E. C. Tubb
Alien Dust

One of the themes that has always interested me is the human being's ability to adapt to any possible context. I speak of the individual, something that personally affects me in my attempts to adapt to the life that surrounds me, but above all, of man as a species. In distant and remote times from the heart of Africa, we reached and colonized every corner of the planet. We have adapted to live in the Arctic as well as the equator, on mountains as well as on islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Each time we faced challenges and overcame the obstacles that were placed before us, but we never stopped at anything. On the contrary: we have adapted the environment and circumstances to our needs and this has happened even while committing many mistakes. This is evident. But perhaps for this reason, we are still in time to go back. In any case, for these reasons, I believe that when we will have to leave Earth in a very distant time, we will be ready to detach from it and continue elsewhere the existence of our species, which I consider potentially infinite.

The theme of survival, particularly survival in space or on another planet, has historically always been at the heart of science fiction literature and is indeed the main theme of this beautiful novel by E. C. Tubb (Edwin Charles Tubb, 1919-2010) published back in 1955 and titled "Alien Dust" aka "The Pioneers of Mars." Of course, it must be said as a fundamental premise that this novel, having been written in the fifties, can rightly be considered scientifically inaccurate: today we know much more about the "red planet." We can easily say that it somehow no longer has secrets. So much so that its colonization constitutes a current topic within the scientific community and today more than ever, a true allure that genuinely fascinates those who dream of space and see the landing on Mars as the next frontier to break down in the history of human evolution.

Some might rightly argue that the theme is not original: the thought immediately goes to "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury and to the more recent bestseller "The Martian" by Andy Weir. But Tubb's work, a classic writer of the genre with a dry style devoid of unnecessary literary artifices, is significantly different from both. It completely lacks the scientific accuracy of Weir's novel, which performed important research work to make his work plausible; there are no metaphorical or typically social hidden content as regards Bradbury's novel. "Alien Dust" indeed simply aims to address the theme of survival and adaptation of man to a hostile context and how his obstinacy, his determination—seemingly an expression of a few, but clearly innate in our DNA—can push him to face seemingly insurmountable trials and extreme living conditions. So who are the protagonists of this Tubb novel? Normal people. I mean that there are no heroes in the strict sense of the word. The protagonists belong to a small colony founded on the red planet in 1995. The narrated events, like individual episodes, go from that date up to 2030. They are stories of survival in extreme and very often brutal conditions: as nature can be brutal towards man and how he himself can perform extreme acts and gestures that can frighten but, when contextualized, seem somehow necessary for the survival of the small community.

After all, there is no pity nor understanding for the colonists on the planet Mars. Earth soon loses interest in the colonization of a planet so little inclined to host life and which appears instead to be inhospitable and, according to many, a dead planet (an evaluation curiously not far from what is advocated today by many), in contrast to other destinations considered more suitable and economically profitable such as Venus or the Moon itself. Left completely alone and abandoned to themselves, the "Martians" in the end can only somehow decide that instead of detaching from the bond with Earth, it is necessary for their survival to invert this relationship of power, just as amidst the sands of the desert, unexpectedly, life finally begins to sprout.