Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why Mars? Could the stories have taken place on Venus or Jupiter, or does it have to be Mars? Is Mars a realistic place in the stories? Is it a mix of reality and fantasy?
- Do you sense any nostalgia for the past in The Martian Chronicles? Which do you think Bradbury would say is best: the past, the present, or the future? Why?
- How does the book's format of interlinked short stories help (or hinder, for that matter) Bradbury's point? How might the book have been different as a traditional novel?
- At least one critic accuses Bradbury of inserting his opinions into the stories too much. Do you agree? And would it even be possible for a writer not to insert his opinions into a story?
- Why might the publishers have chosen to replace "Way in the Middle of the Air" with "The Wilderness"? How are the stories similar?
- What exactly is "science fiction" about this book? How important is the science—why, for example, couldn't this book simply be fantasy about an entirely different world?
- Do the stories seem to change over the course of the book? What's different about the last stories when compared to the first? How does the tone change, if at all?
- Could Bradbury be called either an optimist or a pessimist? Which label seems to fit him better?