Return of a Legend: Rediscovering Humanity on the Edge of the Cosmos

Mars has always attracted people willing to go farther than good sense recommends. Most visitors eventually retreat to sealed settlements or return to Earth, but a strange few discover that the Red Planet gets under their skin. They learn where oxygen can be stolen from native plants, how to sleep beneath layers of Martian vegetation, and how to find food where an Earthman would see only barren wilderness.

Young Will Terry has learned those lessons better than anyone expected. After losing his father in the Martian wilds, the boy survives alone and begins shedding the habits of the world where he was born. When Joe Dayton finally tracks him down, Will no longer behaves like a frightened child waiting to be rescued. Mars has become his country, and attempts to return him to ordinary human life may prove harder than simply leaving him there.

Then Will disappears again, drawing Joe and Doran Terry into the enormous wilderness of Syrtis Major. Their search carries them far beyond the protection of Port Laribee, where compressors fail, supplies vanish, storms can kill within hours, and every day forces them to imitate the creatures that already know how to survive. The deeper they travel, the more disturbing the question becomes: how much can people change to fit another planet before returning to their old lives becomes impossible?

Return of a Legend appeared in the March 1952 issue of Planet Stories, illustrated by Ed Emshwiller. Raymond Z. Gallun had already been publishing science fiction for more than two decades by then, beginning with “The Space Dwellers” and “The Crystal Ray” in 1929. His better-known short fiction includes “Old Faithful,” “Davey Jones’ Ambassador,” and “Stamped Caution,” while his novels include People Minus X, The Planet Strappers, and The Eden Cycle. Gallun’s long fascination with alien environments and people reshaped by extraordinary conditions is especially vivid in this vision of Mars