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Title: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Peter Marinker ISBN: 0745173667 Publisher: Chivers Audio Books Pub. Date: March, 1997 Format: Audio Cassette List Price(USD): $54.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.16
Rating: 5
Summary: Neccesary reading for all!
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best Science Fiction Book of All Time
Comment: 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: 2
Summary: I don't understand why this book is so highly regarded.
Comment: I've heard this book referred to as a "masterpiece of science fiction" more than once, often from sources that suggest it isn't simply publishers' hype. After having actually read it, I cannot understand why. Bradbury's characters, by and large, are pretty thin. That might be forgivable if he were writing in order to set a mood or make some kind of interesting point, but his writing style tries too hard to be poetic, and his ideas are mostly pretty trite. There are quite a lot of books that cover colonial insenstivity, nuclear war, and the supposed meaninglessness or self-destructiveness of modern life, and Bradbury's doesn't stick out from the crowd.
This could be partly because the book doesn't fully cohere. I know that it is supposed to be a connection of linked short stories, not a traditional novel, but Bradbury seems to have frequently changed his mind about the most fundamental aspects of his version of Mars. I might not mind this if I thought he was trying to make a point by presenting radically different kinds of Martians at different times, but that wouldn't be consistent with his somewhat superifical handling of many of the other ideas in the book.
There are several stories in The Martian Chronicles that do succeed, and I suspect I would have been more impressed with it if I had read it when it came out. I can certainly see how it could seem impressive to someone who had read little or no science fiction, or literature in general. Still, it didn't have a lasting effect on me, and it looks pretty anemic next to, say, Ursula K. LeGuin or Gene Wolfe. If you are new to science fiction, I would refer you to one of those authors, or to a number of others. They have more interesting things to say than Bradbury.
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Title: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 055327449X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: June, 1989 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 0380729407 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: March, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury ISBN: 0553277537 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 April, 1985 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The October Country by Ray Bradbury, Joe Mugnaini ISBN: 034532448X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: June, 1993 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley ISBN: 0060929871 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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