Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: A Radio Dramatization

By: Ray Bradbury

Narrated by: The Colonial Radio Players

Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

The people of Earth are preparing for war - a war that could potentially destroy the planet. Explorers are sent to Mars to find a new place for humans to colonize. Bradbury's Mars is a place of hope, dreams, and metaphor - of crystal pillars and fossil seas - where a fine dust settles on the great empty cities of a silently destroyed civilization. It is here the invaders have come to despoil and commercialize, to grow and to learn - first a trickle, then a torrent, rushing from a world with no future toward a promise of tomorrow. The Earthman conquers Mars... and then is conquered by it, lulled by dangerous lies of comfort and familiarity, and enchanted by the lingering glamour of an ancient, mysterious native race.

The Martian Chronicles is presented here as a full-cast audio production with an original music score and thousands of sound effects by the award winning Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air. It marks their fourth collaboration with one of the most celebrated fiction writers of our time: Ray Bradbury.

©1946 Ray Bradbury (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Wonderful, Absolutley Wonderful

The Colonial Radio Players are a remarkable group that dramatizes various works and does it with such finesse. The Martian Chronicles is no exception; I have read this classic by Ray Bradbury many times but this dramatization makes the book come alive in a way that I have never experienced before. I highly recommend this or any other dramatization by The Colonial Radio Players. Especially at the price they are asking for such works. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

Adaptation of the Revised Edition

This is a complete adaptation of the revised 1990's edition of The Martian Chronicles, which means that it does not include the story Way in the Middle of the Air, but adds The Wilderness and The Fire Balloons. Way in the Middle of the Air was removed from the 90's editions of the book most likely because it examines racial prejudice in America around the time the story was written (1950) and uses the "N" word. It was replaced with The Wilderness in the revised editions. The Fire Balloons was added to the British edition of The Martian Chronicles known as The Silver Locusts, and is also included in The Illustrated Man.

This is an extremely faithful dramatization taken directly from the book. Its probably as faithful an adaptation as could possibly be performed, hence the long running time. The performances are very Bradbury-esque, meaning a little over the top but wonderfully alive.

There are neat sound effects and some occasional music on the soundtrack. The Martian Chronicles itself is a very musical book, mentioning music in a number of its chapters, the music in this dramatization fits right in and compliments those parts of the stories.

Altogether, this is a great buy and a perfect companion to the unabridged reading of the original edition narrated by Ray Bradbury that's also available on Audible.

Exciting Story

If you love Bradbury this is the audio book for you. This production is a professional production that surpasses anything from the golden age of radio.
Sound effects, voices and script are right on! The best!

At $2.95 you can't go wrong...

I've read the book many times. I found this performance very true to the book, and enjoyable. I listened to it almost straight through one evening while puttering about. It was easy to follow, and the performance was believable. Well worth the money.

very slow-moving story

not even an amazing cast of narrators could save the story just not a compelling listen

The Gold Standard of Bradbury's Tale...

Jerry Robbins and the Colonial Radio Theater have created the finest audio production bar none of this Bradbury classic. Not to be missed and highly recommend!

The CRP Best Performance Ever

This adaptation of Ray Bradbury's classic collection "The Martian Chronicles" is one of my favorite readings.

It isn't a terrible mash-up / conglomeration

What disappointed you about The Martian Chronicles: A Radio Dramatization?

Nothing really disappointed me. But at the same time, it didn't captivate me or entertain me like the individual stories did. Having listened to many of these segments on X-Minus-1, suspense, etc. or having read the original short stories I was familiar with most of what went on. But tying them together into one story, was choppy and broken up. It just didn't captivate me, that's what disappointed me.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

As with the previous comment, nothing. It simply was there; no aspect of the story was overly memorable or not. It would have been better as separate short stories.

Which character – as performed by The Colonial Radio Players – was your favorite?

None, nothing was that memorable

What character would you cut from The Martian Chronicles: A Radio Dramatization?

None, this question seems rather inappropriate for here. The author wrote what he wrote and I would not feel right telling him so-and-so should not have been in the book(s).

Any additional comments?

Like I said, it isn't bad; it also isn't great. I would set up bookmarks to mark the changes from one story to another and treat it as such. I series of short stories strung together. The pre-defined chapters are a good starting place to find the starts of the stories.

THE REASON FOR LIFE IS LIFE

IF YOU CAN'T HAVE REALITY, A DREAM IS JUST AS GOOD
I have read the hardback a couple of times and listen to the book a couple of times. I have to say, I truly got more out of it this way. When reading, I always loved the expedition stories and the telephone story. Rock Hudson and Bernadette Peters played in the TV mini series. I always had trouble with the metaphysical parts of the stories and did not truly understand the time traveler until this performance. I am a literate type person and I always have problems with beings without bodies, etc... This performance made all that more understandable to me. I got so much more out of it performed then in reading and listening to a reading. I highly recommend this performance.

Bradbury has written a lot of great books, including Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man and others, but this has always been my favorite. The wonder of traveling to a different planet and not only our reaction, but their reaction to our visit (invasion). I love it even more now.

Decent version of the Martian Chronicles.

Good dramatization, some might say over the top but I liked it. The,stories themselves are uneven, some good and some not so good. The overall story is disjointed, it was never intended to be a single story. I liked the Rock Hudson TV movie better- It glued the stories together so that there was an overall plot. Still an enjoyable listen if you experienced the book or movie .

A reminder of how good it is

Would you consider the audio edition of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: A Radio Dramatization to be better than the print version?

Not so much better as different in a good way. A lot of it does benefit from being read out loud, and some of the musical accompaniment is very welcome. The sound effects are a bit old fashioned, not to say cheesy, but I loved them.
Some of the narration and musing is very reminiscent of the film version* of The Haunting of Hill House, which makes it feel old fashioned in a good way.
There are some moments that are somewhat diminished. The closing moments of And The Moon Be Still As Bright, in which Parkhill uses the exquisite Martian buildings for target practice and Captain Wilder responds by knocking his teeth out, work SO much better as two lines of narration rather than dialogue and a punching sound, as it is presented here. And one of my favourite stories of all time, There Will Come Soft Rains, has no narration here - if I wasn't familiar with it, I doubt I would know what was going on; also, it loses one of the most harrowing images in 50s science fiction.
But far more is conveyed than lost.
My personal recommendation is to familiarise yourself with the unabridged book (if you are not already familiar with it), then leave it a few months, and come back to this dramatisation.

*There is only one film version despite the mass delusion that there was a remake starring Catherine Zeta Jones.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Probably Captain Wilder. He sympathises with Spender's idealistic view of the Martians, but has the sense not to kill people over it; his integrity does his career no favours, but at least his conscience is clear.

Have you listened to any of The Colonial Radio Players’s other performances? How does this one compare?

I have not. They certainly work well in this adaptation because the book is meant to have a lyrical, fairy-tale quality. I don't know what they'd be like with a gritty piece of realism, but I'd be interested to find out.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Oh, I'd give it some lame tag line that would put off everybody except hardcore Bradbury fans - and probably most of them too. "Welcome to the Mars of future past."
I understand they are making a film, but doubt they could make a really faithful. The TV miniseries had its moments but they couldn't handle the idea of having no central character, so Rock Hudson was everybody.

Any additional comments?

There were a few decisions I would not have made myself. For one, the chronology follows the revised version - 1999 got changed to 2030, and so on, which seems pointless as we already know Mars is not really like the Mars in the book, a lot of the language is of its time (spaceships are called rockets and everyone fears an atomic war) and the extra three decades detract from the nostalgia for the time the book was written.
Both Usher II and The Fire Balloons feature in this version. Neither fit terribly well in my opinion. Meanwhile The One With The N Word (not its actual title!) is not in it, presumably because Bradbury's criticism of racism was misinterpreted, hence its removal from some book editions.
Also, I've always had problems with [spoiler] everyone abandoning Mars after the atomic devastation. "Earth needs us!" seems to be the only motivation for going back, but surely a sizeable portion of the population would remain in their new home. Finally, the closing story, The Million Year Picnic, ends on a really twee note - I don't understand why so many people quote it as if it were the most insightful scene in all of science fiction.
But apart from that, it's a lovely book, and this is a lovely interpretation of it.

Not for me

Would you try another book written by Ray Bradbury or narrated by The Colonial Radio Players?

I have read other Ray Bradbury books - Something Wicked This Way Comes was excellent, but I think the dramatisation just didn't work for me. There were also some really annoying sound effects.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

It's an interesting concept and it was probably just that I wasn't in the mood for a more philosophical story.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Not sure if it was the narration - which was done by actors, or just that the characters bugged me! Probably unfair to say the narration was poor, but I didn't enjoy the story being done as a radio play.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes I think I would be able to deal with the subject matter better if I could see it rather than hear it.

Any additional comments?

I'm sure I read this story a long time ago and didn't get annoyed by it, so I think perhaps I just don't like dramatised versions.

unusual

Really strange but i kept listening, it had some interesting things in it to think about. kept me entertained

Got a bit lost but in the end what a great set of stories

I spent several weeks listening to the book on and off and got a little lost at times. But when you get to the end and see what it was all about and how the stories are loosely joined you really appreciate it. I’d recommend to hang on in there when you start. It really is worth it. And read the Wikipedia entry on the stories after you’ve finished. It really does tie things up nicely.

craziest story ever. quite hard to follow but

quite hard to follow but worth sticking with! pretty scary stuff. sleep with the lights on!

good fun

Great story and really good actors and sfx.
enjoyed every minute of it.
5 stars

Intriguing Martian tale

Bradbury's classic tales are dated by scientific developments but still fascinating and relevant. They deal with timeless questions of humanity and still topical ones of environmental responsibility. This is a workmanlike and satisfactory adaptation. It never quite reaches the heights but does not disappoint.

Martian chronicles

Exhausting and awkward American performance that missed the real drama of the original by being overly theatrical.

Excellent - the story is still great

This story is still as fresh as when I read it 50 years ago. The dramatization is first rate

Good

This is a enjoyable drama from the colonial radio theatre. I liked the story and I liked how the cast brought the story to life.