Mars, Sergio
Entry updated 12 July 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1976- ) Spanish author, critic, editor, publisher and translator, one of the best Hard SF writers in Spanish. He has published four sf and fantasy novels, four collections, an essay and about seventy short stories, some of them set in Tolkien's Middle-earth. He is quite popular in Spanish and Latin American sf magazines and anthologies, with dozens of collaborations in the form of stories and articles. He has also taken part in other authors' sf universes such as the Akasa-Puspa series by Juan Miguel Aguilera and Javier Redal. He ran the indie publishing house Cápside, which published ten books including his translations of works by George Griffith and William Morris and the ezine Rescepto (2006-2007, 6 issues).
Mars started writing stories for magazines and anthologies in the 2000s. El rayo verde en el ocaso ["The Green Ray at Sunset"] (coll 2008), winner of the Ignotus Award, includes some of his best works: "Destellos de oscuridad" ["Flashes of Darkness"] (in Visiones 2005, anth 2005, ed Santiago Eximeno), "Diagnóstico preventivo" ["Preventive Diagnosis"] (in Visiones 2006, anth 2006, ed Mariano Villarreal) y "Cuarenta siglos os contemplan" ["Forty Centuries Look Down Upon You"], a psychosocial experiment on how civilization arises, which concludes that humanity tends to reproduce and perpetuate the behavior patterns and mistakes that knows; a novella finalist for the UPC Award in 2006 and winner of Ignotus Award in 2009.
Another important collection is La mirada de Pegaso ["Pegasus's Gaze"] (coll 2010), winner of the Ignotus Award. In the title novella, Mars describes a research project that seeks to recover endangered animals using cloning techniques (see Clones), which allows the author to describe the action protocols of scientific practice. "Historia de un Watson" ["Watson Story"] is a retelling of The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler set in a hardboiled future.
His last sf book is La disonancia de las esferas ["Dissonance of the Spheres"] (coll 2020). In the homonymous novella, Mars poses an exciting ethical debate by describing a society where machines undertake decision-making about the well-being of humanity but an idealistic young person plans an attack to try to reverse this situation. "161,62" poses the exploration of pocket multiverses; this was a story winner of the Pascual Enguídanos Award in 2018. "Ruedas dentadas de un reloj imaginario" ["Cogwheels of an Imaginary Clock"], winner of the Domingo Santos Award in 2017, tells with much Humour what would happen if astrology were an exact science. "La bestia humana de Birkenau" ["The Human Beast from Bikernau"] (in Mariposas del Oeste y otros relatos, anth 2016, ed Mariano Villarreal) is a horror tale set in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp; it won the Ignotus Award in 2016.
Apart from sf books, Mars published the epic fantasy novels La ley del trueno ["Thunder's Law"] (2012) and La invocación del picto ["The Conjuring of the Pict"] (2018), the Young Adult novel La búsqueda del grifonicornio ["Quest for the Griffincorn"] (2015) and the dark fantasy collection El precio del barquero ["The Ferryman's Price"] (coll 2010).
He is also a very prolific critic. His website contains more than a thousand reviews and the essay La 100cia ficción de Rescepto ["Rescepto's Science Fiction"] (2013), winner of the Ignotus Award, included one hundred reviews of science fiction books. In addition, he is a prominent popularizer of transhumanism (see Posthuman), with some featured essays on Greg Egan's works.
Sergio Mars is, above all, a writer of short stories and novellas. As a hard science fiction writer, he shows a strong background as a biologist specializing in genetics, although he also has a deep understanding of anthropology, quantum Physics, Computer science, nanotechnology and xenobiology, among many other scientific subjects. [MV]
Sergio Mars
born Valencia, Spain: 1976
works
- Cuarenta siglos os contemplan ["Forty Centuries Look Down Upon You"] (Granada, Spain: AJEC, 2011) [novella: pb/]
- La ley del trueno ["Thunder's Law"] (Valencia, Spain: Cápside, 2012) [pb/]
- La búsqueda del grifonicornio ["Quest for the Griffincorn"] (Madrid, Spain: Hidra, 2015) [pb/]
- La invocación del picto ["The Conjuring of the Pict"] (Valencia, Spain: Cápside, 2018) [fixup: pb/S. T. Prescott and Sergio Mars]
collections
- El rayo verde en el ocaso ["The Green Ray at Sunset"] (Granada, Spain: AJEC, 2008) [coll: pb/]
- La mirada de Pegaso ["Pegasus' Gaze"] (Granada, Spain: AJEC, 2010) [coll: pb/]
- El precio del barquero ["The Ferryman's Price"] (Zaragoza, Spain: Saco de Huesos, 2010) [coll: pb/]
- La disonancia de las esferas ["Dissonance of the Spheres"] (Valencia, Spain: Tinturas, 2020) [coll: pb/]
nonfiction
- La 100cia ficción de Rescepto ["Rescepto's Science Fiction"] (Valencia, Spain: Cápside, 2013) [pb/]
works as editor
- El abismo mecánico y otros relatos sobre la Inteligencia Artificial ["The Mechanical Abyss and Other Tales about Artificial Intelligence"] with Vicente Hernándiz (Valencia., Spain: Cápside, 2015) [anth: pb/Andrew Ostrovsky]
- La canción de Orfeo y otros relatos de viajes interestelares ["Orpheus' Song and Other Tales of Interstellar Travel"] with Vicente Hernándiz (Valencia, Spain: Cápside, 2016) [anth: pb/Juan Miguel Aguilera]
links
- Sergio Mars
- Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Sergio Mars at La Tercera Fundación ["The Third Foundation"] (in Spanish)
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