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  • The Martian Chronicles

  • Written by: Ray Bradbury
  • Narrated by: Mark Boyett
  • Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (122 ratings)

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The Martian Chronicles

Written by: Ray Bradbury
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
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Publisher's Summary

Mars was 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

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Pat
  • 2018-09-17

Should be on your required reading list...

Classic Ray Bradbury storytelling. I read it the first time as a youngster and 50 years later, it was just as good. Even now, with all of the current facts about the red planet, it's easy to slip into Bradbury's fantastic Martian world. #Audible1

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Short story collection

I was expecting a novel but this is a collection of short stories that have been loosely linked together. Once I accepted that, I enjoyed the stories. Some have more to do with Mars, some not so much, but most of them are good stories

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Relevant Today⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I wasn’t sure what I was I leaping into, but I am glad I did. It’s a great piece of science fiction without getting overly complex. The narrator is great and keeps you engaged. The book was written in the past, but carry many themes that are relevant today. Not sure if this has ever been made into a movie or television show. Almost has a twilight zone feel with each chapter acting like an episode.

😀Thoroughly enjoyed!

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

testing

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hi

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

a classic futuristic collection

So strange to read, in 2018, about space colonization imagined for the turn of the 21st century. The strongest visual for me, that I remembered from first reading this collection decades ago, is the description of Martian corpses dried up like blackened leaves, kicked up and trampled by the feet of Earth children playing in the ruins. #Audible1

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not the best ever

I was first disappointed to get into it and find that it was a collection of stores rather than one continuous story. Once I got past that fact, I was really disappointed that a lot of the stories were horror-esque with rather depressing endings. The age of this book is showing in a few chapters, but that's to be expected and hopefully other listeners don't take offense.
The narrator does a good job and the story is very well written.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Tee
  • 2019-01-12

Ray Bradbury classic

This is a series of short stories of events on Mars, including how the first explorers came and developments later. Together they tell the story of mankind’s destiny. In all the stories, Ray Bradbury wrote with a poetic touch. Each of the stories is different - magical, surreal, gothic, and even one which is comic.

Most haunting for me is Night Meeting, about a chance meeting between an earth man and a Martian on a lonely road. I was listening to it while driving across miles and miles of empty country roads in winter, and it gave me goosebumps all over. But oh so beautiful...

Mark Boyett is a great narrator.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Timeless collection of stories.

SciFi at its very best. Excellent audiobook production quality. There is great wisdom woven throughout the stories.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Boooring

Couldn't finish it. Love sci fi but this was a tough one to get into.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I found it a difficult read.

Not a favourite, I think the story lends itself better to television. I did finish it.

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