The Martian Chronicles - in audiobook form - by Ray Bradbury

The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury [Compact Disc Bradbury] 

It has been over 30 years since I last read Ray Bradbury’s 1950 story collection, The Martian Chronicles. So when this book-on-CD audiobook version came across the desk at the library recently, I decided it was a good time to revisit an old favorite.

The Martian Chronicles is a “fix-up” novel, which is to say that it is comprised of a series of thematically related short stories, which Bradbury has written short connecting bits to connect to each other for what is, overall, a novel-length storyline. There are some cross-over characters and plots across the content of some of the stories. The Martian Chronicles is about the human settling of the planet Mars, over the course of several decades. The native Martian population is decimated by a plague caused by one of the earliest human missions to the planet, and the subsequent waves of humans to colonize Mars take over the beautiful Martian cities or build their own. The individual stories in this collection vary in quality and have a lot of different “tones”.

While, in many ways, The Martian Chronicles feels dated, it is still an absolute classic in the field of speculative fiction. Audiobook narrator Stephen Hoye provides a low-key narrative style to his voice work, which at times leaves the stories feeling a bit emotionless. But at the same time, it is a compelling listen, and he captures some of the characters very well. In the end, I’ll have to admit that I enjoyed reading this novel more than listening to it, but this was still a worthwhile introduction to the stories, if you’ve never experience them before!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of the other works of the late Ray Bradbury, in print or audio.] [ official Ray Bradbury web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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