The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions)

The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions)
by Ray Bradbury

The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions)
List Price: $7.99
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

Author: Ray Bradbury
Edition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1984-06-01
ISBN: 0553278223
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Spectra
Product features:

Book Reviews of The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions)

Book Review: Reviews from Brizmus Blogs Books
Summary: 3 Stars

Well, first off, I wish that I had known before I started that this was actually going to be a series of short stories with very little link between them all. I might have saved myself the trouble of reading it, since in the end, I really didn't enjoy it.
I'll admit that it was very well written and imaginative, nothing short of what one would expect from Ray Bradbury. The Mars of the future that he creates is one that is easy to believe in (or would be if we didn't already know it wasn't like that), and the changes it goes through over time are almost what is to be expected, sometimes a daring leap away from the expected.
So it wasn't bad. It was just boring. Most of the time. The occasional story that was an exciting, thought provoking, and adventuresome escape from reaility. For eight whole pages, it was easy to forget that I am living today, in 2010, in a world in which Mars is uninhabited by human or other. I would get so into that Mars, not wanting it to end. . .
And then the next story would start, and I would have to force myself to read, to not fall asleep, for a good 70 or 80 pages until the next 8 pages of joy would sneak up on me.
The prose was lyrical and beautiful, and Ray Bradbury's ideas are fresh and different (especially, I imagine, back in the 1940's when it was written). It's really just such a pity that it had to go off and be boring. Because it could have been great. It had potential.

I'd love to give the titles of the short stories I particularly enjoyed, but I read the book in French. I'll translate, but I don't know if they'll translate the same way.
-The Summer of the Spaceship (L'ete de la fusee)
-The Men from Earth (Les hommes de la Terre)
-Balls of Fire (Les Ballons de Feu)
-Usher House (Usher II)
-High Up in the Sky (Tout La-Haut dans le ciel)
-Picnic in A Million Years (Picque-Nicque dans un million d'annees)

Summary of The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions)

Collection of stories about man's attempts to explore and settle Mars.
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

Classics Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Classics Books
A Rumor of War ImageA Rumor of War
by Philip Caputo
Ballantine Books; Published: 1978-05-12; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Anticancer: A New Way of Life ImageAnticancer: A New Way of Life
by David Servan-Schreiber
BBC Audiobooks America; Published: 2008-09-02; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops: $29.95
Halls of Fame ImageHalls of Fame
by John D'Agata
Graywolf Press; Published: 2001-01-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops: $24.95
Gift from the Sea ImageGift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Pantheon; Published: 1991-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops: $9.95
The Blue Castle (Voyageur Classics) ImageThe Blue Castle (Voyageur Classics)
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Dundurn Press; Published: 2007-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.00
Mandy ImageMandy
by Julie Edwards
New Millennium Audio; Published: 2002-02; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $25.20
The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics) ImageThe Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)
by Alexandre Dumas p?re
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-05-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops: $15.00
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths ImageD'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Ingri Parin D'Aulaires, Edgar Parin D'Aulaires, Ingri D'Aulaires, Edgar D'Aulaires
Airplay Inc; Published: 2000; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $185.00
Les Miserables Volume Five: Jean Valjean ImageLes Miserables Volume Five: Jean Valjean
by Victor Hugo
CreateSpace; Published: 2009-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Lonesome Dove: A Novel ImageLonesome Dove: A Novel
by Larry McMurtry
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2000-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.09
Price in other shops: $32.00
Similar Books and other products
Farewell Summer ImageFarewell Summer
by Ray Bradbury
Harper; Published: 2007-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.47
Price in other shops: $7.99
Bradbury Classic Stories 1: From the Golden Apples of the Sun and R Is for Rocket (Grand Master Editions) ImageBradbury Classic Stories 1: From the Golden Apples of the Sun and R Is for Rocket (Grand Master Editions)
by Ray Bradbury
Spectra; Published: 1990-04-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.22
Price in other shops: $7.99
Documents of Texas History ImageDocuments of Texas History
by Ernest Wallace, David M. Vigness, George B. Ward
Texas State Historical Assn; Published: 2002-12-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.19
Price in other shops: $24.95
Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece: Mythology's Great Tales of Valor and Romance ImageGods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece: Mythology's Great Tales of Valor and Romance
by W. H. D. Rouse
NAL Trade; Published: 2001-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.65
Price in other shops: $14.00
Fahrenheit 451 ImageFahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury
Ballantine Books; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.96
Price in other shops: $6.99
The October Country ImageThe October Country
by Ray Bradbury, Joe Mugnaini
William Morrow; Published: 1999-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.19
Price in other shops: $15.95
Dandelion Wine ImageDandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
William Morrow; Published: 1999-02-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops: $18.99
Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales ImageBradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
by Ray Bradbury
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.64
Price in other shops: $17.99
Something Wicked This Way Comes ImageSomething Wicked This Way Comes
by Ray Bradbury
Eos; Published: 1999-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.27
Price in other shops: $18.99
The Illustrated Man ImageThe Illustrated Man
by Ray Bradbury
William Morrow; Published: 1997-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.95
Price in other shops: $18.99