The Martian Chronicles

A collection of stories about the Mars colonization. They're presented in a chronological order, from the first rocked launching to the post-apocalyptic life on earth. Some are good, a few really good.

The first stories are a bit comical and witty. They talk about how the first missions failed somewhat due to human eagerness to receive a heroes welcome when arriving in mars. No one there seemed to care.

to be continued

Executive Summary: My first by Mr. Bradbury, but won't be my last. Then again since I'll be reviewing [b:Something Wicked This Way Comes 248596 Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2) Ray Bradbury https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409596011s/248596.jpg 1183550] for SFFAudio later this month..that was probably going to happen anyways. :-DAudio book: Mark Boyett's voice reminds me a bit of Rod Serling, which as I get into a bit below seemed a perfect fit. I know there are multiple versions of the audiobook. I'm not sure how easy they are to get a hold of, but this one seems like a good option.Full ReviewI've never read anything by Mr. Bradbury before. I'm not really well read in the “classics”. There is too much modern stuff I want to read, and in general I prefer fantasy to Sci-Fi. But when Brilliance Audio was releasing some of his better known works on Audio CD (although the production itself was done by Audible) last year, I jumped at the chance to finally give him a try.I've been in a bit of a reading funk this year, and was trying to figure out what to read AFTER this book to get me out of it. Since it was short though, I wanted to listen to it sooner rather than later, write up my review then move onto something else.Apparently I just needed to listen to this. Apart from one story (Way in the Middle of the Air) which made me really uncomfortable and showed it's age. It appears to have been eliminated from several of the more recent editions of this book, and I wish I had skipped it as it really adds very little to this collection.Everything else was enjoyable. A bit depressing, but enjoyable. Mr. Bradbury paints a bleak picture of a future that thankfully never came. This isn't hard sci-fi by any means, but more like dystopian space opera.I would have never thought something bleak would lighten my mood, but the stories were that good, and the prose are excellent. They reminded me a lot of the Twilight Zone, although I know these stories predate that show. I think The Silent Towns could easily have been an episode of the show, as could several others.I think my favorite of the collection is Usher II. I can't pretend to get all the references apart from Poe and Lovecraft, but his tale of revenge for censorship is quite good. I'll have to check out the Poe story [b:The Fall of the House of Usher 175516 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387708966s/175516.jpg 15570703] that seems to have influenced it.Overall this is an excellent collection of stories, and if like me you haven't read it/anything by Mr. Bradbury, this seems like as good a place as any to start.

A perfect blend of humor and tragedy—depressing, but in an enlightening way, if that makes any sense. The Martian Chronicles presents a very dim view of human society and how we are hellbent on destroying ourselves, which I think has retained its relevancy up to 2019, hence the enlightenment. My favorite story from the collection was “The Earth Men”. As one can expect with Bradbury, the writing and storytelling is phenomenal.

I laughed, I was confused, I wanted more from some stories and less from others. This book is actually a series of short stories about colonization of Mars. The stories are mostly funny, usually in a misunderstanding kind of way. Some stories reminded me of Twilight Zone episodes, while others of romantic comedies. Considering when this was written, it's held up amazingly well.

This is a wonderful book! The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because the voice of Middle America in 1950 finally overwhelms everything in “The Silent Towns,” when Bradbury's attempt to be light-hearted just comes across as mean-spirited, misogynistic, and fat-phobic. Knowing what I know of Bradbury, I'm skeptical he intended any real malice behind it, but it's the part that aged even worse than any of the analog technology, or the assertion of canals and atmosphere on Mars.

The rest of it, though, is a fantastic collection of prose-as-poetry from someone who has little interest in real science fiction or futurism. It's ultimately a story about America from someone who is still optimistic about the promise of America, even though he's pessimistic about humans' ability to realize that promise.It reminded me, strangely and a little sadly, of Epcot — an old-fashioned optimism and faith in humanity that we've lost.

What is this book? It is philosophy wrapped in poetry packaged as vignettes, all related using the most sparse language with an almost hypnotic eloquence.

Through the imaginary foil of a habitable Mars the author delves into the hopes and fears of humanity and holds up for our consideration the depths we can fall to and the assured destruction we face if we continue down the path of prejudice.

This book is set on mars but has very human stories, often dealing with loneliness and loss. The chapters almost read like an anthology and were tied together by the setting and passing of time. Overall I enjoyed the book, but the anthology-like structure had some chapters feeling experimental and often disrupted the momentum of the story.

On another note, I enjoy the artifacts an author leaves behind once their work is aged by a few decades (or more). Whether it's Martian wives serving in their gendered role as household caretakers (on mars!), or the overall theme of war always being an inescapable, close thing. It's obvious to see the influence of 1950s America on Bradbury. I've started looking up authors before I read their books so that I understand where they're coming from, and it's always gratifying to see how the world may have been influencing them from that time.

All right nerd confession: this is actually the first time I've read Ray Bradbury. I know! Shame! I don't often enjoy older sci-fi, so it was pretty easy to not get around to reading any. That said, I'm glad the book club picked this one. While there are dated sections (only one woman left on Mars and she's fat!), there were also truly poignant and progressive sections. And Bradbury's prose is just as lush and beautiful as I've been told. It was progressive for the time, and really read more like philosophy than sci-fi often. I see why it's a classic, and I'm glad I finally read it.

At first, I was not sure what to make of the stories here, and it ended up riding the shelf for some time before I returned to it. Bradbury's writing has a beautiful quality while still being quite accessible. I like that this is a collection of stories. While they have a shared narrative, each has its own personality, allowing us to see from many different perspectives.

Like C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, The Martian Chronicles are not scientifically accurate. In fact, the book is less about the science of space as it is about people. Each story tells about human nature from a different perspective. In the end, our fallen nature will bring us to be the ruin of ourselves.

I didn't have an expectation for this book, however, I was surprised by the depth I found. Much like Star Trek episodes that are entertaining, but end up having a message that I see so clearly as I got older. I am glad to have read this, and may find myself coming back to it in a few years when I have more time for pondering the stories and what they have to say.

It might be the decades apart from when this book was written but it was hard for me to connect to it.I like how [a:Ray Bradbury 1630 Ray Bradbury https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1445955959p2/1630.jpg] and other authors of the time used SciFi to dissert on human behavior.

This is precisely my kind of fiction. There's no consistent characters, which makes me more interested in each one as they come up, and more fascinated by their respective scenes and ideas. Not everything makes sense, but this is the kind of book where I'm rather ok with that. This is supposed to be cautionary and unsettling, and it does a good job of being all of that. I'm not sure if this is old enough to be considered a classic, but if it is, it has become one of my favorite works of classic literature.

1) Confesh: I had never read this before (I did Fahrenheit 451 in high school, not this), and I prob wouldn't have picked this up if it hadn't been for book club. But! I'm glad I did, I enjoyed it more than I expected too (which may sound like faint praise but, whatev).
2) At book club we discovered that there's a difference between pre- and post-1997 editions–I read a post-1997 edition and it swaps out one story (which is apparently pretty racist per those who read it) for 2 other ones, one of which was “The Fire Balloons” which was one of my very favorites in the whole book. (The newer edition also changes the dates within the book, which, whatever.)
3) Anyway, I'm glad I have read this now! Like yeah even with the removal of the apparently very racist story from the earlier edition, the gender politics are dated (and there is one story that is supes fatphobic in addition to misogynistic) and now it's a story of presumed only white characters, but it was overall a quick fun read and I could def see how influential it is on other works.

I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it. I knew it was considered a classic. It is a collection of thematic vignettes of varying lengths, from just a few paragraphs to several pages. The book is short. The beginning was rather cheeky, with several expeditions to Mars and the results of them. I found the middle of the book a bit meandering, but it really hit its stride with several of the longer stories being very riveting.

My favorite stories were:

–And the Moon be Still As Bright - a commentary on colonialism
Usher II (which I found brilliant) - a commentary on the cost of censorship
The Martian - a commentary on loss and grief
The Luggage Store - a pithy short but meaningful conversation
The Off Season - where the plot takes a dark turn
The Silent Towns - a statement on our materialism and shallowness
The Long Years - where not everything is as it seems
There Will Come Soft Rains - almost a meditation on the potential disaster of nuclear war
The Million-Year Picnic - a poignant end

Having gone back through the book to pull out my favorites made me realize how much I did enjoy the book. It provoked a lot of thought.

One thing to be aware of, though, is one story (Way in the Middle of the Air) that addresses racism through the eyes of racists in the Jim Crow south and is one of the few stories that take place on Earth. It is disturbing in its portrayal of the bigotry and actions of the main character and in the repeated use of the n-word. It does not feel as gratuitous and “natural” as the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, but is jarring nonetheless. It is a commentary on racism, and having been written in 1948 by a white man lacks any subtlety, but fits the theme of the book in calling out humanity's shortcomings.

Overall a very good book and it entices me to want to read more of Bradbury. The prose is often beautiful, full of imagery and poetic phrases.