The Martian Chronicles

The Martian Chronicles Summary | Plot Summary

The novel, originally published in 1949, opens with the Earth readying for war in the "future" of 1999, and finds the first explorers sent to Mars in an effort to forge new ground for civilization. Simultaneously, the inhabitants of Mars, a race of highly intelligent and civilized humanoid creatures of light brown skin and yellow eyes, are living peacefully in their centuries-old homes, built of the native grasses and materials of a dry, yet thriving planet. Their lives, much like those of Earth's population, center on literature, religion, music, nature, and the relationships they have with one another, and with their history.

Communicating telepathically, the Martian population knows of the explorers' arrival long before the first rocket lands in Green Valley. Strange thoughts in a new language begin to fill their heads, while songs not yet heard on Mars begin to flow from the lips of the young and old alike. Children begin reciting nursery rhymes their civilization has not yet taught. One woman in particular, Ylla K, dreams of a white-skinned man with dark hair and blue eyes, and finds herself attracted to him in a way she cannot explain to her husband.

Thus begins the chronicle of Earth's inhabitation of Mars. As the first explorers are killed by a jealous husband, Earth readies a second rocket launch, filled with new explorers. Upon landing, Captain Jonathan Williams and his crew are not welcomed as expected, but are brushed off as a nuisance. Sent to a large banquet hall, the four men find themselves in a Martian insane asylum, filled with others from the population who believe they are space travelers. The four are eventually "euthanized" to cure their psychotic condition.

A third expedition is launched as Earth continues a decent into war. Captain John Black and the sixteen members of his crew, ordered to land on the opposite side of Mars, are welcomed by relatives long since deceased on Earth, and, despite their clear reservations, all are taken into the relative's homes. Too late, the men discover the Martian plot to transform into the characters found within the minds of the men in order to gain the Earthlings' confidence. During the first night, the entire crew is killed.

It is with the fourth expedition in 2001 that the effects of Earth's influences on the population of Mars are clearly seen. Upon landing, the crew, lead by Captain Wilder and accompanied by an archeologist named Spendor, finds the Martian population virtually exterminated by an outbreak of chicken pox, brought by the first three expeditions. Spendor, unable to come to terms with what he knows to be the eventual invasion of Mars by the commercial industries and intrusive population of Earth, decides to kill his team members. Following an amicable conversation with Wilder, Spendor is killed, and the exodus to Mars begins.

In August of 2001, Mars sees the first of the settlers. Building cities of Earth materials, planting tress to add oxygen, and bringing with them the culture of their homeland, the new inhabitants begin to slowly convert Mars into a secondary Earth. Small children desecrate the age-old cities of the Martian ancestors, unruly men destroy the crystal pillars and grass homes of deceased Martians, and, as Spendor predicted, the commercialization and destruction of Mars by civilized humans begins in earnest. Back on Earth, the threat of war looms even larger, and the black citizens, still working as slaves and second-class individuals, embark together to Mars in search of freedom, as do those seeking to free themselves of the Moral Climate and other government organizations. Mars becomes a virtual battleground for the age-old conflicts of Earth.

When war finally comes to Earth in 2005, the new inhabitants of Mars depart for their homeland. Frightened of losing what they know as home, hundreds of thousands leave Mars, deserting their newly made cities and leaving behind the wreckage of a once beautiful planet. The individuals from Earth who remain on Mars, while few in number, live alone in solitary towns or build companions resembling their lost loved ones. They are not aware that much of the population of Earth has been destroyed by the war, or that their own age-old cities have burned to the ground as their planet is destroyed by atomic bombs.

As war continues to ravage what is left of the Earth 25 years later, a family of five lands in a rocket on Mars. Desperate to flee a dying planet, William Thomas, a former state governor and his family, including a pregnant wife and three sons, begin to make a life for themselves in this new home. Another family, the Edward's, is to follow these brave settlers with their four daughters. Burning the Constitution and other papers of a civilization that no longer exists in order to keep warm, the family sees their reflection in the canal and knows they are looking at the real Martians of 2026, as they begin to start a new civilization.