The Martian Chronicles

Executive Summary: My first by Mr. Bradbury, but won't be my last. Then again since I'll be reviewing [b:Something Wicked This Way Comes 248596 Something Wicked This Way Comes (Green Town, #2) Ray Bradbury https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1409596011s/248596.jpg 1183550] for SFFAudio later this month..that was probably going to happen anyways. :-DAudio book: Mark Boyett's voice reminds me a bit of Rod Serling, which as I get into a bit below seemed a perfect fit. I know there are multiple versions of the audiobook. I'm not sure how easy they are to get a hold of, but this one seems like a good option.Full ReviewI've never read anything by Mr. Bradbury before. I'm not really well read in the “classics”. There is too much modern stuff I want to read, and in general I prefer fantasy to Sci-Fi. But when Brilliance Audio was releasing some of his better known works on Audio CD (although the production itself was done by Audible) last year, I jumped at the chance to finally give him a try.I've been in a bit of a reading funk this year, and was trying to figure out what to read AFTER this book to get me out of it. Since it was short though, I wanted to listen to it sooner rather than later, write up my review then move onto something else.Apparently I just needed to listen to this. Apart from one story (Way in the Middle of the Air) which made me really uncomfortable and showed it's age. It appears to have been eliminated from several of the more recent editions of this book, and I wish I had skipped it as it really adds very little to this collection.Everything else was enjoyable. A bit depressing, but enjoyable. Mr. Bradbury paints a bleak picture of a future that thankfully never came. This isn't hard sci-fi by any means, but more like dystopian space opera.I would have never thought something bleak would lighten my mood, but the stories were that good, and the prose are excellent. They reminded me a lot of the Twilight Zone, although I know these stories predate that show. I think The Silent Towns could easily have been an episode of the show, as could several others.I think my favorite of the collection is Usher II. I can't pretend to get all the references apart from Poe and Lovecraft, but his tale of revenge for censorship is quite good. I'll have to check out the Poe story [b:The Fall of the House of Usher 175516 The Fall of the House of Usher Edgar Allan Poe https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387708966s/175516.jpg 15570703] that seems to have influenced it.Overall this is an excellent collection of stories, and if like me you haven't read it/anything by Mr. Bradbury, this seems like as good a place as any to start.