In the year of 2025 and at the age of 35, I finally read my first Ray Bradbury book. This was a long time coming, being drawn to science fiction for as long as I have. “The Martian Chronicles” is not your typical hard science fiction story. Not even that old school science fiction story with ray guns and teleportation and sexy women and green aliens etc., but he takes the underlying motivation behind those stories, adds some fantasy elements and poetic gravitas to invent something timeless.
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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. There was a reason for each
man. They were leaving bad wives or bad towns; they were coming to
find something or leave something or get something, to dig up
something or bury something or leave something alone. They were coming
with small dreams or large dreams or none at all. (118)
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I read somewhere that “The Martian Chronicles” began to change public perception of science fiction and changed critical view of science fiction, and I’m not surprised. He’s addressing themes like nuclear war, genocide, environmental destruction, search for identity, the rise and destructive powers of technology, corporatization, censorship, racism, love and hopes and dreams. A kaleidoscope of ideas!
In addition to that, he’s surprisingly skilled at predicting the future (the space race started a few years later, for instance, and he predicted the smart home!)
In any case, “The Martian Chronicles” (published in 1950) is an ensemble novel about human life on Mars, starting with the first expeditions to the planet in 1999 and our first encounters with Martian life and ending in 2026 (!). Some stories are short, others long, but each have different styles and tones and perspectives: from the theatrical to the heartbreaking, from the dramatic and dystopian to the quirky and cozy.
It’s a fairly quick read, in my opinion, but the impressions are long-lasting.
It’s very entertaining and funny, but it's deep and moving.
It’s thought provoking, but immersive.
It’s obvious and inevitable, but mysterious and unexpected.
The stories are sure to provide a new perspective on humanity: it’s like walking through a house full of mirrors where we see our souls, and you almost start to wonder whether you really are flesh and blood or a mere reflection.
It’s also like looking through a microscope to scrutinize what we’re actually made of
and
a telescope through which we view the rest of the universe and see how small we can be.
His ideas are huge, while his characters are even larger than life.
And so, I think that all of these stories are memorable and could be read separately.
What an achievement!
You know, as long as there are new planets to explore for us, “The Martian Chronicles” will be a relevant read, either in preparation for more space exploration or to reflect on what went wrong after we’ve dropped bombs on each other yet again.
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All down the way the pursued and the pursuing, the dream and the
dreamers, the quarry and the hounds. All down the way the sudden
revealment, the flash of familiar eyes, the cry of an old, old name.
Everyone leaping forward as, like an image reflected from ten thousand
mirrors, ten thousand eyes, the running dream came and went, a
different face to those ahead, those behind, those yet to be met,
those unseen. (219)
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Sist sett
