Mars, Alastair
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1915-1985) Canadian-born soldier and author, in the UK from infancy, in the Navy from 1932; he became well known for the 1952 court martial that ended his military career (in the midst of a dispute regarding his penury at naval rates of pay, he had refused to report for duty); his last rank was lieutenant commander. After 1952, he published several novels that drew on his intimate knowledge of submarines at war Under the Sea (he had been commander of H M S Thule 1943-1945), including two sf tales. Arctic Submarine (1955) and Atomic Submarine: A Story of Tomorrow (1957; vt Fire in Anger 1958) are both Near Future narratives: the first describes a fully-submerged attempted transit of the North East Passage in an atomic submarine; the second faces the commander of the first atomic submarine with a crisis that threatens the fragile Cold War peace. [JC]
Lieutenant Commander Alastair Campbell Gillespie Mars
born St Johns, Newfoundland: 1 January 1915
died Ipswich, Suffolk: 12 March 1985
works
- Arctic Submarine (London: Elek Books, 1955) [hb/]
- Atomic Submarine: A Story of Tomorrow (London: Elek Books, 1957) [hb/]
- Fire in Anger (New York: J S Mill Co/William Morrow, 1958) [vt of the above: hb/Bruno Junker]
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