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Summary: Whoohoo! Ray Bradbury does it yet again.
Review: Despairing, hopeful, chilling, morbid... Anyway you go about it Bradbury can write it. An excellent book all scifi lovers should read... An enchanting novel that can almost weave a spell around you.
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Summary: A little creaky, but still worth reading
Review: It's been many years since I last read this collection, and I was surprised on several levels. I'd forgotten the lyrical language, laying the visual scenes and emotions down so clear you can see and feel them. Some of the ideas and concepts he was dealing with (exploitation of a new world; how a race might react to being invaded, how will religions adjust to meeting other races) are current topics still. Indeed, Stanley Kim Robinson focused on some of them in his Mars trilogy. But I was reminded that this book is a product of its time, especially when dealing with the roles of women and nuclear family, which stayed firmly in the 1950s. But some of the stories, notably Night Meeting, The Fire Balloons and The Martian are still gems. And it's always good read the old classics -- it helps one to appreciate where the new ones came from.
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Summary: I thought it was too unrealistic
Review: The book said that we would be on Mars in about 30 years and i thought that was way untrue it seems to close for us to be leaving a planet that desn't have to much wrong with it
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Summary: A guide to understanding why Bradbury is a writer of impact
Review: I.People come to Bradbury in different ways:a. they are assigned to read this book (or Dandelion Wine or Fahreheit 451)for school, b. it's on a summer reading list, c. you heard he was good sci-fi writer and influenced Stephen King (yes, that's true) d. and is with the greats such as Poe and Vonnegut and etc; e. or you just happened upon it the way Bastian Bux happens upon the Neverending Story in the book of that same name: while you love entertainment, you love also, meaning - unlike those who chased Bastian in the trash bin in the movie version. 1. I notice this is how it is with much of literature, 2.therefore that would include Bradbury. II. Truly in response to many questions and almost epithetical statements made by some reviewers,: A. the book was first published in 1946. B. We hadn't even been to the moon yet. 1.A movie, "The Mouse in The Moon" with Peter Sellers shows just how far off people were in exact science, even right b4 the moon. 2. So some say, of Bradbury and other such sci-fi a."They were completely inaccurate, unrealistic, Bradbury didn't finish college and therefore, he and they are now obsolete." b.Some even claim Bradbury is not sci-fi. 1.Firstly, Bradbury was completely realistic in depicting human relationships in going by humanity's past actions yes, the colonizations and etc;). 2. Some are jealous at hearing he may not have finished college. He actually wrote Fahrenheit when he was only 19. 3. I have gone to college. 4.Alot of successful writers haven't gone to college. 5. On the other hand, people also once read books more, people like Bradbury,people like Jack London. Stephen King hated creative writing in college. a.there are plenty of smart, intellectual people who are elitist and like to think themselves better than everyone else, b. thus showing their own low self-esteem and worry about their own success. 6.A similar premise of not going to college and being a successful writer isn't possible for a certain alliterate part of the population who actually have three tvs (like in Fahrenheit 451) in the wall at a time, or more. a.We see such usage of tvs even in the mall. b.It's happening now. C. As for the book not being sci-fi, 1. "Flowers for Algernon" is sci-fi, 2. simply because it involves a scientific fiction. III. What Bradbury has written is literature that will endure as long as this world is around A.because the social issues he described are all very possible and have happened. B. He uses literary and myth references in all his work, and references to actual history. C.That, people, is what makes literature. 1. For instance, During Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte's time, there were popular authors who wrote supernatural and action packed thrillers, like today. 2.No one but English Professors or specialists know who they are. 3. It is similar with Shakespeare, and also, with Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. 4. There were those popular during their day but what they wrote did not transcend to a spiritual, meaningful level; a.it was more of what you might call greeting card doggerel, which serves a purpose, b. but it does not at all transcend the time to reach a larger human consciousness. c.That is what the sort of writing Bradbury does is all about-- d. he takes the elusive, everyday mundane and turns it into an event which transcends time and place. e. He thereby transcends genre, which the other writers previously mentioned also did. IV. A human being, esp. a writer conscious of meaning is able to discern the link to the past, the present and the future so that they all become one and the same. A. Especially by the way the stories are intricately woven together, B. in the same sort of way that when we pick up a news paper, we know what happened may have been at a different place on the other side of the world, or time, C. but we know we are still part of the same world it took place in. D. He also links many of his stories to other stories in other books he's written -- check Balzac, Faulkner etc; Excuse me, I must thank you for giving me something to publish an essay on for myself now!
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Summary: Beautiful, Chilling, Tragic, Artistic, Hopeful, Morbid
Review: I cant think of any other book that can be discribed by all of these words at once. true, it isnt the most scientificly sound book, but that is hardly the point. the style of this book is very intresting, and i love the way that almost every story is unconnected, but as a whole they fit perfectly. a few of the storys are a little dated, but that only adds to the overall story. it reads more like a dramatic history then a normal fiction. one thing i dont like though, is after the great war breakes out on earth. i know that many people would return to earth to help loved ones or to defend their contry of origin, but i have a hard time believing that every single person would leave, save for a few who were left behind accidently. i think it would be more likely that a good number of people would stay on mars of their own free will. thats my only negative comment. when i read this book, i couldnt help but think of the colonization of american. how the humans(europeans) came to mars(N. america) which was already inhabited by martians(indians). it was hopeful and bleak at the same time. masterful. by all means, read it!
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Summary: Unique
Review: Ray Bradbury was not a John Campbell author. John Campbell, editor of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION magazine, launched the modern era of science fiction with his discovery of such authors as Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein, and his insistence on scientific accuracy imprinted itself on what science fiction became. Ray Bradbury, on the other hand, had another focus in his stories. It was Edgar Allan Poe who said that the purpose of a short story was to translate "mood" to paper; Ray Bradbury's ghostly sentimental prose did that wonderfully, and science was secondary. At one time, science held that the planets were formed in a sequence moving inwards toward the sun -- therefore Mars was an Earth-like world, but much older and consequently dying. (Venus, on the other hand, was much younger and wetter, as was believed Earth was in its youth.) Ray Bradbury set his stories on these worlds, even after it was discovered that this specific planetary formation theory was incorrect. Specifically speaking, Ray Bradbury wrote fantasy, not science fiction. (This is a fact difficult to recognize because we've come to identify fantasy with all the Tolkien rip-offs less imaginative authors turned out.) This is immediately identifiable in such stories as "Rocket Summer" or "The Green Morning", which are scientifically impossible but written instead as mood pieces. Speculative Fiction followed Campbell. This offered us its own rewards, and its own classics, but we've never had an author like Bradbury again. It seems our only option is to reread his work again and again.
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Summary: Thought Provoking...Great Collection
Review: Bradbury's significant comments on society, through these stories, come wrapped in beautiful scenery, and interesting characters, especially given that they are short stories. Western Civilization is portrayed as arrogant, and the first astronauts/settlers on Mars are cowboys. The portrayal of the attitudes of the settlers and their lack of respect for Martian territory and people is closely linked, as a theme, to the colonization of North America and the displacement of the North American Indians...ignorant and careless. Another running theme is the danger of ignoring the arts in society...people forget how important literature and music and art really are, both as learning tools and as forms of expression. I, like some of the other critics here on this page, first read the book when i was in Fourth Grade, and didn't fully understand it. This is understandable as the ideas are somewhat complex. This year (18 yrs old) I read it again, and promptly recommended it to all of my friends and family. The Martian Chronicles is a relatively short read, and is also easy in that the stories are all short, too. This book could well be read either story-by-story, or all in one night. (the latter is not a good idea if you have school the next day. i speak from experience.) Read this book.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: A wonderful, insightful look into human nature told through a story of science fiction. The journey from a single man on Mars to the end where all the settlers abandon the planet due to the war is amazing. Greatly written story using many characters and links. I reccomend this to anyone who is human.
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Summary: Okay
Review: This book was Okay. The setting of Mars was Okay. The characters were Okay. The storyline was Okay. The wording was Okay. If you want to read it, Okay. If you don't want to read it, Okay. Over all, it was Okay!
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Summary: Neccesary reading for all!
Review: When I was told that I had to read this book for school, I was overly upset. I have never enjoyed anything science fiction in my life; not movies, not books, nothing. First, we read Farenheit 451: one of the best books ever written. Then the Martian Chronicles. At first, I couldn't stand the book, but then I got into it. It really isn't about martians and it really isn't science fiction. It is one man's satrical view of our future world. And the picture he paints is not a positive one. I think that both of these Bradbury books should be required reading for all. Not because they are science fiction classics but because of the fabulous lesson that is portrayed in both. I wouldn't consider it a self help book, but it did put many things in perspective. It will make you want to be a better person and it will make you want to live in a better world. It was an eye-opener.
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