Review Tuesday: The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

One day I was taking down the trash from my office and saw on top of the stack of recyclables was The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Lately I've had great interest in these classics of science fiction literature, so I took it with me.

This book is really a collection of short stories written from about 1948 - 1956. The common theme in the stories is that in a post World War Two world, with the Cold War in high gear, and the introduction of the Atom Bomb, mankind's future was bleak. So humans reached out to our nearest inhabitable neighbor, Mars, to colonize. The stories take place starting in the late 1990s and spans the years to 2026.

As you read this you might get the feeling you're reading a script for teh Twilight Zone. You wouldn't be too far off. Bradbury was a writer on that show and teh twists and ironies are all present on this book too.

Living in the year 2010, it's very interesting to see what one view of the future looked like during the 1940s and 50s. In the book, it was believed that around the turn of the century a devastating war would break out and ultimately destroy the planet. The goal was to get away from the planet BEFORE the war, and save your skin. From the various tales you can glean bits of info that a savage war raged for years and encompassed the entire planet. It wasn't some awesome atomic firefight one-shot-deal, but a long drawn out war that took years. The first victim was the entire continent of Australia, which blew up in a stock-pile accident. But in all, it appears that humans were quite succesful at wiping culture and technology off of the planet. Don't think the settlers on Mars got away with their lives. They went back when the first flash exploded.

Don't worry, my scant details don't give all too much away. In fact, Earth's fate is only one little aspect of the book. There are many characters and tales being described and that's the journey of the book. The wild ride of Earthilings invading Mars, destroying all life and trying to make it familiar instead of appreciating it for is.

There's a lot to this fairly quick read. It's very enjoyable and keeps you tuned in to see what happens next. Of course, through all the darkness, the book does end with the beginning of a new day. A must for a fan of classic science-fiction literature.