In the Courts of the Crimson Kings In the Courts of the Crimson Kings In the Courts of the Crimson Kings is a 2008 alternate history science fiction novel by American writer S. M. Stirling. The story takes place on the planet Mars in an alternate solar system where probes from the United States of America and the Soviet Union find intelligent life and civilizations on both Venus and Mars. The book is heavily influenced by the works of writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Bradbury, and Leigh Brackett, among others. It is a sequel to "The Sky People", which is set on Venus. Stirling later
Star system star, or this closeness may be merely apparent, in which case it is an "optical" multiple star (meaning that the stars may appear to be close to each other when viewed from planet Earth, as they both seem to occupy the same point in the sky, but in reality, one star may be much further away from Earth than the other, which is not readily apparent unless one can view them from a different angle). Physical multiple stars are also commonly called "multiple stars" or "multiple star systems". Most multiple star systems are "triple stars". Systems with four or more