Sleepers of Mars

First edition
Cover art by Chris Foss

Sleepers of Mars (ISBN 0-340-17326-2) is a collection of early short stories by John Wyndham, published after his death, in 1973 by Coronet Books.

The collection includes:

• Sleepers of Mars (1939), a sequel to the novel Stowaway to Mars, in which a Russian expedition finds the remains of Martian civilisation.
• Worlds to Barter (1931), telling of the descendents of the human race travelling back in time to take over the current Earth.
• Invisible Monster (1933), featuring an invisible alien on the loose after the return of a space expedition.
• The Man from Earth (1934), in which a human sent on a mission to Venus wakes up in the far future as the last human alive.
• The Third Vibrator (1933), a cautionary tale in which the inventor of a super-weapon has a vision of how it previously destroyed Atlantis and Lemuria.

Summary

At the end of the previous novel Stowaway to Mars the British spaceship, the Gloria Mundi departed Mars, expecting the USSR ship to leave at the same time. It does not. In the Stowaway to Mars it is mention that while the British reach Earth safely, it was now several years later, and still there had been no sign of the Soviet vessel. This story tells their fate.

While on the planet in the previous story, the Soviet and British crews had explored part of Mars around their landing sites, discovering vegetation plant life, in the form of scrubby bushes growing along the banks of ancient canal works, with sluggish water still in them. The planet also hosted AI robots, hostile to the visitors from Earth. They seemed almost wild, feral machines living without control of organic life. Due to fatal encounters with these robots, and ill planned gunfight with the British crew, the Soviets are now number four crewmen. Preparing to depart for Earth they discuss the fate of their mission - origin a race between the nations of Earth to be the first to reach Mars. The British and the Gloria Mundi had won the race, reach Mars before the Soviets and USA (who's rocket had crashed with no survivors upon reaching Mars. The Russians speculate what would be the global reaction if the Gloria Mundi reaches Earth, and then the Soviets return, and claim that they were the first to reach Mars, not the British. They conclude that they would not be believed. However, they reason that if they succeed in racing the British home, then they can claim that the USSR was the first to conquer the Red Planet, and the British will be disbelieved.

Both spaceships prepare to take off, with the Russians planning to boost their engines to achieve greater velocity than the smaller British craft. Upon take off, however, the Soviet ship suffers a malefaction, crash-landing back upon Mars. Although the ship is relatively undamaged and the four crew survive the impact, the ship has landed on it's side and they lack the means to right it for take off. Even worse, they have no more fuel for a second attempt.

Stranded on Mars, their wreaked ship surrounded by the hostile robots, the Russians are saved by the arrival of more advanced and powerful robots, commanded by a martian. Humanoid in appearance, he is one of the same martins encored by the British party (but not by the Soviets) in the previous story. His machines drive off the feral AIs, and allows the Russians to leave their ship. Using advanced technology, the martian is able to modify the mind of one of their crew so that they can communicate.