The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles book cover

The Martian Chronicles (alternate title in the UK: The Silver Locusts) is a 1950 science fiction book by Ray Bradbury that chronicles the colonization of Mars by refugee humans from a troubled Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists. The book is a short story collection, containing Bradbury stories originally published in the late 1940s in science fiction magazines. For publication, the stories were loosely woven together with a series of short, interstitial vignettes.

The Martian Chronicles was made into a TV miniseries in 1979.

The following chapter, Ylla, moves the story to Mars. Ylla, a Martian woman trapped in an unromantic marriage, dreams of the coming astronauts through her powers of telepathy. Her husband, though he pretends to deny the reality of the dreams, becomes very jealous. He kills the two-man expedition as soon as they arrive.

The Summer Night (August 1999)

This short vignette tells of Martians throughout Mars who, like Ylla, begin subconsciously picking up stray thoughts from the humans aboard the Second Expedition's ship, which is approaching their planet.

The Earth Men (August 1999)

Tells of the "Second Expedition" to Mars. The astronauts arrive to find the Martians to be strangely unresponsive to their presence. The one exception to this is a group of Martians in a building who greet them with a parade. Several of the Martians in the building claim to be from Earth or from other planets of the solar system, and the captain slowly realizes that the Martian gift for telepathy allows others to view the hallucinations of the insane, and that they have been placed in an asylum. The Martians they have encountered all believed that their unusual appearance was a projected hallucination. Because the "hallucinations" are so detailed and the captain refuses to admit he is not from Earth, Mr. Xxx, his psychiatrist, declares him incurable and kills him. When the "imaginary" crew does not disappear as well, Mr. Xxx shoots and kills them. Finally, as the "imaginary" rocket remains in existence, Mr. Xxx concludes that he too must be crazy and shoots himself. The ship of the Second Expedition is sold as scrap at a junkyard.

The Taxpayer (March 2000)

This story is set in March of 2000, and it concerns a man who insists that he has a right to be let onto the next rocket to Mars, because he is a taxpayer. He insists on being let on the ship so strongly because the Earth will be having a great war soon, and no one wants to be around when it happens. He is not allowed on the ship.

The Third Expedition (April 2000)

The next chapter, The Third Expedition recounts the arrival and demise of the third group of Americans to land on Mars. This time the Martians are prepared for the Earthlings. When the crew arrives, they see a typical town of the 1920s filled with the long lost loved ones of the astronauts. The next morning, sixteen coffins exit sixteen houses and are buried. These opening chapters are the strangest of the whole collection and conclude any detailed discussion of Martians and their abilities.

(This chapter was originally a short story titled Mars is Heaven, set in the 1960s and dealing with characters nostalgic for their childhoods in the midwestern United States in the 1920s. In the Chronicles version, which takes place forty years later but which still relies upon the 1920s nostalgia, the story contains a brief paragraph about medical treatments that slow the aging process, so that the characters can be traveling to Mars in the 2000s but still remember the 1920s.)

And the Moon Be Still as Bright (June 2001)

The next chapter, —And the Moon Be Still as Bright opens in June 2001 with the men of the Fourth Expedition gathering firewood against the cold Martian evening. The scientists have found that all of the Martians have died of chicken pox (brought by the first expeditions). The men, except for the archeologist Spender and Captain Wilder, become more boisterous. Spender loses his temper when one of his crewmates starts dropping empty wine bottles into a clear blue canal. He knocks him into the canal. When questioned by his captain, Spender replies "We'll rip it up, rip the skin off, and change it to fit ourselves...We Earth Men have a talent for ruining big, beautiful things," referring to Mars. He leaves the rest of the landing party to explore Martian ruins.

Note that, in some editions of the novel, the two stories relating to Jeff Spender have been combined as one.*

The Settlers (August 2001)

Spender returns to the rest of the expedition. He carries a Martian gun and shoots several of his crewmates, saying he is the last Martian. Captain Wilder approaches under a white flag and has a short discussion with Spender during which the archaeologist explains that if he manages to kill off the expedition it may delay human colonization of the planet for a few more years, possibly long enough that the expected nuclear war on Earth will protect Mars from human colonization completely. Although he somewhat agrees with Spender's attitude toward colonization, Captain Wilder opposes his methods. He shoots Spender in the chest before he has the opportunity to kill anyone else. The captain later knocks out the teeth of Parkhill, another expedition member, when he disrespectfully damages some Martian ruins. Many of the characters of the Fourth Expedition — Parkhill, Captain Wilder, and Hathaway — re-appear in later stories. This is also the first story that displays a central theme of The Martian Chronicles. It acts as a commentary on the Western frontier of the United States and its colonization, using the colonization of Mars as the analogy. Like Spender, Bradbury's message is that some types of colonization are right and others are wrong. Trying to recreate Earth is viewed as wrong, but an approach that respects the fallen civilization that you are replacing is right.

The Green Morning (December 2001)

The next several chapters describe the transformation of Mars into another Earth. Small towns similar to those on Earth begin to grow. In The Green Morning, one man makes it his mission to plant thousands of trees on the red plains so oxygen levels will increase. Due to some property of the martian soil, the trees he plants grow into a mighty forest in a single night.

The Locusts (February 2002)

This vignette concerns the swift colonization of Mars. The title refers to the rockets and settlers which quickly spread across all of Mars.

Night Meeting (August 2002)

This story begins with a conversation between an old man and a young traveler, Tomas Gomez. The older man explains that he came to Mars because he appreciates the new and novel. Even everyday things have become amazing to him once again. He has returned full circle to his childhood. Later, the Tomas encounters a Martian. Each can see the Mars he is accustomed to. The young man sees ruins where the Martian sees a thriving city. Neither knows if he precedes the other in time, but Bradbury makes the point that any one civilization is ultimately fleeting.

The Shore (October 2002)

This short vignette begins by comparing Mars to a shore, and humans to waves. It goes on to tell briefly of the first settlers, and their status as loners and outcasts on Earth.

Interim (February 2003)

This story describes the building of a Martian town by colonists and how much it was made to resemble an average Midwestern American town. The town was said to have appeared to have been swept up by a tornado on Earth, and brought to Mars.

The Musicians (April 2003)

In this story, the Earth colonists deliberately attempt to exterminate the Martian cities. Interestingly, the term "Firemen" is used to describe those who set fires, as opposed to those who extinguish them, as in Fahrenheit 451. This alludes to later stories, with "Moral Climates" and the burning of literature — similar, once more, to Fahrenheit 451.

Way in the Middle of the Air (June 2003)

In this story, set on Earth, African Americans plan to emigrate to Mars, and are delighted to imagine that the days of lynching are over for them. It depicts the way the American South thought about blacks.

The Naming of Names (2004-05)

This story is about later waves of immigrants to Mars, and how the geography of Mars is now largely named after the people from the first four expeditions, rather than after physical descriptions of the terrain. As well as colonialism, that tends to cover over the past and converts everything to their own dreams.

Usher II (April 2005)

Usher II tells of Bradbury’s and other writers’ fear of censorship. A literary expert named William Stendahl retreats to Mars and builds his image of the perfect manse, complete with mechanical bats and creaky door soundtracks. When the Moral Climate Monitors come to visit, he arranges to kill each in a manner reminiscent of a different horror masterpiece, including Edgar Allan Poe's The Cask of Amontillado. When his persecutors are dead, the house sinks into the lake as in Poe’s short story, The Fall of the House of Usher. Here, Bradbury’s message is simple: what goes around comes around, and ironic revenge is sweeter still.

The Old Ones (August 2005)

This story indicates how hospitable and welcoming Mars is now, in which the elderly migrate too.

The Martian (September 2005)

LaFarge and his wife Anna have forged a new life for themselves, but they still miss their dead son Tom. When then an alien, with the ability to appear as their dead son returns. They soon travel to town together, causing the Martian to shapeshift to all the people's most-lost individuals, causing him to eventually spazm and die.

The Luggage Store (November 2005)

The story of Mars and its inhabitants is continued in a discussion between a priest and a luggage storeowner. Nuclear war has begun on Earth, and the priest predicts that most of the colonists will return to help. He proves right and the store is sold out overnight.

The Off Season (November 2005)

In another place, we again meet Parkhill.

The Watchers (November 2005)

This story is about the colonists witnessing a nuclear war on Earth, from Mars. They immediately return out of concern for their friends and families.

The Silent Towns (December 2005)

Almost everybody has left Mars to go to Earth, but Walter Gripp remains behind in the mountains. He is lonely, and tries to find other people. He finally contacts one other person on the phone, a woman named Genevieve Selsor, and he rushes to meet her. But when he meets her, he finds her unattractive and insipid, and decides he'd rather spend his life alone.

The Long Years (April 2026)

Hathaway is living alone on Mars. His family has died, and he has replaced them with robots. Captain Wilder finally returns to Mars to offer him a rescue back to Earth, but Hathaway dies before he can depart. The crew plans to leave, but decides not to leave the robot family "alive." One of the crew returns to the house with a pistol, but shortly after returns, sweating, having been unable to bring himself to kill the robotic family even knowing that they were not truly human.

There Will Come Soft Rains (August 2026)

The story concerns a household in California after the nuclear war has wiped out the population. Though the family is dead, the robots that take care of the family still function. The reader can still learn a great deal about what the family was like by how the robots continue on in their functions. The title of the story comes from a poem that the house reads once a day, also titled "There Will Come Soft Rains." The theme of the poem is that nature will survive after humanity is gone, but the theme of the story is that through radiation humanity has completely sterilized life on Earth, perhaps forever.

This is one of the most famous short stories in science fiction.

The Million-Year Picnic (October 2026)

A family takes a “fishing trip” escaping from war-torn Earth to Mars. Says Timmy’s father, “I was looking for Earthian logic, common sense, good government, peace, and responsibility… It’s not there anymore.” Later he gifts his boys with the world. And he introduces them to Martians — their own reflections in a canal.

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