The novel “Martians, go home!” by Fredric Brown was published for the first time in 1955.

Luke Devereaux is a science fiction writer who, after his divorce, is trying to start a new novel. To find some inspiration, he goes to an isolated cottage and has some stiff drinks but just when he seems on the right track, in front of him a Martian appears, a classical little green man, who starts taunting him.

Luke thinks he got crazy and has to abandon his attempt to write but when he reaches the first city he discovers that millions of aliens have suddenly appeared all over the planet. They commit no real acts of hostility but are extremely contentious and spy on everything Earthlings do. As if that weren’t enough, they start revealing everybody’s secrets throwing humanity into chaos.

In the ’50s, alien invasions were already a science fiction cliché and Fredric Brown used it in a humorous way. In “Martians, go home!”, the aliens, who have the classic appearance of little green men, don’t invade the Earth with a war but merely appear in mass anywhere in the world apparently to have fun at the expense of human beings.

The Martians can teleport anywhere and it’s impossible to stop them. They don’t seem completely real because their bodies aren’t solid but their presence can be recorded. They can see in the dark and beyond any barrier so for humans there can be no more privacy and any secret can become public domain.

The sole purpose of aliens seems to have fun at the expense of human beings and revealing all their secrets, from big political and military secrets to little ones such as cheating on partners, is one of their main ways to do it.

Humorous stories often contain serious elements and “Martians, go home!” is a satire of human vices. No one is spared, starting from the entertainment industry which in the ’50s was already so important in the western world. The Martians find hilarious to intervene in live broadcasts disturbing speakers and actors. The inability to continue with those programs helps to quickly cause an economic crisis.

Fredric Brown also speaks of the problems of the rest of the world: for example, in the communist regimes, the obsession with secrecy receives a devastating blow by the aliens intervention while in the most primitive tribes the problem is hunting because the Martians have fun scaring their prey.

In the chaos that follows, the only good thing is that war is made almost impossible because the Martians reveal the military secrets of all nations to their enemies. It also becomes very difficult to shoot someone with some Martian getting in the way annoying the soldiers in every way.

Inevitably, though, “Martians, go home!” focuses on the American society, in particular following the story of science fiction writer Luke Devereaux. His career is over because nobody wants to read science fiction stories anymore and for him the situation becomes difficult in the U.S.A. that very quickly falls into an economic crisis, just like most other nations.

“Martians, go home!” is a daring novel for the ’50s because it also talks about humans’ sexual activities. The arrival of the Martians and the subsequent disappearance of privacy leads to a crisis from that point of view too, also for the impossibility of keeping a relationship secret.

Around the world, researchers try to understand the origin and nature of the Martians to find a way to kick them out of Earth. This allows Fredric Brown to write some satirical remarks also on psychoanalysis and theories concerning UFOs and alien sightings but also to reflect about the nature of reality.

At the end of “Martians, go home!” the origin of the Martians isn’t revealed and Fredric Brown added a postscript to explain it. Actually, in a novel of this kind it wouldn’t really be necessary but the author did at the request of his publisher.

In 1989, “Martians, go home!” was adapted into a movie of the same title but it’s considered to be of poor quality, far below the novel’s level.

“Martians, go home!” is a classic of humorous science fiction that is a must-have in fans collection but can be enjoyed by anybody.