The Grave of Solon Regh

George Seeling makes his living in the most dangerous trade in the solar system: he is a ghoul, one of those desperate souls who probe the ancient dead cities of Mars for treasures that predate humanity by eons. When he learns of a legendary crypt said to hold the remains of Solon Regh, a figure from Martian prehistory whose name carries the weight of myth, Seeling ventures into the trackless southern wastelands where no Earthling has walked. What he finds there will challenge everything he believes about the red planet and the vanished civilization that once ruled it. This is early science fiction at its most gleefully speculative: part adventure tale, part archaeological mystery, with all the romanticism of an era when Mars was still a planet of secrets waiting to be unearthed. Stearns writes with pulp-era verve, trapping his protagonist in buried cities, near-death encounters, and the slow dawning horror of what Solon Regh's grave actually contains.