The Hermit of Mars by Stephen Bartholomew Episode #407
Stephen Bartholomew | August 27, 2025-
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The Hermit of Mars by Stephen Bartholomew Episode #407
Stephen Bartholomew
THE HERMIT OF MARS
Episode #407 · Written by Stephen Bartholomew · Narrated by Scott Miller
For thirty-five years, Martin Devere has lived alone on Mars, far from Earth’s institutions, ambitions, and politics. He studies the remnants of an extinct civilization whose priorities favored art and theory over power. Isolation has given him clarity, patience, and a deep sense of responsibility for what has been left behind.
That clarity is tested when an unannounced ship lands nearby. The men who arrive are not interested in ruins or understanding. They are building something new on Martian soil, something designed to reach across space with devastating intent. As their project rises in the desert, Devere listens quietly, measuring the cost of doing nothing.
The Hermit of Mars is a tense, idea-driven story that pits long memory against short-term force. The danger does not come from chaos or panic, but from confidence—confidence in technology, in authority, and in the belief that consequences can always be managed later. Devere’s response is neither rushed nor emotional. It is deliberate, informed, and final.
Rather than relying on spectacle, the story builds unease through conversation, silence, and the slow recognition that knowledge itself can become a weapon. What emerges is a portrait of moral certainty forged by solitude and sharpened by loss.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephen Bartholomew published science fiction during the 1950s, contributing stories to magazines such as Science Fiction Quarterly and Space Science Fiction. His work often centered on intellectual confrontation rather than physical conflict, placing scientists, scholars, or isolated thinkers against institutional or technological pressure.
The Hermit of Mars reflects Bartholomew’s interest in restraint and responsibility, presenting a protagonist whose authority comes not from position or power, but from understanding. The story stands as one of his most enduring pieces, remembered for its quiet tension and uncompromising conclusion.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to The Hermit of Mars by Stephen Bartholomew — a vintage sci-fi classic short story in which a lone man on Mars confronts an unexpected threat.
RELATED STORIES
Mars has always been the most familiar of alien worlds, close enough to imagine and distant enough to remain dangerous. Vintage science fiction turned the red planet into a testing ground for human ambition—an empty frontier, a dying world, or a civilization older and stranger than Earth itself.
These stories send explorers, settlers, soldiers, and scientists across the void to a place where survival is never guaranteed. Thin air, vast deserts, and abandoned cities create a landscape that is both harsh and haunting.
Whether the planet is home to ancient Martians, fragile colonies, or the last hope after Earth’s decline, Mars stories are about adaptation.
- Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury
- Death-Wish by Ray Bradbury
- Defense Mech by Ray Bradbury
- The Visitor by Ray Bradbury
- The One Who Waits by Ray Bradbury
- The Crystal Egg by H. G. Wells
- Never on Mars by John Wyndham
- Return of a Legend by Raymond Z. Gallun
- Message From Mars by Clifford D. Simak
- The Monsters Came By Night by Robert Silverberg
- The Martians and the Coys by Mack Reynolds
- A Zloor For Your Trouble by Mack Reynolds
- The Weapon by Isaac Asimov
- Arm of the Law by Harry Harrison
- Monster by William Morrison
- Fee of the Frontier by H. B. Fyfe
- A Message From Our Sponsor by Henry Slesar
- Two Weeks in August by Frank M. Robinson
- Duel on Syrtis by Poul Anderson
- We're Off to Mars by Joe Gibson
- Death Walks on Mars by Alan J. Ramm
- The Old Timer by Richard R. Smith
- Trainee for Mars by Harry Harrison
- The Hermit of Mars by Stephen Bartholomew
- Martian Homecoming by Frank Belknap Long
- Lake of Fire by Frank Belknap Long
- The Hated by Frederik Pohl
- The Old Martians by Rog Phillips
- The Martian Shore by Charles L. Fontenay
- Madmen of Mars by Erik Fennel
- Martians Never Die by Lucius Daniel
- What's He Doing in There? by Fritz Leiber
- Don't Look Now by Henry Kuttner
- Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury
- The Goggles of Dr Dragonet by Fritz Leiber
- The Foxholes of Mars by Fritz Leiber
- Alien Equivalent by Richard R. Smith
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