The Martian Chronicles

By: Ray Bradbury

Narrated by: Mark Boyett

Mars was a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in wave.... Each wave different, and each wave stronger.

Ray Bradbury is a storyteller without peer, a poet of the possible, and, indisputably, one of America's most beloved authors. In a much-celebrated literary career that has spanned six decades, he has produced an astonishing body of work: unforgettable novels, including Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes; essays, theatrical works, screenplays and teleplays; The Illustrated Mein, Dandelion Wine, The October Country, and numerous other superb short story collections. But of all the dazzling stars in the vast Bradbury universe, none shines more luminous than these masterful chronicles of Earth's settlement of the fourth world from the sun.

Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a classic work of 20th-century literature whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time's passage. In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster once again enthralls, delights, and challenges us with his vision and his heart - starkly and stunningly exposing in brilliant spacelight our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.

©1945, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 Ray Bradbury (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Stirring.

Dated, yet timeless; beautifully narrated. I was almost disappointed when it ended. I want to somehow know more.

Classic still holds up

This is one of those books I always meant to read somehow never got around to it. It’s nice to see that it’s a classic for a reason. Even though it’s about Mars and science-fiction, it still holds up. The stories are about people and sad to say, people don’t change much. This is what they call a “fix up“ which is basically a series of short stories with a similar theme that were tied together In a way that makes sense. Well done Ray Bradbury. Wish you were still here.

Enchanting Narrator

The narrator is so talented. Mark Boyett brings the many different characters and perspectives of, humans, martians, men, women, old, young, southern, East Coast, robotic, mechanical, bureaucratic, blue collar and professional to life in a way that compliments timeless literature and questions of governance, God, humanity and science that span eternity.

Strange is the best way I can describe it.

I usually like strange, but this was strange in a disorganized kind of way. Not really sure what the main story was or why Earth was synonymous with America or why all the characters were pretty much just various White hicks, save the one Englishman (who was a disturbed) and black slaves in the year 2020-something. Confused.

Great

Loved it. Parts are noticeably dated in regards to the social climate of the 1950's, but still a wonderful read (or listen in this case).

Mars Revisited

I've heard individual stories reenacted but never the book as a whole. Had to finish once I started. The dates are eerily close to the present. Excellent narration.

Imaginitive and horrifying

As with most of Bradbury's works, it's imaginitive and offers a look at the flip side of things. Kind of like an episode of The Twilight Zone.

Deep and at the same time educational

This is a book that puts a lot of our history in a format that can be discussed with a large group of teens. Yeah, it could be broken up in pieces and a college atmosphere. Interpreting different aspects remind and life of what the possibilities could be in the future if life was to start again on another planet. Would be succeed, how many would survive, Who would survive and if there was life on the other planet… Would we destroy them as we have been doing on our own planet. It’s pretty deep and a lot could be discussed from this book in many aspects.

timeless

it is a beautifully woven collection of the vision of the future from someone in the 1940's. obviously it's not going to be able to hold up to the "political correctness" of 2021. to give this incredible work of literature one star, because people got offended at a certain word, obviously goes to show that the problems author touched on exist to this day. it probably says more about the reader than the book, if they cannot see past a certain line.
ironically, one of the tales revolves around banning and burning of the books, films and arts that do not fit the new "moral climate". sounds like Ray was truly ahead of his time; this one chapter alone is probably worth the entire book given how people of today expect the past to reflect current values and if not, we must pretend that it never existed and erase the history. in a way it's incredible how accurate these predictions have become.

Great, Imaginative, Essential Readind/Listening

Slow in some spots, but the incredible imagination of the stories makes up for it.