When Does an Earthman Become a Martian?

"Return of a Legend," by Raymond Z. Gallun (Planet Stories, March 1952) succeeds on two levels.

First, it's a truly suspenseful tale about exploration and survival on a harsh planet.

Second, it creates a vivid atmosphere that really makes you believe in this version of Mars. It's a planet on which an ancient civilization had wiped itself out through global warfare eons ago; a planet where a human away from their colony can survive by literally prospecting for oxygen trapped in plants or in small domes constructed by Martain insects; a planet where food and water can be found with only the greatest effort.

The action starts at an Earth colony named Port Laribee, but soon moves out into the harsh Martian desert as a father and his young son move out into that wilderness. The father's mummified corpse is eventually found, but the child manages to adapt and survive. When he's found and brought back to the colony, he soon runs away again.

The couple searching for the boy are soon too far from Laribee to get back themselves. With their radio out, they too have to survive in a harsh environment not meant for humans. But they do survive and the story explores the idea of humans adapting to another planet to the point where they might now be considered more Martian than human. The challenge of taming this almost-dead world becomes their driving force.

I love both the vivid descriptions of Mars' harsh environment and the hints provided about the largely-unknown race of extinct Martians. Here's a brief passage from the story:

From their lengthening jaunts they brought back the usual relics--golden ornaments, carvings, bits of apparatus that had not weathered away. And the usual photographs of blue-green thickets, war-melted cities, domes celled by honeycombs, suggesting a larval stage in the life-cycle of the ancients, and of country littered with shattered crystal--much Martian land had once been roofed with clear quartz, against the harshening environment. 

This issue of Planet Stories is available online HERE, so treat yourself to reading this excellent short story.