Novels and short stories about Mars have been a staple of science fiction and fantasy writing from its beginning. Edgar Rice Burroughs, better known as the creator of Tarzan, wrote novels set on Mars. The famed "canals" of Mars suggested to him an entire civilization which he developed in a series of titles. Ray Bradbury, one of the science fiction authors William Shatner most admires, set The Martian Chronicles (1950; see separate entry) on the red planet.

Shatner's novels, including Man O' War, are "soft" science fiction, which focuses more on characters than on science. The stories, however, are also closely related to the lesser-known genre of men's actionadventure novels since they focus more on fist fights, tough talk, weaponry, and sentimentalized romance than on science, tech nology, or future worlds. Like Shatrier's popular "Tek" series, Man O' War subordinates science to the hero's adventures, which differ...