Editing Red Planet (novel) (section)

==Connections with ''Stranger in a Strange Land''==

The life cycle of Martians (as described by MacRae) is the same in ''[[Stranger in a Strange Land]]''. It is noted in this novel that the "old ones" inhabit two planes of existence: the physical and the (unspecified) other.  Further, the water friends theme is recapitulated in ''Stranger in a Strange Land'' as "water brothers."  Furthermore, the Martian ability to make an item or person disappear, which was a major plot point in ''Stranger'', is demonstrated here.  Jack Williamson writes that "The Martians in this story have a special interest, because they are the educators of Valentine Michael Smith [and] they display the same appalling powers that Smith brings back to Earth."<ref name="williamson" />

The general description of Martian society as characterized by reverence for freedom is similar. For instance, the Martian Gekko "radiates displeasure" upon understanding what is meant by "london-zoo," and further discovering that Howe meant to sell Willis to a zoo—a reaction not dissimilar to that of Mike, who often senses a "wrongness" in cages, and whose first impulse when encountering the caged animals of a zoo is to attempt to set them free.