The Martian Chronicles

US hardcover, 1st edition.

The Martian Chronicles is an anthology of 28 short stories by Ray Bradbury, published on 1950-05-04. The short stories included in it were published in various science fiction magazines between 1946-1950, and, while they're all about the planet Mars, they aren't directly related to each other.

Personal

I decided to read this book because it was ranked so favorably in many reviews, however, I ended up not liking it very much. I finished it sometime in the 2010s.

I don't own this book, but have listened to an audio book read by Peter Marinker.

Review

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• Bradbury deftly employs metaphor and similes, and his descriptions are palpable.
• The various attributes given to the Martians are really quite interesting and creative.
• As is standard fare in sci-fi, issues of philosophy, theology, and ethics were brought up, and each time they gave me new insight in these areas.

Bad

• Bradbury wrote most of these stories independent of each other and it shows. The book tries to impose a coherent narrative on the stories, but they should have been left as stand-alone stories each in their own universe.
• Some of the stories, like The Taxpayer, are extremely short, and don't seem to be relevant.
• As expected from a work of the 1940s, the technology is horribly outdated and misses the mark of the present.
• Several aspects of the stories are more fairy tale than science fiction, like in The Green Morning. They're still interesting, but I prefer my magic and technology in separate universes.

Ugly

• I initially found the book extremely confusing because I had no idea it was a collection of short stories because the audio book didn't include titles! I figured this out on my own a few "chapters" in and then found it more enjoyable, but it took awhile to become accustomed to it.

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