It's somewhat scary when books written almost 70 years ago have something to say about humanity and society that are true to this day.
I was put off by the title that Bradbury gave this book, and that's why it took me so long to read it. My attention span for science fiction and fantasy isn't very long unless I'm enthralled quickly, or the writer is a favorite of mine. When I finally decided to pick it up, I wished I had long ago.
Bradbury manages to tell the stories of so many characters in only 241 pages. He made me care about each of them; a task that every writer has to face, and usually a task that presents itself only at the beginning of the story. I came to love the way he described Mars and those who created the settlements there:
"He looked at the towers of the little clean Martian village, like sharply carved chess pieces lying in the afternoon"
He painted me a picture of a bright, harsh world by day, and a peaceful, gloomy, and shadowy one by night:
"a straight pencil line of canal going violet though a wide shallow valley penned by low, eroded hills, and on until it fell over the sky's edge. And this canal went on and on, through cities that would have rattled like beetles in a dry skull if you shook them"
"There it sat, perfect as a fresh laid egg on the dead sea bottom, the only nucleus of light and warmth in hundreds of miles of lonely wasteland. It was like a heart beating alone in a great dark body"
Not only did Bradbury compel me with his striking descriptions, he forced me to consider some truths about humanity that I usually put on the back burner (otherwise, I'd constantly be in a state of perpetual disquiet). As I tagged along on this incredible journey, the characters revealed things within themselves that we all have; dispositions, weakness, ignorance, ambition.
Spellbinding and unnerving, The Martian Chronicles is a must-read.