Book Review: The Martian Chronicles

In leaving their home planet, the colonizers from Earth may have escaped bad debt or trouble with the law — but the human characteristics of greed and pride were not left behind. It isn't long before these men overrun the Martian culture and try to turn the planet into a clone of Earth, with the same problems they tried to escape. And their ties to Earth prove strong, as a war on the home planet eventually brings most colonizers home — but not before they've left their mark on Mars. I particularly enjoyed the nod to Edgar Allen Poe, in an episode condemning censorship and ignorance.

In defense of the humans, it seems that Mars is not always the most hospitable planet in the galaxy. Only a few chapters feature Martian characters, and although mostly peaceful, they're sometimes on the attack. Whether that's purely driven by their defense against the planet's new inhabitants is not completely clear; I'm not sure we can reasonably conclude that it's just a battle of good (Martian) vs. evil (Earth men). Bradbury also makes the point that the colonizers were largely American, and some of his characters seem to tap into the old frontier spirit of the gold rush days. Is that seen as purely American, now — that sort of "land grab"/"race to the riches" attitude? I can't help but think that there must have been many opportunities in history for that kind of mentality.

This book was not what I expected. I assumed that it was your usual novel, with a linear plot and small, related set of characters. Instead, the structure of this book probably better conveys its moral lesson through its framework of loosely related, non-sequential scenes which show us many different facets of the central conflict. I also thought it would be an adventurous space romp, heavy on the scientific wonder and light on the things most familiar to us — a fine addition to the silly and slightly hysterical 1950s sci-fi craze. Instead I found it to be a thoughtful cautionary tale whose thesis applies just as easily to any episode of colonization in our human history, past or present, and to the values we express even today.

Writer Clifton Fadiman offers his analysis in a brief but informative prefatory note, where he concludes that Bradbury's point is that "the place for space travel is in a book, that human beings are still moral and mental children who cannot be trusted with the terrifying toys they have by some tragic accident invented." I agree with the latter part of that statement, but not with the former; I think it's not innovation or exploration Bradbury cautions us against, but the idea of poor stewardship — he doesn't trust mankind to restrain itself or learn from its history, and shows it doomed to repeat its self-destruction even on a new planet.

Top-notch writing, gripping from first to last. The only drawback: I wish it had a little more science in it — or at least didn't pretend like Martian atmosphere was identical to Earth's. I won't usually choose to read science-fiction, but this may start me on a Bradbury kick. 3.5 stars (no pun intended!) out of 4.0.

I also just found out that there was a Martian Chronicles miniseries released in 1980, starring Rock Hudson and Roddy MacDowall. According to the IMDb, Ray Bradbury didn't much like this adaptation. It's available on DVD.