The Martian Chronicles

Rating:
Summary: Things we never have time to think about... but should
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Thought-Provoking, and a Bit Spooky
Review: Regardless of what other reviewers have written, I believe this book to be a haunting work of art. Bradbury manages, through dozens of short vignettes, to tell the story of how mankind came to inhabit the Martian landscape. The idea that Bradbury imparted his own social agenda on this book is claptrap: He wrote with the beauty and elegance that is exclusive to him, and wove together a story from many different threads. He tells of the first voyages to Mars - and their subsequent failures - to the extinction of the Martian people.

While the book's premise - and even summary - comes across as nothing more than formulaic science fiction, Bradbury manages to stretch it to much more than that. This book is evenly paced and well-written. It is imperative that one recognises that this book is meant to transcend the circumstance at hand: Bradbury arguably wrote this book to represent the tie that mankind to Earth, rather than to just express the ventures of humanity to the stars.

Contrary to what many reviewers seem to have said, I don't see this book as being misanthropic or critical of humanity. Rather, it seems that Bradbury portrays humanity positively: He shows that mankind is always striving for something more, to go farther, to be better, faster, stronger, and more attune to their surroundings. And, he also shows how no matter things may change for mankind, we have a primative, yearning nature to return to the place that bore us: The Earth.

Without a doubt, this is one of my favorite books of all-time. I still find it to be crafted in a way which rings true of the Golden age of science fiction: It doesn't get bogged down in misanthropy or cynicism. Rather, it finds the silver lining - a sort of resounding feeling of hope eminates from this book. Wholeheartedly, I applaud not only the story, but Bradbury's magnificant ability to tell a story, an ability which seems to have been lost in most contemporary writing.

Rating:
Summary: Best Science Fiction Book of All Time
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Things we never have time to think about... but should
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Dated sci-fi/Classic as a human story...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A book gone boared
Review: The martian chronicles is a book about the colonization of people on Mars. The begining of the book started out pretty good. Men from the planet earth came to Mars and were exploring the planet and the culture. When I got to the middle of the book it kind of hit a flat spot and it seemed to just drag on. The book also made it incredibly difficult to remember what character did what through out the story. This was because the names the characters had such as Mr. Iii, Mr. Ttt, and Mr. Xxx. Overal I think this was a pretty good book. But it just did not catch me as it might catch you. This is a good book and I recomend it to everyone.
Three stars ***

Rating:
Summary: An Origonal Concept by Ray Bradbury
Review: Bradbury came up with a totally original idea of instead of having the aliens the ones who come to our planet and explore, it is instead the humans who are the curious ones and search mars for life. Bradbury mixes the old and the new by having the humans and aliens switch roles when it comes to alien abductions.

I, personally, like how Bradbury gave all the Martians telepathy, which enabled them to speak in all languages. But since all the aliens are telepathic they all know what everyone else does which makes the story much more interesting and a lot more difficult to write. That¡¯s why I admire Bradbury¡¯s work. I also enjoy how Bradbury doesn't follow the other books in the alien genre. This new idea has discovered a new form of Martian science fiction.

Although Bradbury didn't give much thought to creating the characters' names, he did a wonderful job on creating an exciting page-turner that has an interesting new twist at every page. Bradbury can always find away to make each page unique and exciting, whether it¡¯s sending the humans to a Martian insane asylum or having the Martians move to the planet earth. I believe that this book will be the start of a whole new way of writing alien books.

Rating:
Summary: Don't look at this as a science fiction book
Review: In the half century after most of it was written, as Bob Dylan would say, things have changed. Racial relations are different, we know there are not water filled canals on Mars, no Martian dead cities, electronics are digital, rock has become the most popular music, and so on.

This novel is more of a love poem, and finally a eulogy for the human race. I suppose it is science fiction. Doing what the best science fiction does: illuminating our lives in the present with the metaphor of a future time. It contains one of my favorite Bradbury short stories I read a long time ago in junior high - "There Will Come Soft Rains". A story of an automated house trying to futilely provide for its deceased human inhabitants.

A moving and beautiful work. I only hope we have learned from its teachings.

Rating:
Summary: Sci-Fi Classic
Review: Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles is a story the holds many things true today even if the story itself is not a reality, and probably never will be. Bradbury once again takes a cynic's position to writing as he has in other works (Fahrenheit 451) and includes many of the problems that man faced during his day and that man faces in ours. Bradbury's style of writing is very unique in this book as well, in that rather then focusing on one specific set of characters, he jumps around with different characters all the time. The Book could be considered more a interconnected collection of short stories as opposed to a novel.

The short stories in the book are all well written each including their own set of characters. Some chapters do include some of the same characters, giving it the feeling that one part of the novel was connected to another.

I especially enjoyed the chapter titled "Usher II". In this chapter a man is fighting the system that he will no longer be a part of. In this chapter Bradbury does a few interesting things. First, it seems that he connects this book to his one of his other books, Fahrenheit 451 from the quote, " 'Of course.' Stendahl snorted delicately, a combination of dismay and contempt. 'How could I expect you to know blessed Mr. Poe? He died long ago, before Lincoln. All of his books were burned in the Great Fire. That's thirty years ago-1975.'" (Page 134). I have read Fahrenheit 451 and immediately picked up the connection, whether intentional or not by Bradbury I do not know, but it interested me that he connected his books together. If you have not read Fahrenheit 451 I suggest you do as it is another of Bradbury's great contributions to literature. Bradbury also pokes a little bit of fun a fellow author, Ernest Hemingway, in this chapter. In another quote by Stendahl, "Just as you put a stake through the heart of Halloween and told your film producers that if they made anything at all they would have to make and remake Ernest Hemingway. My God, how many times have I seen For Whom the Bell Tolls done! Thirty different versions. All realistic. Oh, Realism! Oh, here, oh, now. Oh Hell!" (Page 137). In this chapter Bradbury also depicts the stupidity humans. It yet another quote by Stendahl (can you tell he's my favorite character yet?) "Garrett?" called Stendahl softly. Garrett silenced himself. "Garrett," said Stendahl, "do you know why I've done this to you? Because you burned Mr. Poe's books without really reading them. You took other people's advice that they needed burning. Otherwise you'd have realized what I was going to do to you when we came down here a moment ago. Ignorance is fatal, Mr. Garrett." (Page 147).

Of course, this is just a small hint at what the entire book has to offer. The entire book is full of points and questions that make you wonder about this world. There was nothing I did not like about this book, I sped through it faster then any book I had ever read before, I recommend everyone read it.