The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Man arrived on the Red Planet after leaving a world on the verge of extinction and discovered the Martians waiting, surreal. Man brought his oldest fears and most fervent wants with him as he searched for the promise of a fresh start. When man conquered Mars, Mars immediately overcame him. He was hypnotized, ensnared in his visions, and permanently altered by the odd new world with its extinct ancient people and wide red-gold deserts. Here are Ray Bradbury’s enthralling Chronicles of Man and Mars, a modern classic.
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
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The book is set at the turn of the millennium, when man is starting to colonize Mars, and was originally written as short stories for magazines in the late 1940s and then put together with a sequence of connecting pieces for publication in book form in 1951. But this Mars is significantly different from the one we are familiar with. It is populated by intelligent beings that resemble humans in some aspects and have telepathic abilities that allow some of them to sense the approaching Earthmen.
Though the book has a distinct underlying timeline, it is rather episodic in character. The Martian side of the story evolves and changes as the book goes along, so it never becomes a completely realized planet in the sense of most fantasy novels, while the human side of the story is continually populated with characters from the 1940s. Instead, it looks as though each time Bradbury tells a story, he invents Mars and the Martians from scratch in order to fit the plot. The stories are ultimately about humans. This gives the stories, especially the later ones, a sort of dreamlike, almost surreal air.
The first few episodes describe the arrival of the first astronauts on Earth. There are some obvious similarities between this and the first settlers’ arrival in America, as well as the conflicts and tragedies that occur amongst the races. As it did there, the new race eventually gains the upper hand after a few setbacks because the Martians are unable to fend off the new diseases that humans have introduced to their planet. The stories are fairly intriguing at this early level, but I was puzzled as to how the book came to be known as a sci-fi classic. Beyond the fundamental idea of what is possible with telepathy, there is essentially no science and very little fiction.
The first few episodes describe the arrival of the first astronauts on Earth. There are some obvious similarities between this and the first settlers’ arrival in America, as well as the conflicts and tragedies that occur amongst the races. As it did there, the new race eventually gains the upper hand after a few setbacks because the Martians are unable to fend off the new diseases that humans have introduced to their planet. The stories are fairly intriguing at this early level, but I was puzzled as to how the book came to be known as a sci-fi classic. Beyond the fundamental idea of what is possible with telepathy, there is essentially no science and very little fiction.
Numerous stories contain elements of loneliness, along with the contrasting feelings of community and nostalgia that first motivate people to make their new homes as similar to their old ones as they can, and then call them home to be with their loved ones when Earth is finally destroyed by the inevitable war…
