Sci-Fi Group Book Club discussion

This is the discussion thread for the second book of the month, or group read, for October. Please remember to use the spoiler tags where necessary.

The other group read topic for this month (The Girl With All the Gifts) can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/....

Our member, Thorkell, has kindly agreed to be the discussion leader for The Girl With All the Gifts since he had nominated the book. He had also nominated The Martian Chronicles but perhaps somebody who had voted for it would be interested in being the discussion leader for this topic instead. The first person who posts below (or messages me personally) stating that they'd like to take on the role will be given the opportunity to do so.

It looks like no one is stepping up to the plate so let me tell you all why I nominated the book. Mars is Heaven by Ray Bradbury was one of the stories we read in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964 some months ago. Bradbury later incorporated it into Martian Chronicles (as The Third Expedition"). I loved the story. It was both very original and quite terrifying. I already had Martian Chronicles on my watch list but this made me want to read it even more. I had therefore decided to nominate it. Then I realized that Mars is Heave/The Third Expedition was a horror story of sorts and I found out that there was more horror within the book so I thought it would be perfect to read it during this Halloween month.

I have now read most of the book and I can tell you that it is just as good as I had hoped. It has a lot of short stories so we can both discuss the book as a whole or each short story by it self. If the latter then this overview on Wikipedia might help:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mar...

Is anyone else reading?

"Way in the Middle of the Air" (June 2003/2034) is a brilliant story about racism but it was eliminated from the 2006 William Morrow/Harper Collins, and the 2001 DoubleDay Science Fiction reprinting of the book.

Here is the full book online:

https://knigger.org/bradbury/the_mart...

Thorkell wrote: "Mars is Heaven by Ray Bradbury was one of the stories we read in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964 some months ago. Bradbury later incorporated it into Martian Chronicles (as The Third Expedition"). "

Was the story altered to any extent to form part of The Martian Chronicles collection or is it more or less the same text?

Thorkell wrote: ""Way in the Middle of the Air" (June 2003/2034) is a brilliant story about racism but it was eliminated from the 2006 William Morrow/Harper Collins, and the 2001 DoubleDay Science Fiction reprintin..."

It's curious that a story about racism would be omitted from some editions of this book. I wonder what was the reasoning behind removing it.

I am hoping to reread The Martian Chronicles before Halloween. I’m currently finishing up The Werewolf of Paris.

Greg, wrote: "Was the story altered to any extent to form part of The Martian Chronicles collection or is it more or less the same text?."

More or less the same text. From what I do remember the original does not talk about the first two expeditions but this one does. Else it's the same story.

Greg, wrote: "It's curious that a story about racism would be omitted from some editions of this book. I wonder what was the reasoning behind removing it."

These racists use the N word a lot. I guess it got censored because of that. This story is a good example of how silly censorship can get. The story is anti racists but it is removed because it uses a word that perfectly reflects the mindset of the racists. The left has totally lost control of what matters when it comes to censorship of language. It's not the words that matter, it's the intent behind them. Fight the intent, not language.

Not that it should matter but just in case, I'm to left in politics so I'm not preaching any right wing views here. Just criticizing stupidity.

Bradbury comments on such bowdlerization of texts in his Coda to Fahrenheit 451. I wrote something about this my review of that book.

Susan wrote: "Bradbury comments on such bowdlerization of texts in his Coda to Fahrenheit 451. I wrote something about this my review of that book."

Good points and well written Susan!

I finally finished The Werewolf of Paris and it took me a while to put my thoughts together into a review. But now I'm ready for my reread of The Martian Chronicles. I don't think I read this since I was a teenager (when the year 1999 sounded futuristic). So I'm looking forward to experiencing it anew.

I just reread this and I loved every minute of it. I have a much better appreciation of this book now than when I first read it as a teenager. Back then, I was more accustomed to hard science fiction. Now, I really enjoy Bradbury’s vision of Mars. My review

You might like Cosmicomics Susan, since you liked this one so much now. I love it.

Thorkell wrote: "You might like Cosmicomics Susan, since you liked this one so much now. I love it."

That sounds like something I would like. Thanks Thorkell.