A collection of short stories that show off Bradbury's uncanny ability to visualize future societies and humans' interactions with other life forms.

Arguably, the greatest literary 'science fiction' writer, with a genius for creating an atmosphere of place and period, as seen through the eyes of a character - true to the character's age and period and background: from the small towns of forties America, the slums and shebeens of New Mexico and Dublin - and then the places and futures no one had ever imagined before - colonies in space, virtual reality technologies and alien civilisations.
He writes with a rich humanity, almost as the last of the great romantic authors. He is one of the greatest masters in English of the short story format. As a science fiction author, few have matched his originality or the conviction of his created worlds. More than that, his literature is imbued with a rich and deep literary and moral maturity - perhaps this has made him seem old fashioned and out of date with his contemporaries - but his work will stand as great literature.

He has what may be seen as weaknesses - he returns to work the seam of some settings and themes too often perhaps. His signature gothic and descriptive passages are these days perhaps, at times, too indulgent. There's a schmatlzy tint of nostalgia for the small town USA of his childhood (imagined or real). His Dublin (and perhaps his Mexican) episodes, although based on personal experience of those locations, are perhaps too stereotypical and mannered at times. But the pictures he creates stay with you for ever.

He may have written fewer 'great works' than our 'literary giants' or as many stories as a Henry James, but even the titles of some of his short stories have made an impression on people who may have never heard of him, let alone read him - 'Fahrenheit 451' for instance.

My first favourite 'adult' author as a youngster when I discovered the collections 'R is for Rocket' and 'S is for Space' and then 'Dandelion Wine'. While I'd started out reading for myself by beginning with the classic children's serial authors (the ones most frequently seen in the Library hamper that came to the classroom each Friday afternoon) such as W E Johns (Biggles), Arthur Ransome (Swallows & Amazons) and Rachel Crompton (Just William) I'd race from one volume to the next and never return - but Bradbury, I'd read his stories again and again, and I just knew I wanted to write like him one day (and at the same time, think how can anyone write as well as this?).

The great achievement of the Martian Chronicles/Silver Locusts, in addition to its literary merits, is its poetic and revelatory insight into the corrupting and spiritually corroding consequences of colonisation. It's not an explicit message, but all the same, the guilt and shame of an interraction of cultures that trades the artefacts of an ancient culture for the gluttony of a hot dog stand imbues the pages as completely as the dust of the ancient Martians coats the food of the colonists from Earth. Just as the 'British Empire' attempted to dress its conquest cultures in the rags of subservience, the American Empire seeks to brand our cultures so that they conform with its own empty materialism. You can't dance the Ghost Dance just by stealing or faking the costume. ( )

From the Grand Master. Since my teen years I've been slightly proud that a character with my last name threw up in a Martian canal in a story here. ( )

I first read this book back when it was still called "The Silver Locusts". A set of short stories about Martians - a story form of which Ray Bradbury is a master.

This is science fiction at its best. Interesting, profound, appealing to all ages and timeless. ( )

"There's your answer, Captain."
"I don't see"
"The Martians discovered the secret of life among animals.
The animal does not question life.
It lives.
Its very reason for living is life; it enjoys and relishes life. You see -the statuary, the animal symbols, again and again."
"It looks pagan"
"On the contrary, those are god symbols, symbols of life.
Man had become too much man and not enough animal on Mars too. And the men of Mars realized that in order to survive they would have to forgo asking that one question any longer: why live?
Life was its own answer. Life was the propagation of more life and the living of as good a life as possible.
The Martians realized that they asked the question 'why live at all?' at the height of some period of war and despair, when there was no answer.
But once the civilization calmed, quieted, and wars ceased, the question became senseless in a new way.
Life was good and needed no arguments." ( )