The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ray BradburyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-02-01
ISBN: 0380973839
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: William Morrow
Book Reviews of The Martian Chronicles
Book Review: A masterpiece of dream-like, allegorical fantasy
Summary: 5 Stars
In Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, the notion is developed that nostalgia is an extremely powerful force. It can be comforting and pleasant when seeking a diversion from the burdens of reality, but at times it can also be dangerous. This theme is eminent in several of the stories in this collection, including The Third Expedition, and The Martian.
In The Third Expedition, a crew of astronauts land on Mars and find an innocuous-looking town populated by long-deceased family members. At first the men are truly happy for the first time in a while. But, as Bradbury unfolds this tale, the people turn out to be Martians, who have used these buried memories to lure the unsuspecting astronauts into a deadly trap. But at the final moment of terrifying realization, it is too late. This moment is written with slow, chilling horror by Bradbury:
"And wouldn't it be horrible and terrifying to discover that all of this was part of some great plan by the Martians to divide and conquer us, and kill us? Sometime during the night, perhaps, my brother here on this bed will change, form, melt, shift, and become another thing, a terrible thing, a Martian. It would be very simple for him just to turn over in bed and put a knife into my heart. And in all those other houses down the street, a dozen other brothers or fathers suddenly melting away and taking knives and doing things to the unsuspecting, sleeping men of Earth..." (Bradbury 47)
A similar theme is used in another story, The Martian. In this story, the theme that is developed is people's inability to escape the past. An elderly couple takes in what appears to be an abandoned child who looks surprisingly like their dead son. Little do they know, however, that their "son" is actually a Martian who is able to disguise himself by simulating their son's face. The Martian does not have any ulterior motive, he is only seeking a home and to be accepted and loved. In fact, that is his talent, as described by Bradbury in this passage:
" `That's true.' The voice hesitated. `But I must consider these people now. How would they feel if, in the morning, I were gone again, this time for good? Anyway, the mother knows what I am; she guessed, even as you did. I think they all guessed but didn't question. You don't question Providence. If you don't have the reality, a dream is just as good. Perhaps I'm not their dead one back, but I'm something almost better to them; an ideal shaped by their minds. I have a choice of hurting them or your wife." (Bradbury 127).
Unfortunately, the other people realize this, and in this creature they see the silent ruins of a past long forgotten, and unintentionally kill him through the power of their false hope.
Another theme that is examined in The Martian Chronicles is the dividing line between reality and illusion. In the story called Night Meeting, an Earthman and a Martian meet on a dusty, deserted road, only to discover that each is an impalpable phantom to the other and that each sees a completely different Mars. Their shock at their discoveries is eminent:
"The Martian touched his own nose and lips. `I have flesh,' he said, half aloud. I am alive.'
Tomas stared at the stranger. `And if I am real, then you must be dead.
`No, you!'
`A ghost!'
`A phantom!'" (Bradbury 82).
Each individual is unavoidably unique and sees the world in their own way. This, according to Bradbury, is evident in this story.
The Martian Chronicles is a science-fiction collection, but it actually bears many startling resemblances to our own world, our own life. Beneath this beautiful poetic fantasy lies myriads upon myriads of biting social criticism. For example, the story titled Way In The Middle Of The Air relates the dismay and shock of a group of white racists when they discover that all the local blacks are emigrating to Mars. This, of course, can be interpreted as a passionate condemnation of bigotry and racial prejudice. The racists are cruel, ignorant and cannot imagine an existence without potential victims.
Another story, titled Usher II, deals with a group of bureaucrats who come to Mars to try and limit the settlers' freedom, both politically and imaginatively. In response to this movement, a man named Stendahl builds a lifelike replica of the House of Usher, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's famous story, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, peopling with a series of deadly traps taken from various Poe stories. The bureaucrats, who are criticized for their ignorance and lack of imagination, (something I see every day) are dealt with promptly, swiftly and severely. This story has been noted for its vehement disapproval of censorship.
There are not many works of literature that can be compared with The Martian Chronicles, as it is a very unusual kind of book. Its style is rather akin to that of a prose poem, which is how many people have chosen to interpret this work of Bradbury's. Although this type of book may not be common in mainstream fiction, it is more common in the genre of science-fiction.
Bradbury's name has always been synonymous with the genre of science-fiction and although his heavy use of adjectives and metaphors may seem slightly wearing today, he remains one of the most sophisticated writers in the genre. Or in any genre, for that matter. In a style that is precise yet eerily poetic, Bradbury manages to describe, with all the grace and imagination of a master, this utterly alien yet strangely familiar world.
He is quite fond of similes, using them often in his transitional passages. He describes "housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets" (Bradbury 1) in Rocket Summer, or the landing of the rockets in The Locusts:
"The rockets came like drums, beating in the night. The rockets came like locusts, swarming and settling in blooms of rosy smoke." (Bradbury 78).
A lot of the poetic language in The Martian Chronicles is rich with symbolism. This gives it the quality of allegory, which helps to add depth to Bradbury's fiction.
For instance, when Bradbury compares the rockets to a swarm of pesky locusts, he helps to enhance his theme of the dangers of reckless exploration.
What readers remember most about The Martian Chronicles is what I have just described: complex, surrealistic passages that create Bradbury's dream-like, wondrous and fantastical vision of the fourth planet beyond the sun.
Summary of The Martian Chronicles
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 dazzling stars in the vast Bradbury universe, none shines more luminous than these masterful chronicles of Earth's settlement of the fourth world from the sun.
Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams and metaphor-of crystal pillars and fossil seas-where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn -first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars ... and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.
Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a classic work of twentieth-century literature whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time's passage. In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster once again enthralls, delights and challenges us with his vision and his heart-starkly and stunningly exposing in brilliant spacelight our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.
From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they've displaced.
Bradbury's quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In "The Silent Towns," the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of "the other," yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art. --Blaise Selby
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