Martian Chronicles / Ray Bradbury / 268 pgs

This is one of those books I should have read a long long time ago. I think it was on my TBR for over five years. I finally got around to it now and I loved it! Of course, I am overly fond of science fiction short stories, like The Illustrated Man, and this is just classic Bradbury. My favorite stories had a touch of The Twilight Zone in them. All of the stories deal with man's exploration of and subsequent conquering of Mars. You see, Martians live on Mars, and so the first three groups to arrive from Earth, over the course of a couple of years at the turn of the 21st century, are not greeted with the warmest of welcomes.

However, eventually, Earth gains a foothold on Mars and humans start to build their own towns and cities. Trouble back home in the form of impending nuclear war impedes the colonization process, and the books end in the 2030s with life on Mars not being exactly what you would think.

I loved the bite size stories, the chronology as it played out, and the wonderful descriptions of the Martian landscape. The books were written long before we knew of the harsh conditions on Mars, so one must remember that only 70 short years ago, we had no idea what Mars might hold. I highly recommend for anyone who likes classic science fiction like Bradbury, Asimov, or Clarke.