Customer Reviews

The Martian Chronicles

5 star:		(196)
4 star:		(66)
3 star:		(45)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book clearly deserves more than five stars. It is one of the most moving and important set of observations about our human issues ever written in either science fiction or science fantasy form.

Ray Bradbury wrote these short stories in the late 1940s at a time when we knew almost nothing about Mars. Some scientists even thought there were probably canals and the remnants of a dead or dying Martian civilization on Mars. Written as science fiction originally by Mr. Bradbury, our growing knowledge of Mars makes these assumptions science fantasy today. But don't let that shift rob these stories of their power over you.

But Mars was just the setting for a more serious set of questions. Mr. Bradbury was concerned that the world was too full of hate, war, short-sightedness, and greed to amount to much. He despaired as to whether humans would survive the discovery of the atomic bomb. From this raw material of human excess, he stitched together a powerful vision of our choices -- to operate at our best . . . or our worst. He appeals to our better selves in a vivid way that will be unforgettable to you, if you are like me.

The development of the book has an interesting history. Mr. Bradbury was in his late twenties, and had written quite a few short stories. While visiting New York, he showed his short stories to publishers who liked them. The publishers advised him that there was a market for novels, but not much of one for books of short stories. Then one night it hit him, he had the raw material for a novel about Mars if he simply wrote a few transition stories to fit with ones he had already written. He sat up late that night writing the book proposal, and sold it the next day. That concept became The Martian Chronicles.

Mr. Bradbury had recently read Winesburg, Ohio and was impressed by that book with the potential to use a series of stories as a way to tell a community's history. It seemed natural to use that structure for his Martian book.

The book covers a time period from 1999 through 2026, starting with the first manned expedition to Mars from Earth. The American astronauts do find Martians. The complications of the first four expeditions come from the interactions between humans and Martians, and are unexpected and intriguing. The stories explore the implications of a race being telepathic in very revealing ways.

Much of the human colonization of Mars in the book pits those who want to recreate Earth against those who appreciate what is special about Mars. So exploitation versus conservation is one theme in the book. As a backdrop for the stories, you will read about all of the themes of the Westward migration in the United States from the eradication of the native peoples and culture, to excess exploitation of natural resources, to the desire to be free of "civilized" society.

There are wonderful stories in here against racisim, censorship of books (which became the basis of Mr. Bradbury's later book, "Farenheit 451"), and war.

Towards the end of the book is a lovely sequence of three stories about the various meanings of loneliness. I particularly recommend them. The first looks at men and women seeking each other out when there is no other company. The second considers the loss of a family and how to cope with that. The third looks ruefully at the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.

The last story in The Martian Chronicles, "The Million-Year Picnic," causes me to shiver and moves me almost to tears every time I think about it. From that story, you will be able to answer the famous question in the book, "Who are the Martians?"

By the way, the book is much better than the movie. If you think you know the story from the movie, I suggest you read the book. If you have a choice of one or the other, I definitely suggest the book.

By the way, years later Mr. Bradbury reviewed this book and commented that the world had turned out much better than he had hoped. He said that would have written a different kind of book on the same subject in the 1970s, but he still had great respect for what the young man he was in his twenties who had written The Martian Chronicles.

The manned exploration of Mars is probably our greatest and most important challenge as a species. Yet, we pay little attention to the question now. I suggest that you use your reading of The Martian Chronicles to help reignite a discussion with those you know of what our goals and methods should be concerning Mars.

Reach for the stars . . . to create the fullest human potential and accomplishments -- morally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

The William Morrow Hardcover Edition (February 1, 1997) appears to be missing a story: " Way in the Middle of the Air "

Mr. Bradbury wrote a story where all of the black people get fed up with the south, and the way they are treated, load up the rocket and leave all of the bigots behind. Incredibly some paper pushing editor must have thought this story would offend our sensitivities, and took it upon him or herself to remove it from the chronicles.

Strange that the work of Mr. Bradbury, a champion of free speech, is being edited.

Do not get this version! (I got hosed, but vowed to save my fellow readers from the same fate)!

The Martian Chronicles is, in many ways, one of science fiction's most important novels. It's deemed an essential read on almost all notable lists, is the book that broke Bradbury into the mainstream, and was the single most widely read SF book during the 1950's. This book is not a novel per se, but rather a collection of separately linked stories that chronicle, in about as many ways as you can imagine, Man's experiences with Mars, hence the title. Though it covers a span of time from 1999-2026, it is, like all great SF, a commentary on the times in which it was written, rather than the times it is set in. This book is a startling example of human folly. In contrast to much science fiction (from The War of the Worlds onward) the Martians in Bradbury's universe are calm, peaceful, and dreamlike (for the most part, anyway) rather than vicious and malicious. This book shows how humans-arrogant, self-righteous, and irrespectful-can and probably will ruin a beautiful, peaceful planet through ignorance and lack of respect. Also in the book are situations depicting ways in which other races we meet in space may react to us. I found these situations to be highly original and imaginative, sometimes we fail to realize that there are other ways for them to react besides peaceful, cooperative tranquility and war. Sprinkled throughout the seriousness of the stories mentioned above, are lighter, somewhat comical tales that liven up the pace a bit. Through fictional situations, this book also manages to comment on such issues as racism, slavery, social life, marriage, etc. A highly interesting read. Though it is a short read (less than 200 pages) it feels like an epic. By the time you are done with the book, you will feel like you have witnessed a saga, a great work of art, a feeling that few books indeed, much less ones this short, manage to accomplish. The last two stories in the book are startling in their differences. There Will Come Soft Rains is an utterly believable, highly pessimistic, and ultimately thought-provoking piece of work followed by The Million Year Picnic, a contrastly optimistic, hopeful story. These two situations are beautiful in their contrast and a fitting ending to a wonderful book.

This is one of the most fascinating explorations of man-alien contact, and even man-man contact, ever, if a bit dated.

When reading the Martian Chronicles (or, in my case, listening to the excellently read book on tape), the key is to keep in mind the context of the time in which it was written. In the post-war 1940s, the prospect of nuclear holocaust was all too real. More than 50 years later, the book is far too pessimistic about humanity and its future, while at the same time far too optimistic about the ease of travel to Mars.

Regardless, this is not the kind of science fiction that most are used to reading. For starters, it's a very literary book. The language is beautifully crafted; we're not talking pulp fiction here. Also, it's not a book about the rockets, or even Mars, per se. Bradbury spends no time explaining how the rockets are able to easily traverse the millions of miles to and from Earth, for example. It merely uses those conventions to tell incredibly poignant stories about man's paranoia and selfishness. One of the stories echoes the censorship-mad society in Fahrenheit 451, for instance. It just happens to occur on Mars.

The end result is somewhat depressing, yet profound. Think of the Martian Chronicles as the opposite of Star Trek's touchy feely Hollywoody SciFi.

With the passing of the master (Isaac Asimov)the question is hardly asked anymore. Who's better, Bradbury or Asimov? The two were both born in 1920 and they made their fame in the forties, fifties, and sixties, writing (and pioneering) a kind of fantastical pulp fiction that would eventually become known as science fiction. In short, the two men were giants of the genre and so their work, their art, naturally invited comparison. I have always loved them both, Asimov for his great ideas and Bradbury for his great storytelling voice. Asimov, the university professor, was trained as a hard science man--physics, mathematics, chemistry. If he had not made his name as a writer, he probably would have designed the first rocket ship that landed on the moon. In fact, we owe him thanks for the word "ROBOT", the rules for governing them (ha-ha-ha, see I Robot), and the fledgling field of robotics itself. Is there a more representative work of science fiction than The Foundation Trilogy? Though Asimov is known primarily in literary circles as a science fiction writer, the great man was a thinker of ideas so varied that his books earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records: he is the only author who has at least one book in every category of the Dewey Decimal System. In other words, no matter where you are in the library, you can find a book written by Asimov. Bradbury, on the other hand, is not a scientist. In fact, if you check out some of the stories in the Martian Chronicles, his best collection, you will discover working rocket ships that were built with hammers and nails in somebody's barn. You'll find life forms that are bubbles with voices. You'll find a variety of strange and contradictory rules for space flight. And you know what? None of it matters because Bradbury's appeal, unlike Asimov's, has nothing to do with his grasp of scientific principles and the various real and imagined extrapolations thereof. We read Bradbury because he is a writer first and a scientist second. Bradbury could write a story about ice melting in a cup, and we'd be on page 200, reading with pleasure, before we looked up and said, hey, why the heck am I reading a story about ice melting in a cup? Bradbury explores the humanity of his characters when he writes, as the stories in the Martian Chronicles prove, and he has an absolutely addictive storytelling voice. It's kinda like sitting under a tree with your grandfather and listening to him spin yearns. Time passes before you know it, and you wish he could go on talking forever. So here it is then, Read the Martian Chronicles not for the science, but for the fiction, and you will not be disappointed by the master.

I feel that "The Martian Chronicles" is one of the best and most creative works of Science Fiction of all time, but I would recommend buying another copy of it. There was one chapter in the original work that was taken out of this version. Apparently the editors felt its racial themes were too strong, although I feel it was, in reality, speaking out against the racism of the 1950's. Its ironic how Bradbury has always been so outspoken in his writing against censorship of books, and yet his own book was censored.

Mars has always played a big part in science fiction. From Burroughs's macho fantasies to Wells's merciless invaders, from Heinlein's strange land to Robinson's terraforming, Mars has been writ large in our imagination. But the current that runs through all of these works is of a world both coherent and uniform. The planet exists as a whole and is presented to us as a whole.

But if we stopped to think about it, how can a planet as immense as Mars be taken as a whole? If we looked deeply, wouldn't Mars present an infinite number of facets to our scrutiny? Wouldn't each facet tell its own unique and peculiar story?

This is what Bradbury does in "The Martian Chronicles". The title serves as fair warning. This is not a conventional novel, but a set of chronicles: a collection of tidbits written to give us a taste of a place's boundless variety. And what a refreshing approach it is. In this work, Mars is more than just a setting. It becomes a personality; some days happy, some days sad; some days heedless, some days thoughtful.

Some of these vignettes succeed better than others. But taken in their entirety, they provide us with a breadth of feeling that would not be possible in a single uniform work.

However, if this were all that this work accomplished, it would be no more than an interesting exercise in technique. "Chronicles" really compels us because it touches our souls. Of all the science fiction greats, Bradbury strikes closest to the human heart. No one else can write quite his way; achieving that just-right balance between eccentricity and pathos, ordinary and fantastic; life and circumstance: living and breathing filtered through the orange mist of nostalgia. Nowhere does he strike that balance as well as he does here.

Nor should readers be put off by the abrupt changes. The various stories may jump from place to place and character to character, but there is a wealth of strong underlying themes that bind the various segments into a coherent whole. How do ordinary people respond to an extraordinary environment? Can intelligence overcome tribal instincts to embrace completely different beings? Can we ever, in the depth of our bones, truly make an alien landscape our home? Is our greatest challenge the conquest of space, or the conquest of human frailty? These are only some of the many worthy themes that run through the various episodes.

It's not perfect. I will be the first to admit that some episodes don't quite work. But what it lacks in consistent polish, it makes up for in nerve and originality. Bradbury is not content just to explore human themes. He chances unconventional approaches because the themes he wishes to explore are themselves unconventional. It takes literary guts to take such chances, and when they even half work, the composer deserves respect. In this collection, the general quality is so high, that it demands our appreciation.

The Martian Chronicles is perhaps the most episodic book I have ever read. Like a reviewer below has noted, Bradbury presents us with no central character, no centralized plot, no guidelines, generally nothing that will give the reader a hold on the situation. There are only two recurring things, Man and Mars. This is where the book's strength lies - it presents how different people deal with the endless mystery of Mars: some see it as an enemy; others try to protect its sanctity, even at the expense of their mates' lives; yet others see it as a great opportunity. Throughout the entire book the reader has two goals - observing the characters' reaction to this ancient world, and figuring out for themselves what exactly is Mars's mystery. The latter is never directly explained. Perhaps the only disagreeable thing in the book are the radically diferent presentations of Martians: one is the people of a radically different world, mystic, romantic, unseen; they are present in most of the book. But the Chronicles' beginning illustrates a different kind of Martians - human-like, petty, squabbling, paranoid. In any case, The Martian Chronicles is a monumental work of incredible thought and untouched values. I would eagerly advise it to anyone searching for deeper meaning of things. This book may have all of the answers.

After reading Fahrenheit 451 in my high school English class, I was quick to ask my teacher what other books by Bradbury that he would reccomend. He told me to check out the Martian Chronicles...and so I did. When I started reading the book, I thought nothing could touch the breath taking sci-fi epic that I had just read by Bradbury...but I was wrong. The Martian Chronicles starts out with a bang and ends with an unusually happy ending. In between, you are taken on a roller coaster ride of climactic events; and although the book is broken up into several separate mini-stories, all of them intertwine with each other brilliantly.

What puts Bradbury's work above other science fiction writers is that although his books are fictional, they have a great deal of real life meaning. Several parts of this book depict how the ignorant humans are so quick to ravage a vast world's ancient history and land. "The rockets set the bony meadows afire, turned rock to lava, turned wood to charcoal, transmitted water to steam, made sand and silica into green glass which lay like shattered mirrors reflecting the invasion, all about. The rockets came like drums, beating in the night. The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke. And from the rockets ran men with hammers in their hands to beat the strange world into a shape that was familiar to the eye, to bludgeon away all the strangeness." (Page 78-'The Locusts')

Bradbury uses his excellent way with words to artistically describe the futuristic destruction of a world, which all relate to one common principle, the same principle many of his books relate to: We are afraid of what we don't understand. Bradbury paints an eerily familiar picture in this book and reminds us how eager humans are to destroy anything that is strange to us. The way that he explains the human condition is way ahead of his time.

In summary, The Martian Chronicles is nothing short of incredible. There are no dull parts in it; you will want to keep reading it until you're done...then you will want to read it again and again. Bradbury uses language extremely well to convey to us the flaws in human thinking. This book is a must read for anyone in high school or older, whether you're a fan of science fiction or not. It's my all time favorite book, and if you spend a measly 6 bucks, you will see why.

The most important and startling (in a good way) thing about "The Martian Chronicles" is that Bradbury hasn't written a science fiction book. He has written a book about the human society. If you try to look at it as a science fiction book, you'll be greatly disappointed; I must say I cannot agree with the reviewers who say that he has depicted life on Mars (the details about it) in a vivid and fascinating way. Actually, the complete unlikeliness of a world like that makes the book a bit strange to read at times.

What makes this book so beautiful is the simple fact Bradbury doesn't write for the sake of writing. He writes because he has important things to say about the human way of life. Humans destroy everything noble and great around them; if that could bring money, they'd sell hot dogs at temples (in fact, don't they?). It is almost incomprehendible that he wrote this book in 1950; the problems discussed in it have reached and are reaching increasingly more epic proportions.

Aside from the fact that Bradbury is brilliant at expressing important ideas, he writes stories that make you want to read on and on at the same time. He uses inventive storylines and has a fascinating way of describing things that seem illogical or even completely absurd at the first glance (I'd provide details, but I refuse to spoil the wonderful experience of reading the stories for anyone...).

The only reason why I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that among great (and I mean great!) stories there are some short ones that are of considerably lower quality than the rest. They're much less interesting than the others and keep me from pronouncing this book a masterpiece - a title that a considerable part of the book justly deserves.

All in all, I urge you to read this book. Perhaps you will not find much in it if you're looking for some credible science fiction, but you will find much to think about there - as well as simply a close-to-incredible read.