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  • The Martian Chronicles

  • By: Ray Bradbury
  • Narrated by: Mark Boyett
  • Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (612 ratings)
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The Martian Chronicles cover art

The Martian Chronicles

By: Ray Bradbury
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
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Summary

Man, was a a distant shore, and the men spread upon it in wave.... Each wave different, and each wave stronger.

Ray Bradbury is a storyteller without peer, a poet of the possible, and, indisputably, one of America's most beloved authors. In a much-celebrated literary career that has spanned six decades, he has produced an astonishing body of work: unforgettable novels, including Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes; essays, theatrical works, screenplays and teleplays; The Illustrated Mein, Dandelion Wine, The October Country, and numerous other superb short story collections. But of all the dazzling stars in the vast Bradbury universe, none shines more luminous than these masterful chronicles of Earth's settlement of the fourth world from the sun.

Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great, empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars...and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.

Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles is a classic work of 20th-century literature whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time's passage. In connected, chronological stories, a true grandmaster once again enthralls, delights, and challenges us with his vision and his heart - starkly and stunningly exposing in brilliant spacelight our strength, our weakness, our folly, and our poignant humanity on a strange and breathtaking world where humanity does not belong.

©1945, 1946, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 Ray Bradbury (P)2014 Audible Inc.

What listeners say about The Martian Chronicles

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected... so much more!

I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't at all what I expected but I couldn't put it down, usually I only listen to audio books at night when going to sleep, but this one was listened to in the car, in the bath, while shopping etc... and I rewound bits I'd slept during which I don't usually worry about... the book itself is like a collection of short, interconnected stories all about settlers on Mars and they're just a compelling listen. The narrator is excellent and I shall be looking for more of his work, his male voices are manly and female voices very believable and her has a pleasant killing tone that was perfect for this book.

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Bradbury tales on Mars.

My familiarity with Ray Bradbury was as a short story writer, and this is another such collection, essentially. There is the overall theme of Earth-born Americans going to Mars and living there, but hardly any recurring characters. Bradbury is good at this sort of thing, of course, and it makes dipping in and out very easy. This isn't a space opera story full of big spaceships and lots of action. Far from it.
The narrator, Mark Boyett (new to me), performs well in that manner you may know from Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. There is no need of a range of different voices. He does what he needs to do with those tones that promise warm and pleasant while somehow always having an underlying note of beware as there will be a twist or turn shortly.
I'm not sure what the Audible Studio note on this implies. It's a good solid production, but doesn't offer any of the star actors that various of their offerings of late have had. It doesn't bring anything startlingly new to the telling of Bradbury's tales, it didn't have to. If you enjoy Bradbury, you'll likely enjoy this.

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19 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Relevant today as it was 70 years ago.

Such a beautiful and sad book, wonderfully read by Mark Boyett. More than ever its message is relevant: humanity on course for destroying whatever it encounters, including itself.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Not about Mars

This is a collection of stories about 1950s America. What few Martians are in the early stages of the book are 1950s Americans. The humans are 1950s Americans in all of the worst ways.

In the end, I couldn’t face finishing such a depressing collection of stories about mostly dreadful people.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Food for Thought

Beautifully written. Hauntingly plausible.
Will be just as thought provoking and powerful years from now - If we last thst long.

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9 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Poetic and intriguing classic, wonderful narration

I had already read this book, but wanted to experience it as an audiobook as well. Great idea! Mark Boyett has a voice like molten chocolate. Wonderful and very easy on the ears, plus good 'character voices' as well. The short stories are wonderful too. They all connect and are very intriguing and thought-provoking. Even though they were written many decades ago (1945, I think) they do not feel dated. It is more like great historical fiction with a sci-fi twist. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

one of the best science fiction writers ever

wonderful thought provoking story telling , wonderfully poetic , image provoking writing you couldn't ask for more from an author and the narrator was excellent

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dull

Boring story and outdated. The narration was slow and monotonous too. I rarely give up on a book but life is too short to persevere with this.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

BRILLIANT

Waited for so very many years for the Martian Chronicles, the wait was justified . Thank you.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really good listening

Thought this was really god considering when this was first written. Taiko me away to another world!

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3 people found this helpful