The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury

Absolutely breathtaking, The Martian Chronicles is a classic for a reason. Bradbury, more than anyone else, can make science fiction not seem like sci-fi. He elevates the medium to poetry.

I had read this when I was young, and vaguely remembered some of the stories. But many were pleasant surprises. Even the worst are good, but the best are amazing. My favorites are The Earth Men, Night Meeting, Usher II, The Fire Balloons, and There Will Come Soft Rains. The Earth Men in particular is a great stand-alone story: men finally land on Mars and find a thriving city of Martians … who don't care that they've arrived. Why? It's something you'll never expect. And Usher II is lots of fun, paying homage to Edgar Allen Poe and all the great fantasy writers of the past.

Some of the other chapters are inconsistent, especially in the beginning. The Martians themselves seem to change throughout the book. It's good that they're mysterious, but I prefer the wise, silent Martians to the earlier, weird suburban Martians. And The Off Season is the only story that just didn't make sense to me; I felt like I was missing something. Nonetheless, Bradbury's Mars is vivid and distinct and sticks in a haunting, brilliant red part of your mind …

The rockets set the bony meadows afire, turned rock to lava, turned wood to charcoal, transmuted 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 …

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