The Martian Chronicles - Writing

     Well you're probably wondering what this book "The Martian Chronicles" is all about. Sounds interesting doesn't it? Would you be surprised if I told you I was reading another book from the author Ray Bradbury? Well it is by Ray Bradbury. And now you're probably thinking to yourself why another Bradbury book? Because my sister really likes Bradbury books (she has almost all of his novels) and she recommended this book to me. I have to say, this novel is better than Fahrenheit 451. It's more interesting and definitely isn't as confusing. Actually, some parts of this book are confusing but you eventually get that "I get it now"
moment. If you have read a couple of his books, you can tell he focuses mainly on writing horror stories. This book falls along that line. The story takes place in the future, where Earth men are sent to Mars to asses if the planet is adequate to live on. The Earth is a troubled place during this novel, from a coming nuclear war and other factors. Several colonies are created on Mars throughout the novel. What makes this book interesting is that it's made up of several short stories. Each story is follows a different person about their experience on Mars.

     Bradbury has great style and voice. His writing is definitely unique. "The fire fluttered into sleep ash. The air tremored to the distant roll of a cartwheel. Thunder. A sudden odor of water. Tonight, he thought, and put his hand out to feel for the rain. Tonight." (Bradbury 104). Here, Bradbury personifies the fire as it turned into ash and the sound of thunder in the air. The use of short fragmented sentences adds to the anticipation of the oncoming rain.
"'Good lord, what a dream that was,' sighed Thomas, his hands on the wheel, thinking of the rockets, the women, the raw whisky, the Virginia reels, the party. How strange a vision was that, thought the Martian, rushing on, thinking of the festival, the canals,, the boats, the women with golden eyes, and the songs." This quote really caught my attention. We can get into the mind of both Thomas and the Martian to see what they're thinking, both of their thoughts closely related.
"Fire exploded over summer night lawns. You saw sparkling faces of uncles and aunts. Skyrockets fell up in the brown shining eyes of cousins on the porch..." Bradbury briefly writes in a 2nd person point of view to really get the reader involved. I think this really helps with the imagery in this paragraph since he says "you" saw the sparkling faces.

     I'm really looking forward to finishing this book since it has been interesting so far. The writing is great, the plot is good, what's there not to like?