Zarlah the Martian

R. Norman Grisewood

Library - Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel Project Gutenberg _bleiler _isfdb

Publisher: R. F. Fenno & Co.

Published: Jan 2, 1919

Page Count: 104

Description:

956. ZARLAH, THE MARTIAN. R. F. Fenno; New York,
1909.
Shopgirl romance with interplanetary trimmings. #
Paris. * While trying to create a less fragile type
of glass Harold Lonsdale accidentally assembles a
device that permits interplanetary communication.
Amid the wires and plastics of his apparatus a hazy
human image takes form, and with a little adjustment
the image clears and speaks— French and English.
It is Almos, a Martian astronomer, who has a similar
device. * Explanation: The Martians have been observing
earth for at least seven centuries and have
learned the important languages. * After a while Almos
suggests that he and Lonsdale exchange bodies,
so that each can visit the other's world. Martian
science can accomplish this, for a technique for regenerating
old Martians involves temporarily withdrawing
the psyche from the body. * The transfer is
accomplished, and Lonsdale finds himself in Almos's
body, with some access to his memory. He meets the
beautiful Zarlah, with whom he falls passionately in
love. She reciprocates, but she is not in love with
Almos's body, but with Lonsdale himself, whom she
has previously watched in the Martian viewing apparatus.
Lonsdale decides to stay on Mars, with Almos's
blessing. When Zarlah's aerial vehicle gets
out of control, Lonsdale follows it. Both crack up
on one of Mars's moons, but they make their way back
down to Mars and live happily every after. Almos,
who is contented in Paris, has written the narrative.
* Mars has a human civilization, more advanced
than ours, with efficient air vessels (aeronoids)
that operate by a repulsion metal that is also present
at one of the Martian poles. The canals are
wide waterways. Other oddities are a thought-reading
machine that Zarlah has invented and a musical
instrument that transfers light patterns— such as
the image of a flower— into sound. Life is long,
six hundred years or so. # Only a somewhat uncommon
curiosity.