AustLit

'From Earth to Mars was the last of Heming's SF output. Richard Portess and Bill Thomas travel to Mars in the newly invented Sunship, whose technology is kept mercifully vague by the author. They land and discover a utopian society with no money, politics, or evil. Most of the book consists of a type of royal tour of Mars, encompassing everything from "women's work" and Martian home life in general, through to education, economics, crime and punishment, and high technology.

'After their ship is given a complimentary service, the travelers head back to Earth. The book is little more than a tour of Martian society with no story line and was somewhat dated even in its own time. Still, after several years of warfare in which their own country had been bombed, Australians probably found pleasant escapism in such works. The book reflects Heming's ideas on socialism, and he had plans to start a movement.'

Source: Blackford, Russell, Van Ikin and Sean McMullen. Strange Constellations: A History of Australian Science Fiction. Westport: Greenwood, 1999.