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The Shore
The settlers of Mars have come, in very distinct waves. The first waves of men were American pioneers, accustomed to loneliness, and their job was to make the planet a little less lonely. The second wave of men should have been those from other countries, but as war threatens Earth, the rockets bringing settlers to Mars come only from America. As a result, the second waves are also American, but Americans from cities, who live in tenements and poverty and are happy to exist with silences. -
The Fire Balloons
Father Peregrine, Father Stone, and some other Episcopal priests are heading off to Mars. Father Peregrine wants to go convert him some natives; Stone thinks they should just concentrate on making the human sinners feel bad about themselves. The priests have heard of a second race of Martians who look like spheres of blue fire, so they go and try to convert these blue spheres instead.
Peregrine is convinced that these blue globes are intelligent and have souls. They end up building churches. -
Night Meeting
Tomas Gomez= Human from Earth
Muhe Ca= Martian from Mars
Tomas meets an old man and they talk about how time is so strange on Mars, as well as everything else. Later, he meets a martian that goes by the name of Muhe. They get along as they compare and contrast each different thing about their planets. Time is a heavily brought up topic for both of them. Besides that, they cannot touch each other, but they do have the ability to speak to one another. -
Interim
Humans build and remake houses on Mars that represent ones similar to the ones on Earth. -
The Musicians
Young boys on Mars go hiking.They play with the dead bodies of Martians. They have to play while the playing's good, because the Firemen are coming to burn all the bodies. -
The Wilderness
Janice is conquering her fear to go to Mars because her friend, Will, is already there. Janice and Leonora hit us over the head with some themes by talking about how colonizing Mars is a lot like settling the Old West. They say goodbye to their town one last time; Janice calls Will on the lightphone, which is apparently a piece of technology that hasn't made it through the Apple labs yet, but the only message that gets through from Mars is "love." -
The Naming of Names
The Earth men renamed Mars, and Mars is safe now. -
Usher II
William Stendahl has paid a huge sum of money to build a haunted house on Mars, basing the design on Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, especially "The Fall of the House of Usher." Stendahl has stocked his house with scary robots based on Poe, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and other creepy classic stories. The Investigator of Moral Climates, Mr. Garrett, comes to investigate and ultimately wants the house torn down, but he gets killed before that could happen... oops! -
The Old Ones
After Mars is made safe and boring, old people come to retire there. It's kind of like Florida and how all the old people flee there to escape the snow and the winter. -
The Martian
Lafe and Anna LaFarge are an old married couple who are on Mars to forget their dead son, Tom who died from pneumonia. Anna accepts Tom quicker than Lafe, who then leaves the door unlocked at night so he can come in. When Tom gets close to other people, he starts to change his appearance. When Tom gets close to the Spaulding family, he looks like their lost daughter Lavinia and forgets all about being Tom. He ends up dying from overwhelms. -
The Luggage Store
Father Peregrine comes to talk to the luggage-store owner about the war that's coming on Earth. The luggage-store owner argues that people will return to Earth because that's still their home. He decides to keep his store open because he thinks people will soon be going back to Earth. -
The Watchers
Hearing the news of possible war, a lot of the colonists on Mars come out to watch the Earth at night.T hey see explosions all over the Earth. The survivors on Earth radio up to the people on Mars to come home. -
The Silent Towns
Walter Gripp is the last man on Mars. He was an isolated miner when the war happened, which is why he missed all the rockets going back to Earth; he hears a phone ringing and it's the last woman on Mars, Genevieve Selsor. Genevieve brings out a wedding dress, Gripp runs away and lives happily by himself. -
The Off Season
Sam Parkhill from "And The Moon Still As Bright", returns and now is married to Elma. Sam has elaborate plans for operating the best hot dog stand on Mars, but the last few Martians seem to be bothering him. Sam shoots one Martian. Then, when the others come to talk to him, he jumps into his Martian sand ship, and tries to outrun them. But they catch up and tell him the good news: they're giving half of Mars to him, even though he just killed one of them. -
The Long Years
Dr. Hathaway, his wife Alice, daughters Marguerite and Susan, son John, are all living on Mars. They missed the rockets going home because they were off doing archeology in the hills. Wilder and his crew are happy to meet Hathaway, though it's a little weird that Hathaway is so old and his family is so young. Hathaway dies and is buried in the family cemetery. Wilder talks to Alice about how she's a robot and how Hathaway survived all these years by pretending that he wasn't alone. -
There Will Comes Soft Rains
Allendale, California, on Earth, an automated house goes on its automated way. Every hour is announced and the house does what's it's supposed to do. Toward the end of the day, a strong wind breaks a window and starts a fire.The house tries to contain the fire, but it can't, and the fire triumphs. -
The Million-Year Picnic
Timothy and his family are off on a vacation on Mars. Tim is old enough to know that something is a little weird.They're supposed to go fishing, but his dad is nervous and sad, especially when he talks about Earth and the war going on there. It turns out that the family isn't here for a vacation—they're staying on Mars forever. Dad saved a rocket for just this occasion.
