One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows blocked and the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.
And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open.
Description:
Maybe you are tired of shiny, techno-crazy science fiction stories of gee-whiz gizmos, rigorous space travel, and all-knowing computers. Maybe you just want some good stories with solid characters facing commonplace challenges in their everyday lives on a realistic world -- albeit in the future on another planet.
How satisfying it would be to read about people we can identify with, feel their conflicting choices, and struggle along with them as they face hope and fear in their changing, yet human world.
Step up to the classic sci-fi/fantasy short stories that make up The Martian Chronicles, written by the absolute master of science fantasy, Ray Bradbury. Bradbury, when first starting his writing career, was inspired by Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio which depicted a small town with people sitting on front porches, experiencing the thoughts and conflicts of humanity. Bradbury in his new introduction to The Martian Chronicles, relates that he felt "If I could write a book half as fine as this, but set it on Mars, how incredible that would be."
So he started jotting down his ideas about the exploration and subsequent life on Mars for its native denizens and newcomers. Stringing them together at the urging of an editor, The Martian Chronicles were born.
Strap yourself in to follow the series of events that chronicle the exploration of Mars by Earthlings. From the opening story, "Rocket Summer," where the first man blasts off for Mars, through early encounters with the ancient Martian civilization, colonization, conflict, and the final Martians, each story presents a human response to the hope and reality offered by Mars.
In these stories, some people go to Mars to be the first to step foot on a foreign land, some to conquer, some to learn from the ancients, others to find freedom, and still others to create a new, better Earth. Astronauts, explorers, immigrants, and minorities all journey to the planet with different ideas ... and each must deal with the world they actually encounter and how they will respond to it.
Of course, this emigration affects things back on their home world, Earth, as Mars travel becomes more available to larger populations after the initial settlement period. And the Martian civilization, too, faces these newcomers with intelligence, fear, and uncertainty. The interaction between these two cultures provides challenging situations and unexpected actions by both.
This is a great book for adults, young adult readers, and even younger children wanting exciting stories to be read to them. Always well-written and challenging, each story grips and entertains from the start with unique situations and outcomes. I love this collection as a satisfying, fascinating look at the nature of Man and how Earth's inhabitants might employ their strengths and weaknesses in their interactions with the Red Planet.
Highly recommend to anyone with a dream of a new life in a new location, even if it might be on Mars.
Fictionalized history told in progressive short stories of the development of robots, from an early nanny/baby-sitter to miner on distant planets, to one who runs for president. Each story is infused with a personality that is unique and strangely real, giving each short story a "humanized" look at this possible human/technology world.
Clarke, Arthur C. The Collected Short Stories of Arthur C. Clark
My absolute favorite collection of science fiction stories. Each on original in content, characters, plot, and writing style, with impossible-to-predict solutions to conflicts and human heroics and shortcomings. If you only read one sci-fi short story collection (afterThe Martian Chronicles, of course), this is it.
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