The Martian Chronicles - Softcover
Synopsis
The strange and wonderful tale of man's experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions.The classic work that transformed Ray Bradbury into a household name. Written in the age of the atom when America and Europe optimisitcally viewed the discovery of life on Mars as inevitable, Bradbury's 1940s short stories of a brutal, stark and unforgiving martian landscape were as shocking and visionary as they were insightful. 'The Martian Chronicles' tells the story of humanity's repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a pin dot. Those few that survived found no welcome. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up. More rockets arrived from Earth, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them -- and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.
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Review
From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury's stories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinkling pitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas. But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans. Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars. The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets. Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they've displaced.
Bradbury's quiet exploration of a future that looks so much like the past is sprinkled with lighter material. In "The Silent Towns," the last man on Mars hears the phone ring and ends up on a comical blind date. But in most of these stories, Bradbury holds up a mirror to humanity that reflects a shameful treatment of "the other," yielding, time after time, a harvest of loneliness and isolation. Yet the collection ends with hope for renewal, as a colonist family turns away from the demise of the Earth towards a new future on Mars. Bradbury is a master fantasist and The Martian Chronicles are an unforgettable work of art. --Blaise Selby
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8 1-hour cassettes
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- PublisherFlamingo
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 0006479235
- ISBN 13 9780006479239
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Edition number1
- Number of pages240
- Rating
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The Martian Chronicles
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ISBN 10: 0006479235
ISBN 13: 9780006479239
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The Martian Chronicles (Paperback)
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HarperCollins Publishers, London, 1995
ISBN 10: 0006479235
ISBN 13: 9780006479239
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. The strange and wonderful tale of mans experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions.The classic work that transformed Ray Bradbury into a household name. Written in the age of the atom when America and Europe optimisitcally viewed the discovery of life on Mars as inevitable, Bradburys 1940s short stories of a brutal, stark and unforgiving martian landscape were as shocking and visionary as they were insightful.The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanitys repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a pin dot. Those few that survived found no welcome. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.More rockets arrived from Earth, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame. The strange and wonderful tale of mans experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions.The classic work that transformed Ray Bradbury into a household name. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780006479239
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