In the Courts of the Crimson Kings

Lore & Background

The plot follows archaeologist Jeremy Wainman, sent by the U.S. Aero-Space Force to explore the lost city of Rema-Dza. He is joined by a female Martian mercenary, Teyud za-Zhalt, who is later revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of the Tollamune emperor. They discover the lost 'Invisible Crown,' a symbol of authority granting immense power. After dynastic conflicts, Teyud becomes empress and takes Jeremy as her prince consort. The book ends with a single interplanetary gate opening on Mars to the world of Vowda.

Reader's Guide

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings is a notable entry in planetary romance, a subgenre of science fiction. The novel draws on the traditions of earlier writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury, blending adventure with a richly imagined Martian society. Critics praised Stirling's creation of a truly alien environment and his detailed social system, though some noted moments of near-parody. The book was reviewed by Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and the SF Site, with the latter heartily recommending it as an example of planetary romance. It is part of a series that includes a Venus-set predecessor and a short story prequel published in the anthology Old Mars.

Did You Know?

• The novel's prologue features famous science fiction authors including Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein watching a Mars probe broadcast.
• Martian engines and weapons are actually advanced creatures bred and engineered for specific tasks.
• The 'Invisible Crown' of the Tollamune emperors gives the wearer immense power and can only be worn by someone of the Tollamune dynasty.
• The book ends with three interplanetary gates opening on Earth, Venus, and Mars, leading to another world called Vow'da.

The Speculative Premise and Its Literary Lineage

The Lords of Creation series, to which In the Courts of the Crimson Kings belongs, is built on a question that echoes through early science fiction: what if the inner planets were genuinely inhabited? S. M. Stirling, an American science fiction writer, takes the premise common in stories from the early 1960s and earlier—that Mars and Venus could support life—and carries it forward into a fully realized world. In this setting, both planets were terraformed long ago and seeded with Earth organisms, including multiple distinct human species. The result is a speculative framework where interplanetary contact is not a future aspiration but an established reality, and the political and cultural consequences of that contact reshape the entire trajectory of human civilization. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, published in 2008, is set on Mars, continuing the narrative begun on Venus in the 2006 predecessor The Sky People. The series thus occupies a space in science fiction that looks backward to a golden age of planetary speculation while projecting those ideas into a detailed alternate history.

The Alternate-History Political Architecture

The political landscape of the Lords of Creation universe diverges from our own at the onset of space exploration. Rather than the Cold War consuming resources in terrestrial military competition, the rivalry between superpowers channeled into a genuine, collaborative space race that ultimately swallowed the military budgets of both blocs. This single pivot cascades through decades of history. The United States, Great Britain, and the Dominions form a tight alliance. In the Suez Crisis, American backing allows Britain and France to succeed where they failed in our timeline. The Sino-Soviet split of 1959 never occurs, and the Soviet Union endures rather than collapsing. The European Union, led by France because the United Kingdom never joined, trails behind in space capability. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, set on Mars in 2008, these divergences form the bedrock against which the novel's conflicts play out, making the book as much a political alternate history as a planetary adventure.

Publication Context and Position Within the Series

In the Courts of the Crimson Kings appeared in 2008, carrying the ISBN 978-0-7653-1489-5, as the second novel in Stirling's Lords of Creation series. It follows The Sky People, published in 2006 (ISBN 978-0-7653-1488-8), which is set on Venus. The Mars-based sequel thus extends the series' interplanetary scope from one seeded world to another. The novel's narrative universe was later expanded through the short story "Swords of Zar-Tu-Kan," a prequel published in the 2013 anthology Old Mars, edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (ISBN 978-0-345-53727-0). A fourth entry, The Lords of Creation, was published in 2025 (ISBN 978-1-6471-0099-5), though it has not yet accumulated enough notability for its own Wikipedia entry. The series' publication arc spans nearly two decades, with the Mars story serving as the central pivot between the Venus-based opening and the later continuation.

The Architecture of Interplanetary Rivalry

The vast financial commitment to interplanetary exploration in the Lords of Creation universe has transformed the world in ways that are often only touched upon in passing within the novels. Two major space-faring blocs compete: the Sino-Soviet alliance on one side and the US-Commonwealth alliance on the other, with the French-led European Union trailing considerably behind both. This structure of interplanetary power means that the colonies on Mars and Venus are not simply outposts but arenas of great-power competition. The fact that the Cold War's energy was redirected into space rather than dissipated in terrestrial conflict gives the colonies a depth of infrastructure and investment that a purely military rivalry might not have produced. In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, set on Mars, this competitive architecture is the backdrop against which the novel's events unfold, grounding its planetary setting in a specific and detailed geopolitical reality rather than a generic frontier.