Reviewing a Classic

I recently re-read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. I'm participating in a panel at Windycon on it, and since I hadn't read it in at least 20 years, I thought it would be a good idea to refresh myself.

The science is strictly 1940s, and so are some of the characters (strong men, women who just want to get married and hang chintz drapes) but overall the book has aged well. There's a couple of reasons for that. First, the book doesn't hinge on the science, but rather on characters. Not just any characters, but believable ones, with real and understandable motives.

Second, Bradbury's writing is just so damn lyrical. Listen to this passage about a rainstorm on Mars.

     He awoke to a tap on his brow.
     Water ran down his nose onto his lips.  Another drop hit his eye, blurring it.  Another splashed his chin.
     The rain.
     Raw, gentle and easy, it mizzles out of the high air, a special elixir.

Third, because this is, as Bradbury's introduction to this edition says, a "book-of-stories-pretending-to-be-a-novel,"  the book is able to paint a world in very few words.  It's like an Impressionistic painting - a few brush strokes can create an ocean.  Unlike a "regular" novel, characters can march onstage, be the center of action for a few pages, and disappear, never to be seen again, without causing problems for the reader.  

If you haven't read it, go borrow a copy of The Martian Chronicles today.  You'll enjoy it.