The Martian Chronicles

Book burning references in Bradbury publications: 4/4. Bradbury is the GOAT of book burning.

Mars is an old and sparsely-populated world of psychic sensitive humanoids. An old culture adapted to the windswept, dry, lonely surface. Thousands of years of development all come crashing down when the humanoids from Earth arrive, first with small numbers in exploratory craft, then in wave after wave of hopeful souls seeking a better life. Few of them even know much about the Martians outside of their mysterious ruins that dot the landscape. The chickenpox virus, brought to Mars by the invaders, mutated in their bodies and turned 99% of them to ash and bone.

Below the surface of these old and occasionally dated short stories (there's really only one stinker), there's a surprising amount of venom and contempt for American values and culture that is couched in tone that this decisively melancholic. The towns and structures that the Americans make on Mars are quick to fade and disappear, where as the ruins of the Martians remain as they always have. Despite all of the defacing that the earthlings do, no matter how many of their names they attach to its features, the real Mars persists under the surface, waiting for the blight upon it to be scrubbed clean. It's refreshing to read material that's the better part of one hundred years old that is so passionately anti-colonial.

It's also always nice to read a short story collection that has some amount of narrative through line. I tend to forget a lot of short stories, even if they're good, because they don't leave enough of an impression. They don't have the weight that a good novel does. Bradbury attempted this slightly in The Illustrated Man, but here the unification between the stories is really strong.

Regardless of how good this is, and how consistently well he writes, there's a certain level of disconnect between me and Bradbury that I can't get past. I think I'm put off by his predictability, and I'm not sure if I'm always thrilled about his lyrical prose. He also falls into the trap of twist endings to his short stories that a lot of writers in this period had. Don't get me wrong, I think he's a great writer, but I don't think he will ever move into my list of favorite authors.