Helpful Score: 1
I'd read this book before, when I was a kid, and loved it (as had most of the people in the book group.) We decided we'd all like to re-read it. However, the edition I got in the mail was definitely missing at least two of the segments. (Ones I remember MOST CLEARLY and liked the most: "Night Call, Collect," and "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed.") I suppose it is possible that I read them in other Bradbury collections, and just mushed them into The Martian Chronicles in my head, since they fit in perfectly... But I was very disappointed by that.
Other than that however, the book completely lived up to my memories of it - which is unusual. Bradbury's prose is simple and lucid, yet his images are both dreamlike and powerful. The book is in the format of a series of short stories, strung together by even shorter interludes, forming a history of Man's expeditions to and colonization of Mars (starting in 1999!) The writing dates from the 1940s and 1950s, and one can tell. The gender and race relations, and some other elements that Bradbury harshly criticizes through this work are very clearly from this era, and although the portrayal of submissive housewives (and men who explore, women who come later and decorate homes and cook) may rub some the wrong way (although Bradbury is somewhat critical of this, and his women are smarter than their men might give them credit for), what truly comes as a shock is when one realizes, reading the part of the book where a mass emigration of African-Americans occurs, that when Bradbury wrote it, black Americans were still mostly servants, and lynchings were common. This made me feel that maybe our society has progressed.... but then, reading the parts of the book where Bradbury shows space explorers using gorgeous Martian ruins for target practice, and when he says, "We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things" - I realize that maybe we haven't changed that much after all.
Sigh.
I had forgotten that one of my favorite stories from when I was a kid, "There Will Come Soft Rains," was in this collection. (It doesn't take place on Mars, and it's been published in many other anthologies.) Still an incredibly powerful piece, and a wonderful collection of Bradbury's writing.
Other than that however, the book completely lived up to my memories of it - which is unusual. Bradbury's prose is simple and lucid, yet his images are both dreamlike and powerful. The book is in the format of a series of short stories, strung together by even shorter interludes, forming a history of Man's expeditions to and colonization of Mars (starting in 1999!) The writing dates from the 1940s and 1950s, and one can tell. The gender and race relations, and some other elements that Bradbury harshly criticizes through this work are very clearly from this era, and although the portrayal of submissive housewives (and men who explore, women who come later and decorate homes and cook) may rub some the wrong way (although Bradbury is somewhat critical of this, and his women are smarter than their men might give them credit for), what truly comes as a shock is when one realizes, reading the part of the book where a mass emigration of African-Americans occurs, that when Bradbury wrote it, black Americans were still mostly servants, and lynchings were common. This made me feel that maybe our society has progressed.... but then, reading the parts of the book where Bradbury shows space explorers using gorgeous Martian ruins for target practice, and when he says, "We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things" - I realize that maybe we haven't changed that much after all.
Sigh.
I had forgotten that one of my favorite stories from when I was a kid, "There Will Come Soft Rains," was in this collection. (It doesn't take place on Mars, and it's been published in many other anthologies.) Still an incredibly powerful piece, and a wonderful collection of Bradbury's writing.
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