About a year ago, I was supposed to read the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury for a class I was taking. Well, I didn't read it, but I learned enough about it from Google to get credit for reading it. Last summer, I actually read it, and it was actually really good.
One aspect I liked is that it's a collection of short stories about Mars that Bradbury wrote, and when put together, tell a complete story .It's the same style as I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, which is one of the greatest books ever written. I like that style because the book moves faster, although it does have the drawback of not getting acquainted with a character and cheering for them through their struggles.
The story itself (or stories, rather) are an allegory for European colonization of the New World. Humans arrive on Mars, and can talk to the native Martians, but there is another barrier to their communication: the Martians think all the humans are crazy (the second expedition from Earth ends up in a mental institution full of Martians who also say they are from Earth). The Martians think the Humans are crazy because the Martians are masters at illusion and mind reading. Later on in the book, an American small town is discovered by a group of humans, and they find all their dead relatives living in it. What they really found was an illusion created by Martians based on the humans' memories.
The small town was one of the final battles for the Martians, as a few chapters later, a group of humans finds the ruins of a Martian city, and one of them explores it and goes rogue from the rest of the group. He is the first person to really appreciate Mars and the Martians. The change from native Martians being the dominant creatures on Mars to a family from Minnesota being the dominant creatures is so subtle and natural. It was very violent in between, but it made perfect sense in the end. I really enjoyed this book, and want to read it again, even though I only read it about two months ago.
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