The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles
Ray Douglas Bradbury

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

THE MARTlAN CHRONlCLES

RAY BRADBURY

Copyright (#ulink_4b52e760-de6c-58da-9fab-39dc5e68d765)

Voyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in Great Britain by

Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd 1951 under the title The Silver Locusts Panther Books 1977 publication also entitled The Silver Locusts

Copyright © Ray Bradbury 1951

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2014

Cover images © Shutterstock.com (figures); Nasa (backround).

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007119622

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007496976

Version: 2015–01–29

Dedication (#ulink_b97c4524-f4e3-50ae-9595-1ed6fcde0a38)

For My Wife Marguerite

with all my love

Epigraph (#ulink_a66e176e-30f9-5500-8afa-0d279dc14286)

‘It is good to renew one’s wonder,’

said the philosopher. ‘Space travel

has again made children of us all.’

Contents

Cover (#uf16f3c68-c01c-520b-b681-d9a7fc0c1b90)

Title Page (#ud5053858-38ac-5349-9e91-6d7a2220a019)

Copyright (#u8687754f-bae1-56d2-80bb-3ac1fa68da28)

Dedication (#ub8001dd7-9627-5e57-bebd-ee914d6a7fc4)

Epigraph (#u31853b29-0b97-5275-9095-555c840c4406)

January 1999 ROCKET SUMMER (#u9aa5794a-05f1-5cc7-a58a-b017ffb24f82)

February 1999 YLLA (#uf3bc4867-2410-5dc0-ae2d-82da03a3d170)

August 1999 THE SUMMER NIGHT (#ub5271cb5-6eeb-5701-ad82-16147ce4e2e8)

August 1999 THE EARTH MEN (#ub7f8f9e5-47da-5348-a024-4da16b8787cd)

March 2000 THE TAXPAYER (#uc3650889-5c52-50a4-a89a-a3174c1d0f6d)

April 2000 THE THIRD EXPEDITION (#u2da894d2-bec7-5e08-a833-5d56f1a29ba7)

June 2001 – AND THE MOON BE STILL AS BRIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)

August 2001 THE SETTLERS (#litres_trial_promo)

December 2001 THE GREEN MORNING (#litres_trial_promo)

February 2002 THE LOCUSTS (#litres_trial_promo)

August 2002 NIGHT MEETING (#litres_trial_promo)

October 2002 THE SHORE (#litres_trial_promo)

November 2002 THE FIRE BALLOONS (#litres_trial_promo)

February 2003 INTERIM (#litres_trial_promo)

April 2003 THE MUSICIANS (#litres_trial_promo)

June 2003 WAY UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AIR (#litres_trial_promo)

2004–05 THE NAMING OF NAMES (#litres_trial_promo)