Science Fiction: The Short Stuff discussion

According to Wikipedia: "The Exiles" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury. It was originally published as "The Mad Wizards of Mars" in Maclean's on September 15, 1949, and was reprinted, in revised form, the following year by The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. First collected in The Illustrated Man (1951), it was later included in the collections R Is for Rocket (1962), Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales (2003), A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005) and A Pleasure to Burn (2010, under the "Mad Wizards" title and presumably with the Maclean's text). It was also published in "The Eureka Years: Boucher and McComas's Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction" (Bantam Books, 1982) (ISBN 0553206737).

I found the Macleans version for free in its original setting on Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Macleans-.... I plan to start there since it's the earliest rendition. When I am done, I will pull up The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Winter-Spring 1950 issue and see if the differences are significant.

Incidentally, Bradbury's story appeared in only the second issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. We read the only science fiction story from that magazine's premier issue last April, an interesting Sturgeon story. It's amazing how important this magazine became right out of the gate.

Oh, you may be wondering what "The Exiles" is about. Wikipedia to the rescue again: "Circa the year 2020, the planet Earth contrived to ban and outlaw the books of supernaturalist authors such as H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood and Ambrose Bierce. A century later in the year 2120, the dying crew of an interplanetary rocket-ship is headed for the planet Mars. The crew is plagued by needle-sharp pains and nightmarish visions and dreams, caused by the incantations and magical fires of the Martian Exiles -- the banned authors Shakespeare, Blackwood, Bierce, Lovecraft and Poe, and their literary characters -- who are fearfully aware of the approaching rocket. The Exiles are already fading from existence because the people of Earth have burned nearly all their books."

Being very much a fan of all these banned authors, you know I can't resist this read. Can you? If not, feel free to join us in June and share your thoughts with the group here at this topic.

What a thoroughly enjoyable short story! Earthmen are on a spaceship headed for Mars where Poe, Hawthorne, Lovecraft, and even Baum have been exiled. It is great fun to read the conversation Bradbury puts in the mouths of so many literary giants.

I read both versions, the earlier Macleans and the one year later F&SF version. They are about 95% the same, word for word. Read either one, and I think you will have the full story. That said, the F&SF version has small improvements that add incrementally to the story. My advice would be to read that version. You won't get the illustrations that were in the Macleans magazine, but you will see the improved story. The F&SF version in particular has more of the H. P. Lovecraft dialog than the Macleans one contained.

Here is a link for the F&SF version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sKX5...

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finished reading this one yesterday, I liked it. An exciting, semi humorous story about the longevity of books and memory vs. an overriding future. Thanks for providing different links to the story.

I've just finished reading the story. I'm a fan of the authors as well-the Earth of that time must be a really boring place.