Martian Chronicles
Chapter 1 January 1999 Rocket Summer
This chapter described an Ohio winter melting away as the first rocket to Mars took flight. The heat from the rocket was so intense that it melted snow falling from the sky and all the fallen snow on the ground in a nearby town.
 Chapter 2 February 1999 Ylla
This chapter showed the reader the lifestyle of a Martian married couple. Like any Earth couple, they too were experiencing the sometimes boring, taken for granted life of marriage. The characters Ylla and her husband, Yll, live in a stream and mist filled, silver lava cooking home. Yll concentrates on his books and how they read aloud to him. Ylla longs to have Yll's attention again. Then Ylla experiences a vision of a silver ship coming to Mars with a man named Nathaniel York. He wants to take her back to Earth with him. By telling Yll of her vision, he
becomes jealous and tricks Ylla into staying at home while he meets the rocket at the appointed time. The story of "just going hunting" is actually Yll's jealousy taking care of Nathaniel York and Earth's first attempt to find life on Mars.
Chapter 3 August 1999 The Summer Night
The setting of this chapter shows the Martians enjoying a summer evening listening to entertainment, children playing and just enjoying each other's company. Suddenly the singer sings in a different language singing a song that has never been heard before. The musicians are playing music they have never played before. Children are reciting nursery rhymes that they have never heard before and in a language they have never heard before. The Martians panic. They try to soothe each other. Women are awakened from their sleep screaming that "Something terrible will happen in the morning and that it is coming
nearer and nearer.
(As with chapter 2, the Martians are linked telepathically with the humans on the way to Mars.)
Chapter 4 August 1999 The Earth Men
The Second Expedition to Mars is headed by Captain Jonathan Williams and his crew of 3 men. At this time, Mars has experienced many Martians believing themselves to be from Earth and other planets. The captain and his crew, overjoyed that they have landed, try desperately to convince the Martians that they are truly from Earth. No one believes them and they end up in an insane asylum. Their psychologist will not be convinced that they are real. He congratulates them on their ability to project their hallucinations to others so realistically by telepathy. Even after exploring their rocket he still believes it all to be a hallucination and the
only cure is to kill the patient so the hallucinations do not become contagious. His theory is that once the patient is dead the hallucinations will disappear. After killing the captain and all three crew members, the psychologist cannot offer any explanation to the bodies and rocket still existing other than he must have "caught" something and now he is insane too. The only cure? Right! He kills himself as well. The rocket ship is found the next morning and hauled off for scrap metal since no one knows what it is and no one is claiming it.
Chapter 5 March 2000 The Taxpayer
The purpose of this chapter shows the reader that Earth is not a good place to be anymore. The character Pritchard is begging to be placed on a rocket to Mars even though he knows the first two expeditions didn't make it. He pleads that since he is a good person and a taxpayer that he should be allowed to board the rocket and give his services to the expedition. He screams that he doesn't want to be on Earth anymore because an atomic war is coming. The men in uniform told him to shut up and go away. Later he is arrested and taken away and sees the rocket taking off for Mars without him.
 Chapter 6 April 2000 The Third Expedition The third attempt to land on Mars is also a success. The crew has only lost one man during the trip but the other sixteen crewmen are fine. When they land, their first thought is that they have gone back in time to Green Bluff, Illinois because the landscape is so much like it. Captain John Black is skeptical when he first lands and orders the crew to stay on the ship. Lustig, Hinkston and Black will go out into the Martian towns to investigate. Suddenly Lustig sees a familiar home site and both of his Grandparents. He rushes to them and they greet him with open arms. When Black learns that these people have been dead for the past thirty years,
he is ready to leave. Grandma Lustig explains that they have been given a second chance at life here on the planet Mars and that Black should not be asking questions as to why or why not God has given them this second chance. It is then that Black notices that the crew has left the ship and is currently meeting and greeting their deceased loved ones. Everyone has left the ship and they are now vulnerable to anything. Lustig explains that the men have not gone against orders; they are just overwhelmed by seeing their loved ones. Just as Captain Black is about to retrieve them all, he sees his brother, Edward approaching him. (His brother died at the age of 26.) Because the Captain is so caught up with his brother, Lustig and Hinkston excuse themselves to go visit with their own family members. Captain John Black is then reunited with his parents and his brother for a wonderful evening dinner. When it is time for bed he has time to
think about the day and all that has happened. He starts to think about the trip, Mars, Earth, Martians, family, Martians, dead family, MARTIANS!!!!!!!!!!! He starts to put together a possible attack plan by the Martians. What if, through telepathy, the Martians were able to shape change and look like the family members of the crew? What if, they had prepared to disarm these Earth men by means of catching them off guard with loved ones' faces? What if they had planned to welcome all crew members into their homes and then kill them? Just then he begins to get a little nervous. He gets up to go back to his ship and his "brother" asks where he is going. When Captain Black tries
to lie and say he is going down to get a drink of water, his "brother" tells him that he is not thirsty. Too bad. Black knows he is doomed and so are all of his men. His screams are heard, but there is no one to help him now. The next day there are sixteen funerals and the "family members" pretend to cry as their faces slowly start to turn back into their Martian images.
Chapter 7 June 2001 --And the Moon Be Still As Bright
This is the fourth expedition to land on Mars. They have heard nothing from the three that came before. Each man, while hoping that there still may be survivors from the previous attempts, also hopes in secret that they can be the first to claim this planet. When they arrive they can tell that the planet and its inhabitants are dead from a disease from Earth called Chicken Pox. Spender and Captain Wilder, try to treat this magnificent planet with the respect that it deserves. Spender seems to think that Earth men will pollute the planet like they have done Earth. He is right. His fellow crew members begin with wild parties and leaving beer bottles in
the canals. Spender leaves the crew and disappears for about a week and when he returns he says that he has met a Martian and then he begins killing his crew, one by one. Captain Wilder then realizes that he must kill Spender to protect the rest of his men. They hunt Spender down in the Martian towns and when they find him, Spender requests a meeting with his Captain to explain his position. While together Spender explains that he cannot stop because what he believes is enough to fight for. He wants the Captain to stay with him because he knows the Captain understands. The Captain, of course, cannot join Spender and they civily agree that the Captain must return to his men and launch an attack against Spender. The Captain ends up being the one who does kill Spender and by his actions at the end of the chapter, we see that he is going to try to protect Mars.
 Chapter 8 August 2001 --The Settlers This chapter describes the people who headed for Mars to get the planet set up for others. There were not many who went, but those who did were pioneers ready to leave what they know for the unknown.
.................................to be continued.
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