this book. It's mostly a series of comedic short stories that all revolve around the same event. Pohl's got a great voice and comes up with some really unique characters. The science aspects are good too in the chapters where they show up. A lot of the chapters don't have any science at all. Instead the characters are screenwriters, cult members, statistical researchers, public relations managers, etc...
Profile Image for Johnny.
Author 10 books145 followers
October 17, 2022
It seems like there were a couple of decades toward the end of the 20th century in which book packagers figured that the easiest way to market a book by a noted science-fiction author was to gather together previously published short stories, provide some sort of overarching conceit to tie them together as a literary string of beads, and slap a cover on that made it look like a novel rather than an anthology. I recently read such an anthology by Jerry Pournelle and now, I have received a gift copy of The Day the Martians Came by Frederick Pohl. Technically, many of Ray Bradbury’s paperbacks were anthologies, though the thematic element was clearer in The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man than in I Sing the Body Electric. At least, when I experienced Brief Cases by Jim Butcher of The Dresden Files fame, a recent anthology of short stories, there was no pretense that this was a novel.

The packaged nature of this volume may not be important to many of you. My objection to short story anthologies is primarily that they give me too many places to put the book down. I have a similar whine about epic novels that jump around schizophrenically with the point-of-view characters. A corollary objection is that the short stories, even when written by master storytellers, tend to be uneven in pacing and concept. Indeed, my brother who gave me this copy warned me that the stories were uneven with some funnier and some more interesting than others that he just didn’t think worked.

Notwithstanding those objections, the conceit for The Day the Martians Came is incredibly clever. Reading the title, one is immediately expecting space combat and cosmic upheaval. Instead, Frederick Pohl imagines the impact of a relatively benign discovery of extraterrestrial life on relatively mundane lives. Starting with the least interesting member of the Mars mission through the manager of a Cocoa Beach motel, we read of the impact on screenwriters, con artists, Soviet ex-patriate space scientists working as tour guides, public relations men (but this may be a redundancy with the aforementioned con artists), whistle-blowers, drug addicts, and cult members. And, in the midst of these clever parodies, tied together by pastiches of scholarly meetings, magazine articles, bureaucratic reports, and television/radio transcripts, Pohl also manages to work in allusions to ERB’s John Carter (pp. 31, 34, and 115), Ray Bradbury (p. 76), Carl Sagan (pp. 76, 88, 144), and both H. G. Wells (pp. 210, 213) and Orson Welles (p. 210). This is all delightful to me. I also rather enjoyed the fact that many of the protagonists from the earlier stories made at least cameo appearances in a later story (clearly written for this collection) and a final story from the Martian point-of-view.

Nothing is safe from parody in this volume. Having attended conferences where one of the subjects was grant-writing, I laughed at the conclusion on p. 105 written prior to the report and requiring an update within 18 months of its submission. The tale of coups and countercoups from the perspective of a PR agent went a little long for my taste, but I still liked the story. I even liked the cynical perspective on cult leaders, whether the washed-up duo of “Saucery” or the flock-fleecing Reverend of “Missioner.” And I especially liked the screenwriter without a creative neural pathway in his brain. But my generous sibling and I both think the collection is uneven. It is uneven in pacing and it is uneven in that the story entitled “Too Much Loosestrife” is considerably darker than any of the others.

In general, The Day the Martians Came is worth the experience, though. I would recommend skipping over the darker story, if I were you, but that’s a matter of taste. In terms of any application to life, something that I like to see in even fantasies, mysteries, and space opera, as well as science-fiction, most of the lessons to be learned in The Day the Martians Came are cautionary. I commend the following quotation to anyone interested as one character thinks about his complicity in a government-sponsored fiasco. “Mistakes conveyed one thing, but when you defined them as my mistakes the term meant something a lot different and a lot more painful.” (p. 114)
88 reviews
April 15, 2017
Bom, provavelmente é um problema meu, mas não gostei da enorme quantidade de personagens que parecia que se iam ligar no fim, mas afinal não, algumas delas nem percebi o propósito...algumas das ideias criticadas também morreram há décadas e eram típica e unicamente Americanas...
Profile Image for Elar.
1,434 reviews21 followers
April 21, 2017
Humorous collection of different viewpoints of what would happen if aliens were to be discovered. Some stories are little bit outdated, but overall feeling and pace are very good.
Profile Image for Coyle.
677 reviews62 followers
May 19, 2012
This book is not so much a comphrehensive narrative as it is a series of short stories from the perspective of individuals reacting to the discovery of life on Mars. Specifically, they react to the apparent fact that the alien life forms on Mars are (spoiler alert) unimpressive. The defining characteristic of alien life on Mars is not regrowing severed limbs, death rays, or extreme bellicosity. Rather, it is patience. And, well, patience is kind of a boring thing to write about. Not that this book is necessarily boring- in fact it's fairly interesting as a character study. What begins to grow out of this book is Pohl's view of human nature. As each person's response to the news that Martians are being brought to earth is laid out in front of us, an overall picture of human nature becomes visible.
It's not a terribly attractive picture.
That is, a few people's lives are improved by the knowledge that Martians are coming. One person goes back to college, for example. But by and large the news about the Martians is simply one more place for humanity to vent its wickedness. Or, if not wickedness, banality. Life on Earth goes on as it always had. Screenwriters write screenplays (now with Martians as the subjects), PR firms do promotions (incorporating Mars into their ads), and politicians are corrupt (now on two planets).

Overall, an interesting read, if not the most spectacular science fiction ever...
Profile Image for Tomislav.
1,172 reviews97 followers
January 21, 2014
This is a satirical fix-up of short stories concerning the first expedition to Mars, and about the human response to the fact that Martians are brought back. One of the contained stories was originally published in Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions - "The Day After the Day the Martians Came."
380 reviews14 followers
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July 3, 2022
The twenty stories in The Day the Martians Came form an interlinked but independent set of reactions to the discovery of life on Mars--except the penultimate one, which presupposes knowledge of the previous 18, and the second, which establishes the conditions for the ones that follow.

The Seerseller expedition to Mars was looking to be a total failure. The rocket carrying supplies crashed and exploded, and the astronauts had almost all died off when a construction worker stumbled on an underground cavern inhabited by odd, seal-like creatures. The handful of survivors packed them into their spaceship and took off to return to Earth.

The stories in The Day the Martians Came then focus on different people's reaction to the impending visit from the first life found off Earth. They include a down-and-out screenwriter who spins out improbable movie concepts based on the Martians; a partner in a DC beltway consulting firm whose careless calculations led to the crash of the supply ship; dueling contactees who scheme to join up and make money off deceiving the public; and a southeast Asia island nation whose generals plot a coup based on taking the Martians as a national mascot.

The plots are clever and the characters well-imagined; Pohl's writing is straightforward (no semantic fireworks). Since the stories are independent, except the second and penultimate, they can be read in any order, and the book can be put down and picked up as you like.

Basically, The Day the Martians Came is much less science fiction than a study in the varieties of human greed, self-delusion, and endless ability to spin tales out of the slimmest material. Except for the very last story the Martians hardly figure at all (and it's telling that that story is by far the least satisfactory of the lot). They're just an objective correlative to fire up the doings of folks on Earth, who are all far more concerned with themselves and their lives--and incomes!--than with the Martians; no one seems even to care, much, about the profound implications the discovery of life on Mars would wreak on philosophy, religion, science, and our whole self-conception as human beings.

In that sense Pohl's stories tell an important and depressing tale about us. Selfishness and greed drive his characters, for the most part. His is a very different vision from the typical SF story of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life. It's a cautionary tale, which we do well to heed.
Profile Image for Steve Wiggins.
Author 9 books93 followers
August 27, 2017
I grew up really into science fiction. That slowed down when I got to college and began to read more serious stuff. Still, a step back into my childhood genre is enjoyable. I never read Frederik Pohl as a child, so I didn't know what to expect here. (I tend not to read back blurbs because of spoilers.)

This is a set of individual stories tied together with the theme of newly discovered Martians being brought back to earth. Most of the characters are not terribly sympathetic. Indeed, there's so much snark in some of the stories that it's off-putting. Not that I mind making fun of the religious, but that is the locus of much of said snark. Too much snappy conversation and lack of genuine feeling permeates many of these characters.

The connective tissue of the story line takes you from the discovery of the aliens by elitist astronauts (discovered by an unsung member of the crew, decidedly blue-collar) to the day they arrive on earth. Characters integrate and exploit this knowledge in different ways. There's very little sci-fi about it.

It was a fun, quick read. I didn't find much in it that would make me want to reread it, though. I did post some comments on it on my blog, for those interested in little more on the religion angle: Sects and Violence in the Ancient World.
945 reviews5 followers
March 16, 2021
Aunque me gusta mucho Pohl tengo que reconocer que no es uno de sus mejores libros. Una historia coral, en la que no hay protagonistas claros, debido a que el libro se ha formado uniendo una serie de relatos anteriores a los que se les da un hilo conductor que los relaciona. El hecho de no tener protagonistas hace que no empatices con los personajes, lo que hace que se lea con más distanciamiento.
Además el libro entra en el campo de la parodia, con numerosos personajes reales identificados con sus nombres y otros que son arquetipos de personas de la época. El problema es que estas parodias envejecen mal, cuando pasan unos años ya no recuerdas a las personas ni sus formas de actuar, lo que lleva a que no se entiendan muchas bromas que en su momento debieron ser más divertidas.
De todos modos el autor está ahí, con toda su experiencia de narrador, lo que hace que el libro se lea bien. Se hecha en falta la intemporalidad de otras de sus obras, que parece que se hayan escrito ayer.
Profile Image for Scott Doherty.
243 reviews1 follower
July 22, 2020
The Day the Martians Came is such an interesting wee book that mostly focuses on how the expected arrival of aliens would affect the Earth. Humans reactions range from the mystical to the commercial to the scientific with a generally pessimistic view of human nature.

It is an eclectic set of linked short stories exploring a common theme of alien life on mars and their arrival on earth. I loved how the chapters are separated by short blurbs from the popular media and scientific papers about the Martians. These pieces allow Pohl to provide background information in an amusing manner without the tedium of information dumps.
118 reviews10 followers
November 11, 2018
Collection of connected short stories on an ill-fated mars exploration that kills off most of the expedition but finds & brings to earth real live Martians.
Sci-fi at its best as both story & social comment.
Profile Image for Robert.
489 reviews
March 29, 2019
A collection of what were originally published as short stories plus some additional stories all on the central theme of the discovery of life on Mars. How else might you bring together such a collection of characters.
Profile Image for Jason Ryan.
144 reviews1 follower
July 26, 2018
I thought it was delightful. Not what I was expecting at all. Gave me a few good laughs and is kind of a commentary on the human condition.
Profile Image for Marcus Shaner.
55 reviews5 followers
September 21, 2020
My Re-Read of this last week has left me disappointed with how foggy my recollections can be about the quality of a book.
Its starts strong, with a lot of world building and promise of cool Martian drama and discoveries with a bit of humor.
Then he decided to write a different book?

I get it. I get the idea of this style of writing.
Different stories in the same world all counting down to the day the martians arrive, different characters stories inter-weaving with the hopes that they will culminate in the end with something grande and memorable.

But it just fizzles and the last chapter is bittersweet and kind of sad in a way???

I just remembered this story differently and was looking forward to that experience again.

Profile Image for Chuck McKenzie.
Author 20 books15 followers
August 3, 2024
A terrific work of classic SF, which details the major changes to life and society on Earth following the discovery of life on Mars. An engaging and thoughtful read.
Profile Image for Scott Holstad.
Author 132 books101 followers
April 29, 2013
I like Frederik Pohl, on average, but this book is below average. It's not even much of an attempt at sci fi -- just loosely related to it. It starts out rather promisingly, with some crashed astronauts finding an underground Martian "Macy's" and ultimately some real Martians. These Martians end up being a little disappointing though, as they're merely seals with legs. At this point, the novel loses any credibility it had to begin with. Although we're never told how this transpires, the next thing we know is that the astronauts have somehow communicated with the Martians and have convinced them to get on their spaceship so they can return to Earth together. Um, how did this happen Mr. Pohl? Seems to me this would be pretty major to the plot, but again, it's never described. What then happens in this novel is a series of virtual stand alone short stories are related about people who are anticipating the arrival of the Martians several months from now, all in their own ways. Very loosely tied together. I guess some of the stories are moderately interesting, but aside from the rare mention of Martians, none are actually sci fi -- just generalized stories about humanity in its different forms. You have a Russian tour guide who wants to get to America, a brainwashed cult member trying to get handouts for his cult, a Hollywood screenwriter, etc. The only other time the Martians are really brought into the book is at the end of the "novel" upon their impending landing on Earth, when all of a sudden, we're given the Martians' point of view -- they refer to us as "humans." How would they know to do this? They don't speak; they touch each other for communal language. How did they ever learn to call us humans? I have no idea. With the whole planet watching, they land, then everyone leaves to go back to their lives and Pohl tries to bring the characters from the shorts into play here to tie everything together, but it seems like a really weak effort and thus the book fails. It's really not very good, and as far as sci fi goes, it seems a failure to me. I love Pohl's short stories and some of his novels, but I can't recommend this one.
Profile Image for Marie.
Author 81 books119 followers
November 13, 2014
It's an unusual book - the plot is a pretty standard SF trope - explorers find living, intelligent life on Mars. The explorers are all sick and dying, and so are the Martians, and they start their slow journey home as the book breaks each chapter into a new POV, inserting news clippings and TV transcripts and a pair of silly charlatans, a desperate script writer, a beltway think tank con man, and other characters (all male if POV - with attended attractive female love interests who are attractive and interested. le sigh.)

As books to read while you are in deep pain in the hospital, it wasn't bad. Its series-of-short-stories structure was good for my limited attention span, though I did get tired of the lack of continuity and the endless man-pain. That said, there were memorable characters and moments and he did give the very last word to a female Martian, who speculates that the humans have nothing important to say.
Profile Image for Chris Peters.
435 reviews8 followers
October 9, 2014
So we found real life Martians, and so of course we have to drag them back to Earth. Of course, this event is going to change all of us.

Pohl examines a TON of characters, their reactions to the Martians, and what happens to their lives. Unfortunately, I think that there really are too many characters. The book seems very fragmented, almost like a short-story collection--except that none of the stories are complete. He does tie everything back together at the end, but it doesn't feel very coherent. Parts of it are awesome; I just wish that it either was longer and so could have expanded on everyone's story, or that some of the characters were cut out so that it could have expanded on those that were left.
162 reviews
June 13, 2009
This looks like he had some ideas that didn't make even short stories and fit them together as happening around the time of a NASA mission to Mars. They didn't fit together very well and most of them, frankly, were not very interesting. Of those stories I did like, I didn't really feel a need to know more. So Pohl was right about the fact that these wouldn't have been standalone stories.

The idea of how this mission affects people from the astronauts to a broke Hollywood writer might have been interesting, but the execution was just not there.
Profile Image for Mark Edlund.
1,718 reviews2 followers
March 9, 2013
A collection of short stories tied into the theme of the discovery of life on Mars by an almost failed Mars expedition. Had sort of a Martian Chronicles feel to it without the lyricism or the horror. The focus was on characters peripheral to the Martian's arrival and how their stories intertwined.
Two Canadian references - Peter Jennings is one of the broadcasters dealing with the landing and a screenwriter mentions Canada as a good place to release his "blockbuster" on the Martian "invasion".
Profile Image for Jason.
34 reviews1 follower
November 16, 2013
Compared to other Pohl books, this one is a little slow moving at first. But the payoff at the end, when the POV shifts to the Martians is a real treat. The way that Pohl plays presuppositions about what "first contact" would be like with alien species is what makes this book really interesting. It's just too bad that we get so little of that content - mostly all concentrated in the last 30 pages.
Profile Image for David Haverstick.
70 reviews2 followers
July 9, 2013
I really wanted this to be better, but on the whole it is far too disjointed to be considered a novel. There are some great short story ideas here that could be expanded. It's unfortunate that some good ideas were crushed in the throes of this enterprise.
That being said, Pohl has some great work. I would not select this as something to recommend though.
Profile Image for Dreepa.
86 reviews4 followers
August 27, 2010
This is a collection of short stories revolving around the fact that Martians are discovered on Mars.
Most stories have nothing to do with each other. Most aren't even 'sci fi'.

Good stories but not great.
2 reviews
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July 12, 2012
This one made me stumble... the abrupt change in POV in the 2nd chapter was unexpected & quite different from the other works I was reading from this author. However, every chapter was a fresh & pointed view of an epic event and kept me guessing who & from what perspective the next would show.
33 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2019
Very good tale told in an original way. I would recomend it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews

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