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The Martian Chronicles

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The Martian Chronicles

By: Ray Bradbury
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
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About this listen

Man, was a 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.
Anthologies & Short Stories Classics Literary Fiction Psychological Science Fiction Space Opera Solar System Fiction Space Heartfelt Mars Short Story Short Stories Classic Fantasy
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What listeners say about The Martian Chronicles

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Prescient

A wonderful set of cameo stories, taking us from the first exploratory missions, through the settlement of Mars to a post-apocalyptic withdrawal. I love the complete freedom of imagination which the Mars setting allows to Ray Bradbury. His is always a light touch, even though several of the stories are tragic or sad. Yes, on occasion I felt that stories were variations on a theme, yet this is not a novel, and the author avails himself of the chance to roam and return. First published in the 1940’s, this book foreshadows themes which today are at the forefront of our concerns: colonisation, the treatment of minorities, the ugliness of ignorance, the desecration of environments, and our perennial violence. Particularly important are the musings on art in the face of bureaucratic philistinism, in one rather disturbing story.The reading, by Mark Boyett, is very fine.

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ok

it was ok I didn't really like it at all. I wouldn't bother getting it if I was you.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great in places, dated and some dodgy chapters

Having enjoyed the TV mini series many moons ago I thought I'd revisit this. Some faithful reproduction of this book exists in the TV show but large chunks left out quite rightly as they didn't add anything or were too racist. There's some language in one chapter about the diaspora of the global black population to Mars that I found deeply uncomfortable to listen to.

I keep forgetting the book is positively ancient around 70 years and R Bradbury was highlighting, I believe, the racist attitudes of the time.

Narrations is excellent

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Perfection

This is my number one audiobook out of 400. The stories are superb and the narration is sublime. I must have listened at least 20 times. You won’t be disappointed with this.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Martian chronicals

Really great, as good as remember reading reading it years ago. A well thought out and presented book.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed

I don’t read a lot of fiction, 2 or 3 books a year, as I prefer non-fiction but I was disappointed with this. I didn’t realise it was a “fix-up” novel made up of short stories edited together, so to me it was very disjointed and I couldn’t really get caught up in it.

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Relevant today as it was 70 years ago.

Such a beautiful and sad book, wonderfully read by Mark Boyett. More than ever its message is relevant: humanity on course for destroying whatever it encounters, including itself.

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15 people found this helpful

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An excellent science-fiction fix-up novel

It's the first Ray Bradbury book I read/listen and it was amazing. The way it describes the way of life of the martians and how humans from Earth come searching for a better life it's both heartwarming and sad at the same time. A great book.

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Unexpectedly fascinating and entertaining

Do not judge a book by its cover (or publication date).
Fascinating. Beautifully narrated.
Bonus: listen to it with a good headset when going to sleep. I promise you'll find it very meditative.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Odd..

Struggled with this book, it's well written and the narration is great, but the story itself is odd and and as there are no main characters, it's hard to form a bond.. more like a collection of short stories.

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