The Martian Chronicles

This was a reread for a 1950s SF challenge,where we were asked would this book still be read in a hundred years. I definitely think it will be.There is a complexity of viewpoints and themes enough that the book will always strike a chord somewhere. Fear of a nuclear war destroying earth may be in abeyance at the moment,but that insistence in trampling over and simply destroying other cultures than its own is as rampant as ever,as is the destruction of the environment by crass commercialism and greed. The book is more a dream than an actual depiction of colonizing Mars,and its elegiac style,poetic rhythm and intense emotionalism making any outdated concepts or attitudes seem unimportant. We dont stop to pick holes in dodgy science or even sneer at some sentimentality (would everyone go back home in the case of a nuclear war? sounds unlikely!) because we are moving on to the next little vignette which gives us a rush of nostalgia,awe at the martian landscape,sadness at mans seeming inability to learn from mistakes etc etc. The whole work is suffused with delicious irony from beginning to end,and this neutralises any sugariness enough. That irony will be what preserves this book for the future I believe. A true classic.