Fact or Fiction: Which Mars Science Fiction Author Are You Most Closely Connected To?

+24 votes
2.0k views

This week's Example Profile of the Week is Ray Bradbury, author of the Martian Chronicles, in honor of the planet Mars being in opposition to Earth this week. 

Featured alongside him are other science fictions authors who have imagined life on Mars:

Who are you most closely connected to? If you're one of the 20,613,000 of us who are connected to each other on our big tree you can check with the Connection Finder.

You can also check for shared ancestors with the Relationship Finder. Are you a cousin to any of them?

Let us know below!

P.S. Help us choose and improve profiles for next week's feature: Nobel Prize-Winning Scientists.

WikiTree profile: Ray Bradbury
in The Tree House by Abby Glann G2G6 Pilot (722k points)
reshown by Chris Whitten

Rather than calculate each one, I will wait for my Family News feed.  I have read very little science fiction.  Onre of my favorite quotes is from Isaac Asimov:

"Never let your sense of morality get in the way of doing what's right."

Asimov

What about Kim Stanley Robinson?
Hello Dan,

He's still living, so he wasn't an option. Hee'll definitely be on that list someday, though! I own the Mars series :-)
Ray Bradbury would be a cousin I would be very proud to have in my tree... But it's not connected yet! (I think, I have never had a positive connection yet, any suggestions?)

Mary Wollestoncraft Godwin Shelley would be a nice anchor to explore.
Ray Bradbury is my 5th cousin once removed That's the closest I get to any of them.
Isaac Asimov and Edgar Burroughs are neck-and-neck for me: 25 degrees each.
17 from Burroughs, but fewer marriages on the path to Clarke, Bradbury, and Heinlein.

27 Answers

+15 votes
I am most closely connected to Isaac Asimov at 23 degrees.
by Samantha Thomson G2G6 Pilot (254k points)
+16 votes
Ray Bradbury, of course - since he has Swedish ancestry.

My connection through a bit of sideways movement is 20 degrees, which is a shorter path than my blood relationship to him. Ray Bradbury is my 11th cousin twice removed :-)
by Eva Ekeblad G2G6 Pilot (565k points)
+14 votes
I am 19 Degrees from Edgar Burroughs. He is also my 7th cousin 5 times removed. :)
by Jayme Arrington G2G6 Pilot (180k points)
+15 votes
Ray Bradbury 14 degrees 6th cousin once removed, paternal side.

Edgar Rice Burroughs 16 degrees 7th cousin once removed, maternal side.

I have read work from all except Phillip K Dick.
by Kay Knight G2G6 Pilot (592k points)
+15 votes
Closest is Kurt Vonnegut at 16 degrees.  I'd rather it had been one of the others.  Vonnegut is a great writer, but science is less than central to most of his science fiction.  Next up: Heinlein at 18 degrees.
by Steve Ryan G2G6 Mach 7 (79.4k points)
+13 votes
Closest to Edgar Rice Burroughs 17 degrees; and we are 7th cousins 3X removed through common ancestor John Bent.

Ray Bradbury is 21 degrees; however, we have a distant 20th cousin relationship through Robert de Holland.
by Carol Baldwin G2G Astronaut (1.1m points)
+15 votes
Edgar Rice Burroughs 18 degrees, 6th cousins 5x removed, MRCA Robert Parke b. 1654 Parke-161
Ray Bradbury 20 degrees, 12th cousins 3x removed, MRCA John Goodwin b. 1510 Goodwin-72
Robert Heinlein, 20 degrees
Kurt Vonnegut, 21 degrees
Isaac Asimov 22 degrees
Philip Dick, 22 degrees
Frederik Phol, 28 degrees
H G Wells, 28 degrees
Arthur Clarke 34 degrees
by Mike Wells G2G6 Pilot (132k points)
edited by Mike Wells
+12 votes
I am most closely connected to Burroughs at 21 degrees, followed by Wells at 22.  Clarke is a distant 36.
by Kenneth Evans G2G6 Pilot (245k points)
+14 votes
I've been a serious sci fi fan for over 50 years now and have read pretty much everything they've all written. I'd love to be related to each and every one of them but can only claim a cousin relationship with Edgar Rice Burroughs. Darn!
by Leigh Anne Dear G2G6 Pilot (138k points)
+13 votes
Burroughs - 18 degrees - 12th cousins twice removed

Asimov - 21 degrees

Wells - 28 degrees

Vonnegut - 23 degrees

Pohl - 27 degrees

Heinlein - 23 degrees

Clarke - 36 degrees

Dick - 24 degrees
by Aaron Gullison G2G6 Pilot (179k points)
+11 votes
The "closest" for me is Isaac Azimov, at 21 degrees. At the other end is Clarke at 37 degrees. I note that they are almost all American (and the other two are English), and all male :-(
by Isabelle Martin G2G6 Pilot (560k points)
Hi Isabelle,

There was only one woman mentioned, and she didn't have any Mars novels (searched through all her work and though sci fi, didn't see Mars referenced; I've only read le Guin's fantasy). I depend on what people suggest in the G2G post, and there wasn't a lot of variety in authors. We've got the list of scientists related to Mars on a list for future use, though. That has more variety in location, though still not many women or ethnicities.
Oh, it's quite alright :-)

This is just a week that is a bit "less interesting" in terms of connections for me. Not to worry, next week will be different!
+12 votes

Ray Bradbury:

"Ray and Julie are 11th cousins twice removed"

by Julie Marcoux G2G6 (6.3k points)
+11 votes

We really should have put Douglas Adams in that list. =) 

Anyway, I appear to have a close connection with Isaac Asimov. by 21 degrees. Cool. 

I also have a connection with Ray Bradbury which is funny because I once did a book report on Fahrenheit 451. 

by Chris Ferraiolo G2G6 Pilot (756k points)
Chris, I probably did a book report on each of them as part of the college English class Science Fiction (in the early 70s).
It was college for me as well. Good writers. I think Isaac was a consultant on a little show you might have heard of. Created by some guy named Gene. Gene....Roddenberry. =)
+11 votes

I am

-13th cousin twice removed to Edgar Burroughs Relationship

-15th cousin twice removed to Ray Bradbury. Relationship

by Ron Rowland G2G6 Mach 2 (23.3k points)
edited by Ron Rowland
+10 votes
Isaac Asimov 19 degrees

Ray Bradbury 21 degrees 17th cousin MCRA Robert Puleston (1358-?)

Edgar Rice Burroughs 18 degrees 14th cousin twice removed (uncertainty, my side) MCRA Richard Greville (1431-?)

Arthur C. Clarke 34 degrees

Phillip Dick 20 degrees

Robert Heinlein 21 degrees

Frederick Pohl 29 degrees

Kurt Vonnegut 20 degrees

H. G. Wells 25 degrees
by Frank Blankenship G2G6 Pilot (125k points)
Ray Bradbury - 16 degrees

Actually, also 22nd cousin 2x removed through Alexander Stewart (1214-1283). I love my Scots!
+10 votes
As an old SF fan I am almost disappointed I am not closer to any of these folks!
by Ross Ashley G2G6 Mach 1 (13.6k points)
I am a decendant of the Hubble family.
+9 votes
by Steven Tibbetts G2G6 Pilot (407k points)
+8 votes
No direct relationship to any of them.  The closest connection is to Kurt Vonnegut at 21 degrees.
by Star Kline G2G6 Pilot (714k points)
+9 votes
Issac Asimov  20 degrees

Ray Bradbury  19 degrees  10th cousins  Edward Jowett Jowett-84

Edgar Rice Burroughs  18 degrees  16th cousins once removed  Richard (Venables) de Venables  Venabes-32

Sir Arthur C Clarke  26 degrees

Philip K Dick  21 degrees

Robert Heinlein  21 degrees

Frederick Pohl, Jr.  26 degrees

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.  20 degrees

K.G. Wells  27 degrees

Kelsey Jackson Williams  23 degrees  10th cousins twice removed  Johannes Theodorus Polhemius II  Polhemius-3
by Mildred Wheeler G2G6 Mach 7 (79.5k points)

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