Project Gutenberg 2019-11-15 Public domain in the USA. 121 Brown, Rosel George 1926 1967 Virgin Ground Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, February 1959 Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Virgin Ground" by Rosel George Brown is a science fiction novel written during the late 1950s. It explores themes of survival, gender roles, and the complexities of human relationships in a colonized Mars setting. The story is built around the arrival of a group of women sent to marry the men already settler, but it takes a surprising turn as the protagonist, Annie, finds herself alone after her arrival. In the narrative, Annie Strug sets off to Mars aboard a bride ship, only to discover that she is one of the few women left without a partner once they land. As she confronts rejection and isolation, she decides to seek out her intended husband, Bradman, who had requested not to be sent a wife. Upon finding him, Annie faces an unexpected sandstorm that endangers her life and forces her to rely on her own resilience. Through a series of harrowing events, she eventually kills Bradman in self-defense, claiming the farm herself. The story culminates five years later when another man, Hamstrong, arrives, claiming he is her legally assigned husband. However, Annie's experiences of independence and survival shape her response to his arrival, highlighting her complex evolution from a hopeful bride to a capable owner of her own destiny. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 96.4 (5th grade). Very easy to read. en Science fiction Short stories Single women -- Fiction Mars (Planet) -- Fiction Space colonies -- Fiction PS Text Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Category: Novels 45831 2025-06-24T07:50:51.490802 text/html 22104 2024-10-17T14:35:28 text/html 191482 2025-06-24T07:50:53.486834 application/epub+zip 190313 2025-06-24T07:50:51.922812 application/epub+zip 74301 2025-06-24T07:50:51.671807 application/epub+zip 224542 2025-06-24T07:50:54.824802 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 217524 2025-06-24T07:50:53.264830 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 101862 2022-09-27T12:27:37.689148 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 38834 2023-09-26T06:26:49.705034 text/plain 19039 2024-10-17T14:35:28 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 16714 2025-06-24T07:50:54.964782 application/rdf+xml 28855 2025-06-24T07:50:51.764808 image/jpeg 4785 2025-06-24T07:50:51.715823 image/jpeg 374162 2025-06-24T07:50:51.502868 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia