by Geoff Ryman
First published 2010
A journalist stumbles upon forty reels of film that should not exist. The footage claims to be from 1911, adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars with technical sophistication that surpasses anything from that era. The discovery defies explanation. The film quality appears genuinely aged, yet the production values seem impossibly advanced for early cinema. The journalist begins investigating the origins of this mysterious footage. Each answer leads to stranger questions. The movie adaptation predates known film techniques by decades, yet shows clear signs of authentic aging. As the investigation deepens, the journalist confronts possibilities that challenge basic assumptions about history and reality. The search for truth becomes a journey into the unknown. What started as curiosity about unusual film footage transforms into something far more unsettling. The journalist must decide how far to pursue answers that may reshape understanding of what is possible. The mystery of the Mars film footage opens doors to revelations that extend far beyond cinema history.
Genres: science-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, 21st-century, alternate-history, film
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mars
Period: 1911
32 pages · Kindle Edition · Tor Books