The Martian Chronicles / The Illustrated Man / The Golden Apples of the Sun

by Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury ranks as the dean and grand eminence of science fiction. This giant omnibus volume collects three major works by this genre titan: The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, and The Golden Apples of the Sun. It would be nearly impossible to identify three works more central to sci-fi than this trio.

Genres: Science Fiction, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Collections, Literature

885 pages, Leather Bound

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.

Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).

The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".

Reviews

[denudatio_pulpae · Rating 3 out of 5]

„Kiedy już polecieliście daleko w dół, ku Słońcu, dotknęliście go, zostaliście chwilę, a potem zawróciliście skokiem i umknęliście, dokąd wyruszycie teraz?”

Człowiek ilustrowany
Przyszłość w niezbyt jasnych barwach.
Człowiek ilustrowany chce opowiedzieć nam swoje historie, opowieści wypisane na jego skórze na zawsze. Rozwój technologiczny, zdobywanie nowych planet, a człowiek – ten słaby człowiek – nadal taki sam. Niedoskonały.
Fantastyka – chyba nie do końca moja bajka, więc trochę się odbiłam od tej części książki.

Złociste jabłka słońca
Druga część książki zawiera opowiadania o różnej tematyce, które bardziej przypadły mi do gustu. Samotny potwór z zamierzchłych czasów wypełza z morskich odmętów, aby odpowiedzieć na zew przedstawiciela swojego gatunku, którym okazuje się być zbudowana przez człowieka syrena alarmowa. Smuteczek. Takie rzeczy dużo bardziej do mnie trafiają niż marsjańskie klimaty.
6/10

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible collection of Bradbury's masterful storytelling! Contains my favorite "All Summer in a Day." (These Barnes and Noble collectible editions are almost too pretty to read!)

[Jenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is extremely important and I think that everyone should read this regardless of how old you are or your genre preferences. Especially in the Martian Chronicles, there are morals and meaning that everyone should see

[Tommy Demsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know what to say. Bradbury's stories will always be a joy to read. So many different themes and tones and almost every one of them is a little literary gem.

[Jakub Horbów · Rating 3 out of 5]

1. Kroniki marsjańskie 5/5

Nie spodziewałem się tak dobrej lektury, tym bardziej, że zawiodłem się mocno na 451° Fahrenheita. Przede wszystkim nie można tych opowiadań szufladkować jako science-fiction. Bradbury pięknie posługuje się słowem, snuje te kroniki w dosyć wolny, bardzo poetycki, ale za to niesamowicie mądry sposób, obrazując ułomność cywilizacji. Okrutnie aktualna i smutna krytyka antropocentryzmu i obojętności na świat wokół. Gdybym miał wybrać ulubione opowiadanie to byłyby to na pewno "Łagodne spadną deszcze".

2. Człowiek ilustrowany 3/5

Bradbury potrafił uciągnąć temat człowieka ilustrowanego bodaj przez pierwsze trzy opowiadania, później go niestety zaniechał, a szkoda, bo bardzo mi się ta koncepcja spodobała. Część opowiadań jest fantastyczna, przede wszystkim Sawanna (brzmi bardzo znajomo), Kalejdoskop, Rakieciarz i Rakieta. Niesamowite jak daleko w przyszłość autor potrafił zaglądać i przewidzieć wszystkie te same zagrożenia z którymi mierzymy się dzisiaj.

3. Złociste jabłka słońca

Z kolei ten zbiór można podzielić na dwie części, pierwsza to w zasadzie odrzuty z, bądź wprawki do Kronik marsjańskich, żadne z tych opowiadań niczym specjalnym się nie wyróżniło. Z kolei pozostałe to wspaniała, krótka proza traktująca o wykluczenia i nierówności społecznej, bez żadnego sci-fi.

[Rafal Jasinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastyka Bradbury'ego dawno już wyniesiona została ponad nurt, z którego wyrosła, stając się ponadczasową i aktualną w materii ukazywania problemów ludzkości i kondycji nowożytnej cywilizacji. Przez dekady, które upłynęły od powstania historii zawartych w tym zbiorze niewiele się zmieniło a kilka prognoz w nie wplecionych zyskało nagle o wiele bardziej aktualny wymiar - być może media, nośniki i stan naszej wiedzy formalnie nie są takie, jakimi widział je pisarz w przyszłości a eksploracja przestrzeni kosmicznej nie osiągnęła takich miar, jakie prognozował Bradbury, ale przecież to nie stanowi o wielkości twórczości mistrza.

Proza cudowna, tak że porusza tak bardzo, jak najpiękniejsza poezja, oraz fantastyka naukowa, która w istocie rzeczy jest baśnią - mądrą, grającą na czułych strunach i pełną metafor oraz analogii - odniesień do przeszłości i przestróg na przyszłość.

Znakomity zbiór wybitnego pisarza, który posiadać i przeczytać powinien każdy koneser literatury! Polecam!

[Margo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a long read, but a good one. Really enjoying some of these classic sci-fi stories and hoping to read more.

[Tyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read The Martian Chronicles portion, and only because it has been recommended to me by the only other co-worker I have that enjoys reading as much as me. Her opinion and recommendation had solidity behind it, so it was a simple choice.

To me, science fiction/fantasy seems as if it has to be the most difficult genre to write. I mean, to really, truly put out sci-fi that is worthwhile, it has to be a very well thought out process. All the ends need to be tied, consistency needs are always underlying, and an entertaining story must be intertwined through the entire world you've just invented. It's a challenge that, for someone like me who has always had an urge to write a book before I die, is an undertaking that I'll gladly save for others to write so that I can stick to reading it.

Bradbury left me with an amazing respect. Not only was he able to drive morality tales into his writing, he created a beautiful scene while doing so. Every page is dripping with wonderful imagery that can sometimes be a challenge to find in the literary universe if you don't know where to look. It's a book where every chapter is almost like a short story in itself, until you realize they are more like puzzle pieces that fit so smoothly into one another. The levels that Bradbury is able to confine into words makes this book a glamorous example of the depth science fiction can be taken to. I began reading it with the expectations that I have with most books that are recommended to me; read it and comprehend it enough so that when the recommender asks my thoughts, I can avoid hurt feelings and move on to something I actually want to read. But in the case of The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury saved me from that burden and left me feeling disappointed in myself for even doubting that I would enjoy it.

Please, do yourself a favor and read this book. It's not like much else you can find.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science fiction short stories are like the small tapas at a Spanish restaurant: inventive, varied, and requiring attention lest one miss something. And no one serves small bursts of Sci-Fi better than Bradbury. This is an excellent collection of some of his best stories exploring humanity through the lens of space and human exploration. The volume itself--a special leather-bound edition put out by Barnes and Noble--is aesthetically pleasing and seems to hearken back to the nascent space age in which Bradbury first developed his ideas.

In reading all of these short stories together in one compilation, I was struck by how dated many of the story narratives seemed. This is not to say that Bradbury does not offer important insights into human behavior and persistent challenges in our society. But Bradbury and other science fiction writers like him seem more equipped to describe and comment on the existent world using a fictional future setting than pretend to foresee the future of humanity. In Bradbury's future, women continue to tend the home while men explore the far reaches of space, the existent social strata in 1940s America is replicated one hundred years later on the surface of Mars, and atomic wars continue to overcloud everything. Reading these short stories does involve a bit of time travel then, but in the opposite direction of the dates indicated in the stories.

Read more at http://znovels.blogspot.com/2015/09/t...

[Elizabeth Laborde · Rating 4 out of 5]

My husband said this wouldn't be my kind of book. I guess he was right. While I am not drawn to science fiction, generally, a great book will catch my eye. And honestly, the opening chapter was absolutely gripping, super cool. I thought this would be that book. But the amount of f-bombs and profanity felt gratuitous at a point (and I, myself, am known to swear like a sailor).

Also, while it was interesting to think about someone living on Mars and I appreciated his journey, the character was rather unappealing. His relentless snark made him seem a bit emotionally immature, albeit bright. He was a good problem solver, but it was hard to find any character in this novel particularly likeable which made it a bit tiresome. More character arc and depth would help. I guess I'm asking for a more literary novel which is not what science fiction is poised to deliver. So, it is what is is.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Martian Chronicles (read May 2019)

Everybody speaks so highly of Bradbury, but I didn't care for this at all.

It was already trending toward not-great, but then there was that nasty story about the irony of being the last man alive, and finally finding a woman (at a hair salon, because where else would a woman be?)... and she's fat! And stupid! And has chocolate on her fingers!

Ugh. I didn't need to read this, and neither do you. Not recommended.

[Tomek Gunia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ocena dotyczy tylko ostatniej części czyli złocistych jabłek słońca. To zbiór słabych opowiadań o niczym. Brzmią jakby je napisało dziecko albo początkujący poeta co ma coś do przekazania ale nie ma wyobraźni ani słownictwa. Słabo, oj słabo
To właśnie ta ostatnia cześć spowodowała że obniżam oceny pozostałym dwóm książkom o jedną gwiazdkę

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, adapted for the BBC


As in his better known masterpiece, Fahrenheit 451, the astounding Ray Bradbury offers a bleak, pessimistic- or is it realistic?- view of the future, wherein our planet would face catastrophic war, with the result that life on Mars might be not just better, but perhaps the only alternative.
The perspective that Mars represents the future is shared by some of the luminaries of this age, Elon Musk being one of the formidable entrepreneurs bent on developing the means to travel, land and colonize that planet.

In the future predicted in The Martian Chronicles, one first mission to the planet has been unsuccessful and another one lands on the Red Planet, without problems, but the crew finds soon that the first team was killed by the...Martians.
Not only was the planet inhabited- or should one say, will have been?- but looking at their achievements, the fantastic cities they will have built are "as nothing that humans ever constructed".

The man leading this mission is Captain Wilder- played by the wondrous Derek Jacobi- and in his team, one the one side we have Spender, a determined, obstinate woman and on the other, Parkhill and other, more brutal, unsophisticated, rude, perhaps even primitive members, coming from the military ranks.
Spender is soon aghast at what happens to this phenomenal Martian civilization, with splendid works, made of silver and other precious materials, with fantastic skill.
She is also disgusted, outraged by the behavior of the men that vomit, make all sorts of vicious noises and disrespect what they find on Mars, while the rebel woman is in awe, mesmerized by the lost culture, especially after she discovers that the cause of the extinction of the Martians is...chickenpox , brought in by humans.

She explains with what would prove prophetic accuracy to the captain that people from Earth would exploit the planet in the same irresponsible manner they did on Earth and hence she wants to prevent that.
She starts by killing members of her group and is facing the captain who tries to persuade her to give up- why cover this civilization she admires in blood? - and he has a point also when he says that, given that she killed comrades, she has lost the moral authority to preach about values, what other humans should do.

Spender is killed in the confrontation, the captain having had no other choice, but the prediction that the "money men" would be sent to this planet to take out the minerals and all that can be extracted comes true.
It can be argued that there is nothing wrong with using minerals, resources from Mars, only Ray Bradbury is correct in stating, through his characters, that mankind has abused planet Earth, in extracting oil, coal and everything else and then burning it , we have brought about Climate Change- denied by idiots like the Donald - which is endangering the world we live in and which looks like becoming uninhabitable for our descendents.

The Martian Chronicles deals with the stories of the crew, a couple of the colonists and some children who try to escape a dangerous, possibly dead Earth, in this adaptation for the BBC, Radio 4.
The colonists we learn about, have arrived on e planet to...sell chili dogs, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in the opinion of the woman, but close to where a lot of action would be, in the view of the man.

There are some creatures that appear and it is not clear what they are - vermin? It that is the answer, the male partner points out that they have to deal with it without letting anyone know about it, for rats or anything of the kind mean the death of a food business...
Furthermore, they have the Best Chili Dogs in the Galaxy!

The other story that is surely taking more space in the original material, and less in an abridged version, of only a little over fifty minutes, is that of Hathaway and his family.
He is saved and he brings the two members of this visiting team to his family, wife and two children, only there are very suspicious aspects about them.
The captain had known them and the wife is his age and looks too much younger and the children, who should be in their thirties, look like teenagers.

As one of the visitors pretends to need something from the spacecraft, he calls for more intelligence, using maybe some distant future version of Alexa or Siri and finds three mounds where the graves are.
He calls his partner out and they find the shed of this Martian, where they understand what happened:

He has lost his family years ago, probably killed by a virus, and he used his skills and the tools to recreate a...family.
Artificial Intelligence in the distant, or maybe near future.

Earth suffers from devastating war, the orders are to shoot any rocket and this covers a civilian craft which has children and a teacher on board.
Alhamdulillah, the captain disobeys this gruesome mission and the children arrive on the Red Planet.

Will they be the hope for a post apocalyptic mankind?
The Martians settled after Armageddon?

[Xięgozbiór · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kroniki marsjańskie
Dobrze przemyślany i zakręcony zbiór opowiadań, trochę w stylu Pilipiuka, choć piętno lat 50 jest tu odciśnięte bardzo mocno. Piękny obrazek tego, jak ludzie ery atomu i podboju kosmosu spoglądali w przyszłość. Choć jest tu też trochę dziwnych braków - czy w latach 50 XX wieku można było jeszcze zakładać, że Mars ma atmosferę zdatną do życia dla Ziemian? Takie nieścisłości naukowe są bolączką, ale zamysł na opowiadania - jak najbardziej interesujący. Plus - ciekawe koncepcje. Minus - brak spójności między poszczególnymi opowiadaniami.

Człowiek ilustrowany
Poziom podobny co "Kroniki marsjańskie", opowiadania równie proste i wciągające. Dziwne, że autor poszedł w tematykę Marsa, biorąc pod uwagę, że mógł swoje (czasem prorocze) wizje ubrać w znacznie więcej potencjalnych tematów. Ale i tak nie mam tu zbyt wiele do zarzucenia, bo czasami zadziwiały mnie diagnozy świata nie tyle ówczesnego, co współczesnego.

Złociste jabłka słońca
Zdecydowanie najsłabszy spośród trzech zbiorów opowiadań w tej książce. Proste i przewidywalne historyjki z pointami, przy czym żadna z nich nie jest jakaś wybitnie porywająca. Na dodatek zadziwia naiwność bohatera i absurdalne - z punktu widzenia nauki - stwierdzenia ("temperatura 1000 stopni poniżej zera"?). Przebrnąłem całe, choć niewiele bym stracił, odpuszczając.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd read The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man before, so this time through I just read The Golden Apples of the Sun.

When I read The Martian Chronicles as a kid, Bradbury was the symbol of what made science fiction great. He wonderfully captured the wonder of the universe, but also wrote about people with pathos and sympathy. I can still see what I liked about him, but my tastes have evolved and I don't know that he's still one of my favorite writers.

It's partially that his stories seem so dated at this point. It's comforting and simple in the way that watching Andy Griffith is, but there's also been seventy years of cultural evolution that obviously isn't represented. Male whiteness is the default, and when they feature female characters, it's normally part of the midcentury nuclear family that you saw in The Jetsons or other WILDLY IMAGINATIVE works. I don't believe there was a single non-white character in the book, and many of the stories featured off-hand racial signifiers about the characters' porcelain skin, blue eyes, blonde hair, etc.

I still found it enjoyable, and his sense of wonder is every bit as good as I remember, but he's not necessarily the ceiling of science fiction that I've considered him for years based on childhood reading.

[jenny f · Rating 3 out of 5]

kinda really hard to understand. while i enjoyed my entire 4 days reading this rather short book, i found myself wondering what the real message of the book was. then i got over it. the book is mystifying during the read however there is a lack of a clear story line or clear meaning. thats just my pov though. i find that there are small excerpts of the book that you could definitely use to argue the idea that the book is a social commentary on the past AND future however im not sure how easy this would be to prove. all in all, worth the read because there are some insightful quotes however dont expect to end the read with a settled feeling as to what you just read.

[Huckle Buck411 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury's writing style is truly unique among writers of Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror/Dramatic Fiction. I think of him as the Norman Rockwell of story writing. Even when writing about adventures in space, life on other planets or the diabolical deeds of aliens and humans, there is a kind of Americana homespun feeling to the stories. While keeping the reader riveted with a story's subject matter, at the end a story often leaves the reader with a melancholy ache for times and places lost and pondering one's own brief existence in this thing called a human lifetime.

[Kasia (Kącik z książką) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mówiąc krótko, jestem zachwycona. Tak po prostu. Dawno żadna lektura nie poruszyła mnie tak głęboko. Bradbury okazał się mistrzem krótkiej formy, która rzadko do mnie przemawia, tutaj jednak sprawdziła się wyśmienicie. Jeśli jeszcze nie czytaliście, koniecznie sięgnijcie!


Pełna opinia:
http://www.kacikzksiazka.pl/2019/02/k...

[Alyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't praise Ray Bradbury enough - ever. I have read all of his published works and reread many of those. Each time is the first time - perfect, jaw-dropping, magical, heart-rending, truthful. I can only say, read, read and read some more of Bradbury - you will be glad you did.

[Stefan Johnsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable book of short stories by Ray Bradbury. I really enjoyed the Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. The Golden Apples of the Sun was average, but still contained some great stories. Definitely a worthy book for your collection.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first time reading Bradbury and what an interesting read. If you like the show Black Mirror, you will like these stories. For being written in the 1940s and 50s, these tales of caution and also hope ring true today. Now I want to find more Bradbury to read.

[R. David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey, it is science fiction. Golden Apples of the Sun short stories were the best.

[Eriszkigal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kroniki marsjańskie na 5. Reszta opowiadań słabiutko.

[Mark Shead]

Nice collection of Bradbury's short stories.

[Charles Korb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading 900 pages of functionally short stories in one go is a lot, I'd recommend divvying this up.

[Wojtek Mach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klasyczna fantastyka, palce lizac

[Jessiellie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written, but it just is not my style. Too piecey and disconnected. Should have got that in the title, but it took me awhile to figure out that it wasnt going to pull together.

[Alexa Acosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sus cuentos y los finales de estos son muy interesantes pero a veces pueden ser algo tediosos de leer,es algo pesado de leer pero en general esta muy bien.

4/5

[Filip Kuchta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jedna z lepszych książek w artefaktach.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really don't like short stories and I'm not a big fan of metaphor, so maybe this deserves five stars but I'm giving it four. Took such a long time to read and so soon after another 900 page book.