Mars is Heaven! by Ray Bradbury - A Short Story Review

28/150/216

This was a fun story, then creepy.

A mission to Mars!

A landing on Mars!  In the middle of an American small town!

Excuse me?  What?

The air is breathable too.  The captain and two officers leave the ship to investigate.  What they find is peculiar to say the least.  While they try to rationalize what they see I was left with the feeling that something was terribly wrong here.

When the captain figures it out, well, it's a bit too late.

The only problem that I had with the story came from the first paragraph, where it stated that this was the third mission to the planet.  How could they not have communicated with the firs two missions?

The only explanation I can come up with comes from the publication date, 1948.  Sputnik launched in 1957 and Echo 1 not until 1960.  At that time only radio and the telephone provided the quickest communications.  But without the infrastructure of wires and radio towers, even terrestrial exploration would go months without communication with the outside world, so why not a trip to Mars?

Reading these old stories has to come with a certain forgiveness because they are a product of their times.

This was an excellent story.

Ray Bradbury website - http://www.raybradbury.com/

Ray Bradbury

Planet Stories Fall 1948

The Wilderness by Ray Bradbury

24/100

A charming story about two women spending their last evening on Earth before they board a rocket destined for Mars.

This story is the first entry in the Fourth Planet From The Sun collection of Mars stories from the lovely people at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine.

Ray Bradbury

The Veldt by Ray Bradbury

5/100

First published in 1950 this story still resonates today.

At first it's a cautionary tale of technology but then it also touches on how parenting is still very much needed.

Though the gadgets of the story are very different then ones we enjoy today; the parallels to our smart phone, internet-obsessed society are easy to see.

The whole story revolves around a holo-deck gone wrong.

Although the story was first published in The Saturday Evening post of September 23, 1950 it is most easily accessible from The Illustrated Man collection.

I was led to this story from my daughter who had it assigned to read during her junior high school years.  (That's middle school for those of you in the US.)  It certainly stayed in her mind for at least the past five years.

Ray Bradbury's official website is:   http://www.raybradbury.com/

To hear the radio drama of this story go to (this is where I found the interior art):  http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=40198

Ray Bradbury

September 23, 1950

Alternative title and interior art.