I just finished reading The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. I’ve always liked old scifi, but i thought this one was way above average. First Bradbury book i’ve read (although i’ve watched Fahrenheit 911 
– enjoyed that too).
Very highly recommended.
agree - although I read a recent book of his (I can’t recall the title, it was about some weird family of vampires or something) and it was terrible.
Missy
There was a made-for-TV miniseries of the Martian Chronicles in the late 70s/early 80s with Rock Hudson and Darren McGavin. Rock Hudson was one of the first settlers. Darren McGavin was the guy who wound up with a Martian sandship.
I always liked the title “Dark, they were, and golden-eyed.”
I have a book with a lot of his stories named “The Stories of Ray Bradbury” - has all the Martian stories and the vampire ones, and the one where the sea monster hears the foghorn from a lighthouse, and the one where the automated house keeps on working even though everyone has been killed in a nuclear attack.
Now I’m going to have to go read it again!
I have always been a bit sad that this never got the
movie it deserved.
I know I’m weird – this one and Asimov’s I, Robot never did a thing for me. (Nor did the Foundation trilogy for that matter.) I just tried to re-read I, Robot a few months ago after several people on this board raved about it. I don’t think I got more than 20 pages into it. I did like a couple of Asimov’s other robot books, and I still think The Gods Themselves is one of the best SF books ever. I know I liked a couple of Bradbury books in addition to Fahrenheit 451, but can’t recall them right now.
Gimme (pre-Stranger) Heinlein or (pre-cancer) Zelazny any day.
Bradbury’s written some fantastic books - Something Wicked This Way Comes, Farenheit 451, Dandelion Wine (I read it every year), and The White Whale which is about his writing the script for Moby Dick while living in Ireland.
Eric
That one was in my high school English book, I loved it.
http://www.plazaboricua.com/anil/archivo/fabulas2/cuentos/august2026.html
Bradbury’s been my hero since the 1960s.
When I read his fairly recent “Green Shadows, White Whale,” loosely about writing the screenplay for Moby Dick while living with director John Houston in Ireland (nearly killed him or drove him crazy), I could see the origins of many of his short stories set in Ireland.
Anyway, I set myself a task: Read “Moby Dick,” watch the movie he wrote the screenplay for, and go back and re-read “Green Shadows…” I was commuting by train to a truly awful job at that time and Melville was my constant companion. I finished my task and send The Man my copy (with return postage) of “Green Shadows. White Whale” and told him what I’d done.
I won’t elaborate (it would be bragging), but he inscribed my copy with a very satisfying note.
In fact, it’s possible I prodded him into writing the book featuring the “Family.” Sorry you didn’t like it. Uncle Einar (with green wings) was always one of my most favorite characters.
That goes a long way to explain why everyone in north Alabama where I grew up thought I was unforgivably weird.
Best to all,
M
The movie “Illustrated Man” with Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom got me interested in Bradbury’s style. I think Martian Chronicles is one of his best.
Mr. SS
Bradbury is one of my all time favorite Sci-Fi writers. I remember that TV mini-series, and thought it good, but I really wanted to see a well done feature film of the stories… there’s enough material there to do plenty of sequels.
How very cool! 
Read recently there’s a film of his brilliant short story “A Sound of Thunder” in production, slated for this spring, perhaps..? Ben Kingsley plays Hatton. Looks as though Bradbury had at least some creative control; a director was fired because he wanted to leave the butterfly out of the film (unbelievable), so I’m cautiously optimistic about it; though, judging from the trailer, the film goes well beyond the scope (and lovely simplicity) of Bradbury’s plot. Here’s a link to the trailer: http://asoundofthunder.warnerbros.com/
cool trailer! want to see that movie!
Thanks for the link. Watched the trailer. Oh, well…
I thought Bradbury was at his best when he was young.
He had a sort of discipline that constrained the sentimental
strain that runs through many of his stories–the effect
was sometimes extraordinary. He rather lost that
discipline later, I thought.
You recall the crews of the first two Earth ships to Mars
are murdered by the Martians, who are shape shifters–
in ‘Mars is Heaven’ they greet the crew members
in the form of their dead relatives; the Captains brother,
killed in WWII embraces him. And when the crew members
say ‘How are you here?’ the Martians respond: ‘Mars is heaven.
Come home, Ma and Pa are waiting for you…’
The third Earth ship arrives and finds all the Martians
dead of chicken pox–well, not quite all. Some remain,
isolated and lonely. As the
colonization of now vacant Mars continues, finally old
people from Earth come to Mars. An elderly couple
buys a house in the desert. One night they hear a sound at the screen
door and find their five year old son standing there,
who died 40 years before… “Who are you?” they ask
him. "Please don’t ask’ the child begs them. THAT would have been
a movie, without lots of special effects and explosions.
Telepaths, not shape shifters.
Yes, the story about the boy is incredible. My other favourite is about the last man on mars driving all over the planet to find the last woman, and then…
Most stories are like really good Twilight Zone episodes.
I could have done without the Edgar Alan Poe story, but i guess it fits in with the theme of taking over other people’s identities.
To me, the book was made more poignant against the background of the American adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Telepaths AND shape shifters, yes?
Yes the last man on Mars driving all over the planet to find
the last woman was actually a hoot.
What is the Poe story? Please remind me.
It’s been awhile.
There’s one where the captain of the third ship
returns to Mars after the war on earth and finds
the ship’s engineer, an elderly felllow who stayed behind, living with his
wife and two children. The engineer is delighted and excited to
see the captain and the crew, shows them his
workshop, all the things he’s been working on over
the years. Then, in the midst of the festivities,
the engineer suddenly dies of a heart attack.
Next day, after he’s buried, the captain says to
the lovely wife: ‘I couldn’t help notice that you
haven’t shed any tears over your husband’s death;
nor have your children.’
‘He didn’t make us so that we could be sad’ she answers.
I think they have the appearance of changing shape, but it’s caused by their power to project what they think into other people’s minds. I think they explained it in the episode where the second crew gets stuck in the insane asylum. I could be wrong, though.
The Poe story was the one about the guy who created a duplicate of the “House of Usher” where he invited all of the people from the decency police, and one by one got them killed in Poe-ish situations and replaced by robots.
Thanks!