File 770

Martian Chronicles cover

Review by John King Tarpinian: What can one say about Ray Bradbury’s Martian canon that is not known? In this volume there are more than 50 stories, essays, introductions and two full-length screenplays by Bradbury, just fewer than 800 pages. Over the past five decades and in different editions of Martian Chronicles stories have migrated in and out of the book that was currently in print. What Subterranean Press and PS Publishing have done is bring EVERY known Martian story of Ray’s together in one volume,  The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition. This includes ones that have never been in any book with the title Martian Chronicles and a few that have never been in print before, forty-nine stories in all. To add to the pleasure of this volume are two screen plays written by Bradbury. His introduction to the 40^th anniversary edition is included. Lastly, in his own words, “How I Wrote This Book.”

The seven previously unpublished Martian stories are: The Disease, Dead of Summer, The Martian Ghosts, Jemima True, They All Had Grandfathers, The Wheel and The Marriage.

There are a few other contributors, writing introductions (really more like essays) to the different parts of the book. Reading a few of their words made my eyes mist up. They are Meeting the Wizard introduction by John Scalzi, Undiscovered Mars, Unseen Bradbury by Joe Hill, Lost Mars, the Unpublished Martian Stories of Ray Bradbury by Marc Scott Zicree and For Ray Bradbury by Richard Matheson.

The book is truly a work of art with Bradbury’s words being the canvas. This is the first and probably the last chance one will ever have to own ALL Martian stories in one volume. All of which came to life from the mind of a then little boy who read Edgar Rice Burroughs and since he could not afford to buy another John Carter novel went about writing his own Mars.

[The Table of Contents follows the jump.]

(more…)