the martian chronicles book review

The Martian Chronicles is the second book that I have read from Ray Bradbury and this time around, I wasn't as disappointed and uninterested. It was more intriguing and the story building was quite nice. However, I did have some problems with the story.

This story is about humans landing on Mars and starting a new civilization. In this process, they drive out the Martians and circumstances don't go so easily. Many of the problems in The Martian Chronicles are real. What can humanity do about the Martians? Will they turn the world into an industrialized business? What about those that want to escape poverty and prejudice?

Most of the problems, besides maybe one or two of them, are resolved by shooting someone. Oh, you don't like someone? Take out your gun and shoot them. This way of problem solving became so repetitive after the first three chapters, the first three expeditions, of the book. I wish that Bradbury would come up with another way to resolve things. Nothing is interesting about shooting someone as dark as that might sound.

The chapters in the story, regardless of the amount of shooters there were, were appealing. I liked the chapters "-- And the Moon Be Still as Bright", "The Martian", and "The Silent Towns" because there was a lot going on. Martians were explored and mentioned and their mysterious powers were observed. World building in this story is nice.

According to science fiction fans, The Martian Chronicles is unlike the other stories of the same genre to come out of their era. It is interesting because it has more speculative thought than a ton of action. I can respect Bradbury for doing this.

The Martian Chronicles is definitely better than Dandelion Wine. I wonder if there's a correlation between the Tom in the book versus the one in Dandelion Wine. DW was much boring. I'd choose The Martian Chronicles any day over its other successor (for some reason).