"If the Martians Have Magic" is a 2021 science fantasy short story by P. Djèlí Clark. It was first published in Uncanny Magazine.
Synopsis The first Martian invasion was repelled by biological contamination. The second was repelled by humans using salvaged Martian hardware. The third was repelled by magic. Decades later, while studying the surviving Martian prisoners, Minette Francis discovers that they too may be able to use magic.
Reception "If the Martians Have Magic" won the 2022 Ignyte Award for Best Short Story,2022 Results, at FIYAH; retrieved March 9, 2024 and was a finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Best Short StoryWorld Fantasy Awards 2022, at World Fantasy Convention; retrieved March 9, 2024 and the 2022 Theodore Sturgeon Award.2022 Sturgeon Award Finalists, at Locus Online; published May 13, 2022; retrieved March 9, 2024
Strange Horizons called it "remarkable" and "difficult to classify", and lauded Clark for "seamlessly weav[ing] the two genres [of science fiction and fantasy] together".The Year's Best Fantasy: Volume 1, edited by Paula Guran, reviewed by Rachel Cordasco; in Strange Horizons; published December 192022; retrieved March 9, 2024 Locus praised it as "lovely stuff, a delirious melding of science fiction and otherworldly magic, not to mention politics and bureaucracy, [with] surprises at every turn," declaring it to be "truly marvelous" and "[o]ne of the stories of the year."Rich Horton Reviews Short Fiction: Asimov's, Uncanny, and On Spec, by Rich Horton, at Locus; published December 2, 2021; retrieved March 9, 2024
References
External links Text of the story, at Uncanny