Found: Adult SF novel. A resurrected astronaut is used as a pawn in an Earth/Mars war
Original topic subject: Adult SF novel. A resurrected astronaut is used as a pawn in an Earth/Mars war
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1WilliamBavington
I read this novel, borrowed from a British public library, in the early to mid 1970s and I guess it was written anytime from the 1950s to that date. I can’t remember the title, the author or the cover. I think this was an adult rather than a YA novel as it did contain some minor adult themes not particularly relevant to the plot.
A contemporary (1960s-70s) astronaut’s spaceship suffers a malfunction and he dies in space, his ship remaining in solar orbit. Several centuries later, his body is (supposedly) recovered and he is resurrected. He learns that during the intervening time, Mars has been colonized, extensively populated and become technologically advanced enough to challenge Earth’s dominance of the Solar System. The Martians have resurrected him to use him as a propaganda tool in a political and military conflict with Earth. He gets to see live TV of the early stages of an attempted invasion of Earth with assault troops in landing shuttles dropping down from near space. They face determined resistance, however.
Somehow (I can’t remember this bit), he is captured by the Earth people and taken to a, supposedly secure, undersea city (I assume something like Pacifica in the 1971 film City Beneath the Sea). However, The Martians stage an assault, and crack the dome open so seawater floods in and manage to recapture him.
There is some question as to the protagonist’s true identity and at the end of the story, presumably tired of being used as a political pawn by both sides, he kills himself on live TV by detonating an explosive device on his body after denying his identity as the astronaut in question. The final lines have some watching medic/technician on Mars declaring, “How did he know?”
A contemporary (1960s-70s) astronaut’s spaceship suffers a malfunction and he dies in space, his ship remaining in solar orbit. Several centuries later, his body is (supposedly) recovered and he is resurrected. He learns that during the intervening time, Mars has been colonized, extensively populated and become technologically advanced enough to challenge Earth’s dominance of the Solar System. The Martians have resurrected him to use him as a propaganda tool in a political and military conflict with Earth. He gets to see live TV of the early stages of an attempted invasion of Earth with assault troops in landing shuttles dropping down from near space. They face determined resistance, however.
Somehow (I can’t remember this bit), he is captured by the Earth people and taken to a, supposedly secure, undersea city (I assume something like Pacifica in the 1971 film City Beneath the Sea). However, The Martians stage an assault, and crack the dome open so seawater floods in and manage to recapture him.
2dukedom_enough
Maybe He Owned the World by Charles Eric Maine. I can't find my copy so can't check directly, but there's a summary at Goodreads that has many of the elements you recall. I do remember his death in space, intermittent nuclear war on Earth, and his suicide at the end.
3WilliamBavington
Yes! You got it. Thank you. I downloaded an electronic copy of the novel last night and skim read it to check it was the novel I remembered reading. People like yourself here on this website have been very fast and good at making these identifications. This is the fifth one this year and all have got back with a correct identification within a day of my posting an enquiry. This one can also be marked as found.
I would never have found this one by myself as I don't recall the author Charles Eric Maine at all and I had forgotten two critical factors in the story. The first was that the Earth had been involved in intermittent nuclear wars, both with itself and the Martian colony which accounts for Earth's relative weakness against Mars and a tendency to build underground and the second was that for legal and historical reasons, the protagonist owned the Earth which accounts for the novel's title. Thus, he was far more than a mere pawn and propaganda tool. I also failed to link a memory of the protagonist meeting outcast mutants and trying to promise them help whilst his Martian 'mentor' shouted eugenicist arguments in his ear via an implanted subdermal transceiver with this novel. During my re-read, I felt that the story had more plot twists, especially nearer the end, than for its own good.
I would never have found this one by myself as I don't recall the author Charles Eric Maine at all and I had forgotten two critical factors in the story. The first was that the Earth had been involved in intermittent nuclear wars, both with itself and the Martian colony which accounts for Earth's relative weakness against Mars and a tendency to build underground and the second was that for legal and historical reasons, the protagonist owned the Earth which accounts for the novel's title. Thus, he was far more than a mere pawn and propaganda tool. I also failed to link a memory of the protagonist meeting outcast mutants and trying to promise them help whilst his Martian 'mentor' shouted eugenicist arguments in his ear via an implanted subdermal transceiver with this novel. During my re-read, I felt that the story had more plot twists, especially nearer the end, than for its own good.
