My rating:

add to my books

The Martian Chronicles

by Ray Bradbury

3.99 · rating details · 32,827 ratings · 1,246 reviews

"Man, was a a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in wave... Each wave different, and each wave stronger. "

The Martian Chronicles

...more

Hardcover, 268 pages

Published February 1st 1997 by William Morrow & Company (first published 1950)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 43,728)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jun 23, 2008

Christy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: readinglist2-sf, science-fiction-and-fantasy

Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles is a lovely, lyrical collection of short pieces about the human colonization of Mars and its consequences, beginning just before first contact and ending after the death and destruction of most of the population of both Mars and Earth.

Since this is a collection of stories and vignettes instead of a novel, the central, guiding element of the book is not a character or set of characters; instead it is the setting and the emotion evoked by Bradbury's ...moreRay Bradbury's Martian Chronicles is a lovely, lyrical collection of short pieces about the human colonization of Mars and its consequences, beginning just before first contact and ending after the death and destruction of most of the population of both Mars and Earth.

Since this is a collection of stories and vignettes instead of a novel, the central, guiding element of the book is not a character or set of characters; instead it is the setting and the emotion evoked by Bradbury's prose. His main concern is Mars itself, as a place separate from human intentions. As one character, a member of an early expedition to Mars, says, "Ask me, then, if I believe in the spirit of the things as they were used, and I'll say yes. They're all here. All the things which had uses. All the mountains which had names. And we'll never be able to use them without feeling uncomfortable. And somehow the mountains will never sound right to us; we'll give them new names, but the old names are there, somewhere in time, and the mountains were shaped and seen under those names. The names we'll give to the canals and mountains and cities will fall like so much water on the back of a mallard. No matter how we touch Mars, we'll never touch it. And then we'll get mad at it, and you know what we'll do? We'll rip it up, rip the skin off, and change it to fit ourselves" (53-4).

"There Will Come Soft Rains" takes this emphasis on place over people to its furthest conclusion, perhaps, telling the story of a house that continues running even after its human inhabitants have abandoned it: "The house was an altar with ten thousand attendants, big, small, servicing, attending, in choirs. But the gods had gone away, and the ritual of the religion continued senselessly, uselessly" (167). The house itself takes on life, described as trying to "save itself" when it catches fire (170): "The house shuddered, oak bone on bone, its bared skeleton cringing from the heat, its wire, its nerves revealed as if a surgeon had torn the skin off to let the red veins and capillaries quiver in the scalded air" (171). Bradbury drives this point home with a poem by Sara Teasdale that states, "Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree, / If mankind perished utterly; / And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn / Would scarcely know that we were gone" (169).

The book is absolutely suffused with what is best described as a sense of nostalgia for the future. Bradbury romanticizes the Mars of future decades (1999-2026; the book was published in 1950) and distances the reader from Earth itself. Mars is a place of wonders, a place of great civilizations and developed individuals; it is a place to protect. And in The Martian Chronicles, what Mars needs protecting from is us. We bring with us violence, war, advanced technologies that we have yet to master, mining, and ideas about ownership and colonization that, if allowed to spread, would destroy Martian civilization as surely as they destroyed Native American societies, African cultures, and countless other ways of life on Earth. This is a future that has yet to happen, a place we have yet to see, but we, as readers, are meant to sympathize with Martians, with Mars, and root against humans. We are meant to see in conquering humanity the same problems we face here on Earth and in Mars a haven for freethinkers, former slaves, and survivors (c.f., "Usher II," "Way in the Middle of the Air," and "Million-Year Picnic"). This makes The Martian Chronicles both conservative in the way that the nostalgic mode is typically conservative and progressive in its subversive critique of the Earth way of life, specifically the American way of life.

In "The Million-Year Picnic," Bradbury's nostalgia for the future turns against human science and scientific progress as the father of a family who has left Earth after the wars to live, practically alone, on Mars, says to his family, "Science ran too far ahead of us too quickly, and the people got lost in a mechanical wilderness, like children making over pretty things, gadgets, helicopters, rockets; emphasizing the wrong items, emphasizing machines instead of how to run the machines. Wars got bigger and better and finally killed Earth. That's what the silent radio means. That's what we ran away from" (179-80). In this anti-technology statement, Bradbury provides little hope for the future of humanity and of Earth and little faith or interest in science. However, elsewhere in The Martian Chronicles, he does afford a small glimmer of hope in a different kind of future, a different attitude toward science, religion, and art. He gives us this in the Martian civilization:

"The Martians discovered the secret of life among animals. The animal does not question life. It lives. Its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes life. . . . And the men of Mars realized that in order to survive they would have to forgo asking that one question any longer: Why live? Life was its own answer. Life was the propagation of more life and the living of as good a life as possible. . . . They quit trying too hard to destroy everything, to humble everything. They blended religion and art and science because, at base, science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle. They never let science crush the aesthetic and the beautiful" (66-7).

Following this model of science, one that does not separate science and technology from art and religion and humanity, there is hope for a future for humankind. The question Bradbury leaves us with, then, is whether or not we will be able to heed this warning.(less)

like 21 likes

· see review

Aug 23, 2008

Sharon Mollerus rated it

· review of another edition

Ray Bradbury's book The Martian Chronicles may be a sci-fi thriller, but it's rated as a classic for decades. This was my first time through, and the prose was fresh and beautiful. The stories, strung together, recount the colonization of Mars in the 21st century, a New World populated and provided for by Earth with all the comforts and confusion of home.

The Mars and Earth Men are trapped in mentalities that don't allow them to really meet each other. The violence is unremitting fro...more

like 5 likes

· see review

Dec 29, 2006

Elizabeth rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sciencefiction, classics, alltimefavorites

I vividly remember reading this book. I was in 8th grade and I read it in Mrs. Zimmerman's class. She was this bizarre ageless woman who wore her jet-black hair in a crusty bee-hive and had gobs of pastel green eye shadow on her eyelids. She also had a rusty voice-like an ex-smoker, and spoke really slowly. She could have been a character in Martian Chronicles. I still kind of wonder if she was human.

Anyway, I read this book over and over. There was something so pristine about the w...more

like 17 likes

· see review

Nov 10, 2011

Heidi rated it

· review of another edition

Ray Bradbury's stunning prose and innovative ideas bring Mars to life. Written in the late 1940s, at a time when Mars was reachable but still mysterious, when intelligent life on Mars was possible, and when the Space Race was just beginning, The Martian Chronicles abounds with optimism about mankind's great technological future. But at the same time, written by a man heavily influenced by two great wars, the book almost weeps with worry about mankind's eventual end.

The prose is exc...more

like 1 like

· see review

Apr 28, 2011

Mary rated it

Recommended to Mary by: Book club

In this collection of stories, Bradbury proposes some ideas of what reaching and colonizing another planet might look like. His ideas are interesting but his writing is pretty weak. The characters are thin and behave strangely at times, and he doesn't choose to offer explanations of the larger issues at work, such as the technology that would make the travel possible or the issues that cause his political conflicts. His ideas are clearly more important to him than the way he expresses them. Of c...more

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 01, 2011

Steffanie rated it

· review of another edition

What a strange book. Strange enough, where my imagination could barely handle it. But that's a great thing!

The beginning was a bit of a struggle, because it was absolutely nothing new. Simple writing, cliques and it was just too obvious. I did try to put myself in the mindset of someone reading it when it was published, before Sputnik ever launched. The simplistic obviousness that bothered me a little, wouldn't have bothered me before being used to Doctor Who, Stargate, and all ...moreWhat a strange book. Strange enough, where my imagination could barely handle it. But that's a great thing!

The beginning was a bit of a struggle, because it was absolutely nothing new. Simple writing, cliques and it was just too obvious. I did try to put myself in the mindset of someone reading it when it was published, before Sputnik ever launched. The simplistic obviousness that bothered me a little, wouldn't have bothered me before being used to Doctor Who, Stargate, and all my sci-fi stuff. Heck, this "book" (it's format is more like a serialization) was written a decade before The Twilight Zone! So the ideas, for the time, were big!!

But after reading further, I came to appreciate it not just for it's being ahead of it's time....but for it actually being thought-provoking and startling! Today!

Much of the book seems to be a commentary on colonization and 'manifest destiny'. Bradbury writes: "The men of Earth came to Mars. They came because they were afraid or unafraid, because they were happy or unhappy, because they felt like Pilgrims or did not feel like Pilgrims..."
and it was extremely interesting to really get a sense of how evil it can be to go somewhere and meddle, without a purpose, without a plan, without a reason to make it noble.

Much of the book also seems to deal with the our psychology and the thin line between reality and fantasy. Martians may have some telepathic tricks up their sleeves, but they would never work if it weren't human nature to want to accept a good lie rather than admit a bad truth.

Another major theme is simply loneliness. Loneliness is so expertly explored by Bradbury. Loneliness on Earth, loneliness on mars. Loneliness when you are the last man standing. Loneliness when you have everything you could want.

There are many other themes too. It's easy for this "book" to have many many different themes, when Bradbury himself called he Martian Chronicles: "a book of stories pretending to be a novel".

A great read. I'm still weirded out by the strangeness of some of the stories. And I'm happy that the things predicted from about 1975 to 2026 have not come true! Read it, for no other reason to see what people were afraid of in the future in the early 1950's [censorship!].

(less)

like 1 like

· see review

Mar 01, 2011

Adam rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I remember a copy of this book floating around my house when I was a kid. I remember it always being there, a clear and present option for me to read, a book whose cover I liked and that I looked at on occasion but that for some inexplicable reason I never actually sat down and gave a chance. Maybe I'm forgetting, though, and maybe I did try reading it and it simply didn't pull me in because it wasn't what my then-self wanted or expected it to be. Maybe I wasn't old enough to appreciate it at th...moreI remember a copy of this book floating around my house when I was a kid. I remember it always being there, a clear and present option for me to read, a book whose cover I liked and that I looked at on occasion but that for some inexplicable reason I never actually sat down and gave a chance. Maybe I'm forgetting, though, and maybe I did try reading it and it simply didn't pull me in because it wasn't what my then-self wanted or expected it to be. Maybe I wasn't old enough to appreciate it at the time, and so maybe it's fine or even preferable that I didn't read it until now.

But I'll be damned if I don't feel an immense regret at not having been exposed to the magic of this book when I was younger, at not having anyone who could say to me, "Read this book!" Might I have had a more imaginative childhood? Might I have been more aware, more in-tune with the world(s) around me, a veritable Douglas Spaulding (to borrow from that other Bradbury classic, not to mention my personal favorite)? Who knows. All I know is that this book, like that one, is gripping and fragile and dark and beautiful, possessing a wellspring of insight and an immensity of spirit that do nothing less than astound. Bradbury grins and gazes and grits his way through these stories, stories that are at once wildly compelling and deliciously macabre, dancing an honest and defiant dance between life and death, living and dying, and everything in between.

I can't help but wonder--what if I had given this one a chance when I was younger? Surely if I'd simply read to the end of, oh, The Earth Men story(!), I would have been hooked? Surely any child--anyone with even an ounce of wonder in them, really--would at that point gape at the pages in front of them and think, "Oh wow--this is really something..."? Would I have walked around at school and lived the rest of my childhood with a new pair of eyes, feeling like someone else entirely, like an outsider, like a Martian even, the boundaries of my world at once blurring and solidifying around a new center of "awe and defeat and resignation and acceptance"? Would I have started catching myself in that endless chase--"all down the way the pursued and the pursuing, the dream and the dreamers, the quarry and the hounds"--realizing when I was running after my own Martians: silvery figures flashing in the night, embodying only the realities my own mind had reflected on them?

Obviously these questions are unanswerable. And I'm not even sure I should be asking them in the first place. Because my childhood is my past, my Earth; everything from now on must be my Mars. So instead of asking what-ifs and could've-beens, shouldn't I, like the Thomas family, re-enter my life now, at this very moment, and pledge to ensure that from now on it be inhabited and guided and true no matter what?

Because somehow I just know how Bradbury himself would respond to all this: he'd offer a puzzled smile and a twinkle in his eye and suggest the only thing there really is: "Live!"

And that's good advice no matter what planet you're from.(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

May 01, 2010

Brendan rated it

Shelves: 2010, classics, fantasy, fiction, scifi

I hadn’t read this book yet — I know, that’s sad — so I thought I’d give it a whirl. Bradbury tells a series of stories that document the rise and fall of humankind on Mars. It’s a compelling collection, with good lessons about the dark side of humankind and our tendencies toward new things (particularly the American approach to the world). Some thoughts:

* The book actually comes off as more of a fantasy of “another planet” than of Mars itself, since we’ve now mapped enough of...more

like 1 like

· see review

Oct 22, 2011

Nicolas rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: rayon-fantasy-et-sf, mars, nouvelles

Encore une lecture récente, des Chroniques Martiennes, de Bradbury (à moins que ce ne soit Spinrad).
Est-il encore nécessaire de présenter ce roman d'une poésie bouleversante ?
Est-il encore besoin d'en dire la très profonde réflexion sur le genre humain et sur la modernité ?
Je ne le crois pas. C'est l'un des plus authentiques chef-d'oeuvres de la sf, peut-être même le plus beau roman de sf. Certes, l'action n'y est pas palpitante, il n'y a pas de héros, au sens traditionnel d...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 19, 2010

Greg Heaney rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

The Martian Chronicles is like a magic trick: the more times I read it, the better it gets. It is wonderful, beautiful, moving, and heartbreaking unlike any other science fiction novel I’ve ever read, possibly any novel of any genre. Sure, it’s going on 60 years old. The technological inconsistencies with today’s world of space flight are a product of that. But, in short, it just doesn’t matter. Like all good novels, The Martian Chronicles aren’t about what the title and cover illustration ...moreThe Martian Chronicles is like a magic trick: the more times I read it, the better it gets. It is wonderful, beautiful, moving, and heartbreaking unlike any other science fiction novel I’ve ever read, possibly any novel of any genre. Sure, it’s going on 60 years old. The technological inconsistencies with today’s world of space flight are a product of that. But, in short, it just doesn’t matter. Like all good novels, The Martian Chronicles aren’t about what the title and cover illustration show. The science fiction is just a medium Bradbury uses to reach something incredibly basic about human nature and our need to grow, expand, build and destroy. And yes, that destruction is usually self-centered. Perhaps it is the guilt that we feel about our own need for space. Perhaps it is the genuine anger we feel towards those who interrupt our manifest destiny. Perhaps it’s all a tug of war between the part of us that wants so terribly to be left alone and the part that would rather die than face loneliness. Either way, The Martian Chronicles are a testament of our human nature.

The underlying theme between each individual episode of the Chronicles is our almost complete inability to deal with our differences. Even those who attempt to embrace the foreignness of Mars ultimately give it up for home again. No amount of human intervention or understanding can bridge the gap between the Martians and us, the aliens. Diplomacy fails, communication is nearly impossible; murder leads to genocide. And still their ghosts haunt us. Even within humanity, the gaps are too wide. We still murder each other, we still fight for power, for land, for cultural supremacy. Mars, the great equalizer, the modern American West, cannot make peace prevail.

There is a somberness to this novel that I’ve felt very few other places. I think readers of Tolkien’s novella Smith of Wooton Major, or even Roverandom, will know what I’m talking about. Mars is a beautiful land, breathtaking, really. The Martian ruins (are they truly “ruins” at all?) have a pull that places on Earth do not. And yet, for all of its glory, it is a dead land. It is past its prime, and humanity will never be able to see Mars for what is was, or for what it should have been. Bardbury’s Mars is a place that I long to know, to see, just as other novels have characters that we long to meet and become friends with. Like Smith or Rover, I feel a real sense of sadness, bereavement all most, at leaving Mars forever. Bradbury makes us want to stay on Mars and experience it for ourselves. That, I believe, is something few writers accomplish. I feel sadness at leaving a fictional place and fictional characters behind. That is true talent.

This is a keystone work of science fiction, of Bradbury’s work, and Americana. It cannot be passed up, for its cultural significance as well as literary. I cannot properly express my love for this book in words. The only way for me to explain it is to beg you to read The Martian Chronicles and feel it for yourself. I promise you, you will never look up at the sky in the same way again.
(less)

like 8 likes

· see review

Nov 19, 2008

Jonathan added it · review of another edition

"Who are we anyway? The majority? Is that the answer? The majority is always holy is it not? Always, always; just never wrong for one little insignificant moment, is it? Never ever wrong in ten million years? He thought: What is this majority and who is in it? And what do they think and how did they get that way and will they ever change and how the devil did I get caught in this rotten majority? I don't feel comfortable. Is it claustrophobia, fear of crowds, or common sense? Can one man be...more

like 3 likes

· see review

Dec 25, 2008

Lettie Prell rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This was one of the books I discovered when I was in high school, as I methodically made my way around the school library fiction section, A to Z. With this book, I fell in love with science fiction. I also fell in love with the range of emotion it evoked in me. It was a revelation to me that a story could make me feel other than happy, and still be well worth reading -- even if it made me feel sad, or uncomfortable, or disquieted. Thus I grew into a love of literature.

Perhaps I ...more

like 5 likes

· see review

Jun 20, 2011

Karly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone and everyone

Shelves: beautiful-words, classics

This is possibly one of the best books ever written. A collection of short stories, this book assembles in to a larger picture of space travel to Mars, and it's relationship to earth. But this is more than just sci-fi. Bradbury's stories are poignant social narratives which speak to more then the era in which they were written. From race(/species) relations to human imperialism, the loneliness of technology and the fragility of biological life, the power of human fear; the themes in this boo...more

like 2 likes

· see review

Sep 19, 2007

Dorothy rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: scifi fans

Oh I just love this book. I actually remember that this was the book that got be back into avid reading again after a very long dry spell.

The earth has been devastated by atomic war and humans head out to Mars to make a new world for themselves, which appears to already have sentient life living on it. These are the chronicles of that contact and conflict. It is worth mentioning that The Martian Chronicles is a short story cycle rather than a novel proper. Each story can conceivabl...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 01, 2011

gabe rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: sci-fi heads

If you liked War of the Worlds, you'd like this. It's more 'cartoony' than that, but it's the same type of understanding/idea that people seemed to have had about space and Mars in the time of War of the Worlds.

It's wild and out there, but of course Bradbury seems to be able to get away with anything; Pushing the boundaries of reality around at will, and then clinging to others when convenient.

Also, it's very interesting that these are a bunch of shorts he wrote (or mostly...more

like 1 like

· see review

Dec 11, 2008

Andrew rated it

· review of another edition

This is one of my favorite collections of Bradbury's. This book completely changed my attitude towards Sci-Fi. If you haven't experienced the poetry that is Ray Bradbury, you are in for a revelation. "The Million Year Picnic" is one of my favorite short stories ever. But each piece in this book could be my favorite- they are that transcendent. One of the things I loved about this book, too, is that even though it was written in the 1940's, Bradbury was anti nuclear-weapons and pro...more

like 4 likes

· see review

Feb 17, 2009

Loren rated it

· review of another edition

From ISawLightningFall.com

Mars fascinates us. We’ve probed and photographed our neighbor for years but never managed to visit in person. Our pulp prophets have launched thousands upon thousands of occupying armadas from its orbit, their commanders green-skinned and tentacled and wanting to be taken to our leaders. Ray Bradbury, though, gently subverts fact and expectation in The Martian Chronicles, with humanity becoming both explorers and invaders of the Red Planet.

Chron...moreFrom ISawLightningFall.com

Mars fascinates us. We’ve probed and photographed our neighbor for years but never managed to visit in person. Our pulp prophets have launched thousands upon thousands of occupying armadas from its orbit, their commanders green-skinned and tentacled and wanting to be taken to our leaders. Ray Bradbury, though, gently subverts fact and expectation in The Martian Chronicles, with humanity becoming both explorers and invaders of the Red Planet.

Chronicles binds 26 of shorts and short shorts -- most original to the collection, some not -- into an overarching narrative about man’s arrival on, settlement in and abandonment of Mars. The initial stories weave horror into the blend, the planet’s telepathic inhabitants considering the earthlings to be romantic rivals (“Ylla”), insane (“The Earth Men”) and, finally, marauders (“The Third Expedition”), with fatal results. Only after disease runs rampant among the inhabitants does man begin to colonize, ushering in a looser middle section. “The Green Morning” re-imagines the myth of Johnny Appleseed. “Way in the Middle of the Air” tackles race relations. A lonely couple mourning the loss of a child finds unexpected comfort in “The Martian.” But colonies can’t survive without support from the motherland, a theme the final stories tighten around. With war raging back home, a business owner gets ensnared by bitter irony (“The Off Season”), a frustrated Romeo learns that there are worse fates than loneliness (“The Silent Towns”) and a widowed inventor faces “The Long Years” with the family he fashioned for himself.

Despite Bradbury’s mastery of the short story, Chronicles never quite comes together. His infatuation with middle America (“Rocket Summer,” “Interim”), emphasis on the evils of censorship (“Usher II”) and embracing of facile humanism (“The Million-Year Picnic”) appear anachronistic when viewed from Mars’ desert wastes. Also, continuity isn’t his strong point; the capabilities, culture and even appearance of the Martians varies from piece to piece. But when read individually, the stories still have the power to steal both your breath and imagination. Chronicles’ threads are stronger than their frayed sum.(less)

like 2 likes

· see review

Jan 09, 2009

Kevin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, sci-fi, the-good

This is a repost of my Martian Chronicles book review I wrote some time ago. What with deleted myspace accounts (now too numerous to mention) and the advent of time, I thought it appropriate to repost. Re-reading your own stuff can help to keep you sane, or your mind relativily intact; it reminds you, to some small extent, of who you were (or even are) in the past. I loved the Martian Chronicles when I was a teenager, first being exposed to it from the TV mini-series back in the early 1980's; I ...moreThis is a repost of my Martian Chronicles book review I wrote some time ago. What with deleted myspace accounts (now too numerous to mention) and the advent of time, I thought it appropriate to repost. Re-reading your own stuff can help to keep you sane, or your mind relativily intact; it reminds you, to some small extent, of who you were (or even are) in the past. I loved the Martian Chronicles when I was a teenager, first being exposed to it from the TV mini-series back in the early 1980's; I loved the soundtrack (I have it on CD) and the depiction of the ancient martian civilisations with their angular, pyramid shaped architecture; it caught my imagination. I then brought the Ray Bradbury book, the book in fact being a collection of short stories, called the Silver Locusts, which then, in their collection, became the Martian Chronicles. I remember that it took me ages to find this book in bookshops. I recently brought it again as part of a science fiction classic series, as my old copy had long since vanished. Oh, being such a geek as I am, I brought the TV series recently on DVD and the limited edition soundtrack as well.

--

I am re-reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I first came across this book in my teens, after watching the TV mini-series of it, and fell in love with it all those years ago (mid-'80s). Now, re-reading it after nearly 20 years I am still amazed by its prescience and intellect. And it's much more potent now than it was back then. It's quite interesting after reading a book on Christopher Columbus which gave an alternative insight into his legacy (see my previous blog), to see how another planet would be colonised based around the same principles. The Age of Discovery inaugurated by Columbus in 1492 died after the colonisation of America, and this colonisation was basically centered around the pursuit of wealth and eventual exploitation of man and nature. The pursuit of riches was the fundamental purpose and result of the discovery of the Americas. In The Martian Chronicles the same thing happens. Humans, facing an atomic war on earth around the year 2000, look towards Mars for their salvation. Martians exist, and have a highly rich and philosophical society. The first three expeditions to Mars are unsuccessful, with the Martians apparently fearing any outsiders and they kill the new explorers off, probably more as a way of defending themselves and their way of life. Come the fourth expedition and the Martians have all but died of chicken-pox, a disease which obviously has been contracted via the first three expeditions. Any similarities here and the Taino natives of the Caribbean and Americas? Yup, quite a bit. Spender, an archaeologist of the fourth expedition becomes dismayed of what has happened to the Martians and sees all too clearly the possible result of the colonisation of Mars by humans. He sees that Mars would be used as a base for nuclear weapons, be fought over and eventually contaminated by human culture and total disrespect and disregard of what had been before they arrived. The same thing happened to the conquest of the Americas. He sees in the Martian culture a deep, ancient way of life which was never allowed to get to the stage of what humans had turned themselves into. He knocks both Religion and Evolution, both attacking each other rather than peacefully co-existing together and both enriching each other. What the Martian civilisations had done was to combine them both and have a total respect for nature, to live with it and understand it and appreciate it as it is.

"..They quit trying to hard to destroy everything, to humble everything. They blended religion and art and science because, at base, science is no more of an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle. They never let science crush the aesthetic and the beautiful. Its all simply a matter of degree..."

And so Spender discusses this with the Captain of the expedition after he has gone native and tried to kill off some of the crew to try and stop the colonisation of Mars. The Captain sees this way of life and Spenders interpretation of their culture as pagan, but Spender says its about respect for what is; instead of trying to analyse the purpose of life, just live it as it is, accept it, don't over-question it.

The book has religious overtones, but they are quite deep philosophical ones. However, if we did have the technology to colonise another planet, any planet, today, in all fairness it would be like 1492 all over again, with the rich having the first shares in it and it would be looked at as another source of enrichment. Kim Stanly Robinsons' 'Mars' Trilogy of books (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars) are also a good read about the future colonisations of Mars but based around a much more scientific explanation, and it does pose similar questions about the role of Transnational Corporations in any future space exploration. Interesting.(less)

· see review

Jan 27, 2012

Tracey rated it

· review of another edition

"It is good to renew one's wonder," said the philosopher.
"Space travel has again made children of us all."

Having just finished Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and with it fresh in my mind I thought I would write a book review which is something I haven't done in a while.

Science Fiction isn't something that I read regularly- in fact I have probably only ever read a handful of books from this genre in my life so far.
However, t...more

· see review

Jan 11, 2012

Nemesis rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: finished, fantascienza-e-fantasy, i-migliori-secondo-me

“Chi siamo noi per voler scandagliare quanto accade? Siamo qui. Che cos'è la vita, del resto? Perché e per chi si fa questo e quello? Tutto ciò che sappiamo è che siamo qui, vivi ancora, senza far domande”.

Appena pensiamo al termine “fantascienza” la prima immagine che ci viene in mente è l’invasione del nostro pianeta da parte di esseri provenienti da altre galassie o da alti luoghi sperduti nello spazio.
Bene, proviamo ora a stravolgere quest’idea e proviamo a pensare che gli in...more“Chi siamo noi per voler scandagliare quanto accade? Siamo qui. Che cos'è la vita, del resto? Perché e per chi si fa questo e quello? Tutto ciò che sappiamo è che siamo qui, vivi ancora, senza far domande”.

Appena pensiamo al termine “fantascienza” la prima immagine che ci viene in mente è l’invasione del nostro pianeta da parte di esseri provenienti da altre galassie o da alti luoghi sperduti nello spazio.
Bene, proviamo ora a stravolgere quest’idea e proviamo a pensare che gli invasori, una volta ogni tanto, siamo noi…che cosa accadrebbe se fossimo noi terrestri, in un ipotetico futuro, a progettare una colonizzazione di un altro pianeta del sistema solare, magari di Marte, il pianeta a noi più conosciuto e vicino e più studiato dai nostri scienziati?
Ray Bradbury si pose quest’interrogativo nel 1950, anno di uscita di questo suo ennesimo capolavoro, “Cronache Marziane”.
Il risultato finale è un libro fantascientifico ma che poi tanto fantastico non è, un romanzo onirico, avventuroso, inquietante, affascinante, a tratti molto commovente(il finale dell’ultimo racconto mi ha riportato alla mente uno dei finali più belli della storia del cinema, quello di “Incontri ravvicinati del terzo tipo” di Steven Spielberg), un libro ricco di metafore e di simbologie nascoste, che ti fa sognare e allo stesso tempo riflettere.
Un romanzo che in realtà non è un romanzo ma una raccolta di racconti incentrati sulla conquista del pianeta rosso da parte dei terrestri, dai primi contatti tra le due “etnie” diverse fino alla definitiva conquista e distruzione degli “indigeni”.
L’analogia con la conquista dell’America da parte dei primi colonizzatori bianchi è molto forte, anche questa volta l’umanità, pur non volendolo, sarà portatrice di morte e di distruzione, come purtroppo avviene spesso quando ci s’incontra e si prova a coabitare con razze diverse la cosa sarà devastante per entrambe(i marziani descritti da Bradbury hanno una peculiare capacità, quella di trasformarsi a piacimento secondo i desideri inconsci degli esseri umani, in parole povere i primi esploratori si ritroveranno davanti a genitori e moglie scomparse, a luoghi della loro infanzia dimenticati, a vecchi compagni di scuola che non vedevano da anni, tutti frutto dei loro pensieri inconsci e trasformati in esseri reali dai marziani) con la conseguenza finale per gli astronauti di perdersi completamente in questo modo fatto di illusioni e di ricordi e per i marziani di impazzire a causa dei continui desideri inconsci dei loro visitatori, finché non soccomberanno definitivamente a causa di un’epidemia di morbillo portata dai loro invasori.
In sostanza una favola fantascientifica crudele e amara sull’impossibilità di comunicare e l’incapacità di coabitare fra persone di razze diverse, tema purtroppo ancora oggi molto attuale.
Le romantiche descrizioni dei paesaggi e degli usi e costumi dei marziani(il secondo episodio, “Ylla”, è meraviglioso) t’immergono in un mondo quasi incantato(Marte somiglia molto a una nuova Atlantide, una sorta di Paradiso Terrestre incontaminato che verrà a poco a poco distrutto dalla brama di potere dell’uomo), a contatto con un popolo verso il quale è praticamente impossibile non provare simpatia e affetto(i Marziani come gli Indiani d’America, un popolo barbaramente distrutto dall’ingordigia dell’uomo).
Definirlo un libro di fantascienza è puramente riduttivo e anche un po’ ingiusto, questo romanzo è un capolavoro sociale, un libro pieno di tutto, di sentimenti, di passioni, di paure, di desideri, di illusioni, di angosce, di speranze, un libro che ti fa riflettere, che t’insegna a capire il prossimo, che t’insegna cosa sia la tolleranza e il rispetto per gli altri(due aspetti che nella nostra civiltà stanno sempre più scomparendo).
Per chi ama la fantascienza è una lettura quasi obbligata, ma come ripeto dietro c’è molto di più, c’è una realtà alla quale ci stiamo paurosamente sempre più avvicinando e c’è un sogno, un sogno segreto che noi tutti, chi più chi meno, coltiviamo, quello di vivere in un mondo diverso, in piena armonia con chi e con ciò che ci circonda.
E’ pura utopia? Per Bradbury a quanto pare si, io invece voglio ancora continuare a credere che tutto ciò sia possibile.
Leggetelo e soprattutto fatelo leggere ai vostri figli.

Titoli dei racconti presenti nella raccolta

(Gennaio 1999) L'estate del razzo
(Febbraio 1999) Ylla
(Agosto 1999) La notte estiva
(Agosto 1999) I terrestri
(Marzo 2000) Il contribuente
(Aprile 2000) La terza spedizione
(Giugno 2001) "... And the moon be still as bright"
(Agosto 2001) I coloni
(Dicembre 2001) Il verde mattino
(Febbraio 2002) Le locuste
(Giugno 2002) L'immensità
(Agosto 2002) Incontro di notte
(Ottobre 2002) La spiaggia
(Novembre 2003) Le sfere di fuoco
(Febbraio 2003) Intermezzo
(Aprile 2003) I musici
(Giugno 2003) Su negli azzurri spazi
(2004-05) L'imposizione dei nomi
(Aprile 2005) Usher II
(Agosto 2005) I vecchi
(Settembre 2005) Il marziano
(Novembre 2005) La valigeria
(Novembre 2005) Stagione morta
(Novembre 2005) Tutti a guardare
(Dicembre 2005) Le città silenti
(Aprile 2026) I lunghi anni
(Agosto 2026) Cadrà dolce la pioggia
(Ottobre 2026) La gita d'un milione di anni
(less)

· see review

Dec 18, 2011

Justin rated it

· review of another edition

While reading this, I couldn't figure out if it was a genuine attempt at science fiction or a satire of contemporary science fiction. The Martian Chronicles had been recommended to me by someone, I forget who, after I said I wanted to become more familiar with science fiction and Ray Bradbury, who wrote one of my favorite books from my high school years, Fahrenheit 451.

I'll admit there was a certain level of disappointment in how poorly the book has aged, specifically in regards to t...more

· see review

Dec 01, 2011

Karen rated it

· review of another edition

Bradbury, Ray. The Martian chronicles. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1958. Print.

Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is a science fiction read about the behavior of Martians and humans immigration to Mars. The book begins with a Martian couple arguing over the wife’s dream of a rocket landing on Mars. The man in the rocket turned out to be a human astronaut who wanted to take the wife (Ylla) to earth. The Martians, in particular, Yll (the husband) murders the humans through s...more
Bradbury, Ray. The Martian chronicles. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1958. Print.

Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles is a science fiction read about the behavior of Martians and humans immigration to Mars. The book begins with a Martian couple arguing over the wife’s dream of a rocket landing on Mars. The man in the rocket turned out to be a human astronaut who wanted to take the wife (Ylla) to earth. The Martians, in particular, Yll (the husband) murders the humans through shooting. Progressively more rockets land and by the third rocket, the Martians diminish. The planet mars is then taken over by the humans and earth is gone in the nuclear war.

This book is broken into sections of different stories on the exploration of Mars making it a bit difficult to recall each event. However, the book serves well in answering the guiding question of why aliens are hidden. Since I believe concealing alien existence is unnecessary because many people know of many stories or been a witness, the book shows that aliens will not be harmful. Humans turned out to take over the Martians planet and cause them to die encouraging the possibility that aliens will be friendly.

In conclusion, The Martian Chronicles was actually a good read because it was interesting and intriguing. The reasons why it was interesting and intriguing is how the book is written and the descriptions of Mars, the Martians and humans. It is many stories within one book of how humans made Mars their own new home. One example of great detail is this quote: “The sound of her feet fluttered through the stone house. Outside, the immense blue Martian sky was hot and still as a warm deep sea water. The Martian desert lay broiling like a prehistoric mud pot, waves of heat rising and shimmering.” Also this example of the text in the book shows that this book was an easy read. I would recommend this book to anyone but in particular, those who have an interest in aliens or have a curiosity of Mars.

(less)

· see review

Dec 01, 2011

Keyla Cardona added it · review of another edition

"I know, we came up here to get away from things - politics, the atom bomb, war, pressure groups, prejudice, laws - I know. But it's still home there. You wait and see. When the first bomb drops on America the people up here'll start thinking. They haven't been here long enough. A couple years is all. If they'd been here forty years, it'd be different, but they got relatives down there, and their home towns."
The Martian Chronicles is a history of the settlement of Mars by E...more
"I know, we came up here to get away from things - politics, the atom bomb, war, pressure groups, prejudice, laws - I know. But it's still home there. You wait and see. When the first bomb drops on America the people up here'll start thinking. They haven't been here long enough. A couple years is all. If they'd been here forty years, it'd be different, but they got relatives down there, and their home towns."
The Martian Chronicles is a history of the settlement of Mars by Earthians. The first three expeditions fail, and all of their crews are killed by the native Martians; by the fourth expedition, most all the Martians have succumbed to Earthian chickenpox and were killed. Despite the actions of a crew member of this expedition who was sympathetic to Martian culture, a foothold on the planet was established and colonization began. This colonization was exclusively by the United States of America, as other nations were tied up in international struggles. There were some Martians left on Mars, who interacted sporadically with Earthian settlers. On the eve before a hundred thousand Chinese and Mexican settlers were to arrive, the Great War began on Earth. Instead of a size able increase in Earthian colonizers to Mars, there was a return by colonizers back to Earth until the planet was left almost entirely uninhabited. Twenty years after the Great War and at the brink of human civilization's final collapse, some Earthians escaped their home planet to start over in Mars.

“Earth changed in the black sky. It caught fire. Part of it seemed to come apart in a million pieces, as if a gigantic jigsaw had exploded. It burned with an unholy dripping glare for a minute, three times normal size, then dwindled. "What was that?" Sam looked at the green fire in the sky. "Earth," said Elma, holding her hands together.”
This description of Earth finally succumbing to atomic war and humans on the last march to self-destruction is typical Bradbury: simple declarative sentences with a disarmingly mundane simile (the exploding jigsaw puzzle) manages to convey an objective sense of the horror the Parkhills witness, making it both vivid and oddly distant for the reader.

(less)

· see review

Nov 30, 2011

Jeff Miller rated it

· review of another edition

I am pretty sure I read this as a teenager, but it did not much appeal to me. Now though I was much more capable of reading this book and appreciating it. I found it simply wonderful and brilliant. I can understand why this book did not affect me as a teenager as I wanted wiz-bang SF stories with lots of action, but the Martian Chronicles read more like poetry in a sense with a profound understanding of human nature.

The connected stories of this book often reminded me of Twilight Zo...more

like 1 like

· see review

Nov 23, 2011

Bettie rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: autumn-2011, published-1950, sci-fi, little-green-men, fraudio

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The martian chronicles

autumn 2011
sci-fi
fraudio
classic
1950
short stories
little green men

Unabridged, and read by Peter Marinker

blurb - The people of Earth are preparing for war - a war that could potentially destroy the planet. Explorers are sent to Mars to find a new place for humans to colonize. Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the gre...more

· see review

Nov 15, 2011

Scotty R rated it

· review of another edition

This collection of short stories is another one of my favorite pieces of writing, and helped to establish Ray Bradbury as my most revered author. The stories tell of a series of expeditions from earth to Mars, in anticipation of the end of our planet. Bradbury creates an environment on Mars that is many things: beautiful, serene, vast and untouched, yet with a lurking sense of terror and danger. Bradbury is an expert of setting and description, depicting Mars in a way that feels very believable,...more

· see review

Nov 09, 2011

Alexandra rated it

· review of another edition

The Martian Chronicles was written and published in May 1950 by Ray Bradbury. I enjoyed the story very much, for its visual depiction, perspective, and main idea. The only thing that I did not like was how I began to loose some interest in the story somehwere in the middle. Motivating myself to read further changed my attitude and I began to gain interest again.
The story begins with a woman named Ylla who wakes up from a very far-fetched dream about "A man with blue eyes and black ha...moreThe Martian Chronicles was written and published in May 1950 by Ray Bradbury. I enjoyed the story very much, for its visual depiction, perspective, and main idea. The only thing that I did not like was how I began to loose some interest in the story somehwere in the middle. Motivating myself to read further changed my attitude and I began to gain interest again.
The story begins with a woman named Ylla who wakes up from a very far-fetched dream about "A man with blue eyes and black hair, maybe about 6 foot and 1 inch tall." That has arrived from "The third planet" Earth; to Mars in a "metal thing that glittered in the sun". As she tells her dream to her husband he is in utter shock the entire time. He is in so much shock he wants her to seek medical help. It was interesting to read lines in the story that said things like "The third planet is incapable of supporting life, our scientists have said there's far too much oxygene in their atmosphere." It provided a different perspective and made me think to myself "What if there is a planet somewhere in another universe with martians that think this way?"
I felt as though the author wanted to get accross the idea of life elsewhere. His goal was to make the reader ponder about intelligent life on other planets, to interest people with-what some would call- a far fetched idea. In my opinoin I found the story interesting and well written. It had its dull moments in the middle but it had a great end and I highly encourage people to read it. I liked the extensive vocabulary used throughout the story, along with visualizing how it could possibly look on mars.
The main idea and theme of the book demonstrates living creatures thinking about life on other planets. It encourages the reader to have a positive outlook on space exploration, and leaves the reader with plenty to think about. The book answers the question "Are we alone?" with as much detail as it can.
What I learned and took away from the story, is to never doubt something that can seem far fetched and impossible. The story was entertaining, and an excellent fun short read. I recommend it for those who are fascinated by space, and life. Best recommended for a mature audience!

(less)

· see review

Oct 14, 2011

Robin rated it

· review of another edition

Ray Bradbury is a storyteller without peer, a poet of the possible, and, indisputably, one of America's most beloved authors. In a much celebrated literary career that has spanned six decades, he has produced an astonishing body of work: unforgettable novels, including Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes; essays, theatrical works, screenplays and teleplays; The Illustrated Mein, Dandelion Wine, The October Country, and numerous other superb short story collections. But of all the ...more

· see review

Sep 13, 2011

Noëlibrarian rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: ya-books

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

· see review

Aug 16, 2011

Katie rated it

· review of another edition

This had a lot more poetry and wonderment in it than most things I give three stars, but somehow, though parts of it are breathtaking, I felt that parts of it were beautiful and profound and other parts slowed the inexorable march towards oblivion and rebirth that I think Bradbury was going for. Also, even though Bradbury is a mad wizard who wields words like magic, sometimes I think his prose is too much and I often disagree with him philosophically. Parts of this book, particularly the parts w...more

· see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 1457 1458 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Ciencia ficción	1	14	Mar 08, 2008 08:47am

combine
Other Editions (138)

More editions...

Genres

Science Fiction

1,002 users

Classics

274 users

Short Stories

223 users

Fantasy

105 users

Science Fiction Fantasy

99 users

Literature

44 users

Literature > American

38 users

Speculative Fiction

24 users

Novels

21 users

Science Fiction > Aliens

19 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days a...moreRay Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.

Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.

Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."(less)

More about Ray Bradbury...

Books by Ray Bradbury

I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About The Martian Chron...

16 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Martian Chronicles

“Science is no more than an investigation of a miracle we can never explain, and art is an interpretation of that miracle.” — 35 people liked it

“There was a smell of Time in the air tonight. He smiled and turned the fancy in his mind. There was a thought. What did time smell like? Like dust and clocks and people. And if you wondered what Time sounded like it sounded like water running in a dark cave and voices crying and dirt dropping down upon hollow box lids, and rain. And, going further, what did Time look like? Time look like snow dropping silently into a black room or it looked like a silent film in an ancient theater, 100 billion faces falling like those New Year balloons, down and down into nothing. That was how Time smelled and looked and sounded. And tonight-Tomas shoved a hand into the wind outside the truck-tonight you could almost taste time.” — 17 people liked it

More quotes…

Groups That Shelved The Martian Chron...

SciFi and Fantasy Book Club

6059 members

last activity 14 minutes ago

shelf: read

Building a SciFi/Fantasy ...

2359 members

last activity Feb 07, 2012 08:27pm

shelf: read

Dark Fiction

595 members

last activity 4 hours, 46 min ago

shelf: read

title link	preview: The Martian Chronicles
avg rating	preview: The Martian Chronicles Goodreads rating: 3.99 (32827 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/760921.The_Martian_Chronicles?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178128696m/760921.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/760921.The_Martian_Chronicles?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury[/url]

The Martian Chronicles

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Readers Also Enjoyed

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website