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Rocket Summer
In January of 1999, a rocket is launched from Ohio. It creates so much warmth that all the snow melts, and for a moment it is summer. -
Ylla
In Febuary of the same year we get a look at Ylla and Yll, an unhappily married Martian couple who used to be in love.
You know they're meant to be together, because they've practically got the same name. Now she does the housework while he ignores her. So, your ordinary 1940s couple.
Ylla starts to have some scandalous dreams about an Earth Man named Nathaniel York, who will hop on over to Earth, tell her she's pretty, and sweep her off her feet. Yll heads off with his gun, to kill York. -
The Summers Night
People were gathered to watch a women sing but once she sung all that came out was a song in a different language.The audience sighed not amused. The singer was so confused with what was coming out of her mouth not knowing what she was singing. The musicians were also confused not knowing what she was singing. Then the musicians when to play and the same strange music came out. Everyone was so confused. In the middle of the night thousands of women woke up screaming. -
The Earth Men
Captain Jonathan Williams and his three-man crew arrive on Mars and just want someone to pat them on the back for being awesome. All the Martians they meet seem unimpressed with their amazing trip.The housewife Mrs. Ttt is more worried about her baking. And Mr. Iii just wants them to fill out forms.Sounds a lot like an ordinary day on Earth.Finally, the Earth Men meet some Martians who are impressed enough to throw them a party.However one Martin thinks they're crazy and shoots them and himself -
The Taxpayer
This chronical focuses on an Earth Man, Pritchard, who we know as the Taxpayer. The Taxpayer is worried about impending nuclear war, and he thinks that paying taxes gives him the right to hop on the spaceship. See, the Taxpayer thinks that, because he pays the taxes that presumably have built the spaceship, he should get to go to Mars, too.
But, he's wrong. Instead, he gets to go to jail. -
The Third Expedition
Captain John Black comes to Mars with his expedition of 16 men.Instead of weird Martian cities, they find a nice little Midwestern town, just like the ones that they all grew up in.
Black is suspicious, so he investigates the town with David Lustig and Sam Hinkston.Instead, they find David Lustig's dead grandparents, who tell him that they showed up on Mars after they died. The next day, the Martians hold a funeral for all the Earth Men, who tragically died. When the Martians killed them. -
-And The Moon Be Still As Bright
The Fourth Expedition lands on Mars. They discover that all the Martians have died out from chickenpox. eff Spender is awestruck by the culture the Martians left behind; but Biggs thinks it's funny to drink too much and vomit all over Martian buildings. Spender starts shooting people from the mission, however Wilder ends uo killing Spender. -
The Settlers
Just like the original pioneers who settled the American West, the first settlers on Mars are lonely, Everyone had their own reasons for wanting to go to mars; whether it was dissatisfaction with their lives, their jobs, or their towns they all had a desire to get away -
The Green Morning
We meet Benjamin Driscoll, he's having a hard time breathing, because the air on Mars is so thin for comfort. So, he plants some trees. Unfortunately it's so dry that the trees don't grow. But one night, it rains. In the morning, the trees suddenly spring up, fully grown. -
The Locusts
Just like swarms of locusts, people are arriving from Earth. All over Mars, they build houses like the ones left behind on Earth. 90 thousand humans moved to Mars and there are more to come. -
Night Meeting
Tomás Gomez, meets an old man who likes how strange and different Mars is. The old man tells Tomás that time is crazy on Mars. Next he meets a Martian named Muhe Ca. They can't touch each other, but they can talk and see each other. Gomez talks about how great his time is, and Muhe Ca talks about how great his is. -
The Shore
The first men on Mars are settlers strong enough to tame a wild frontier, and never mind those Martians—who were there before. And the first women? "Everyone knew who the first women would be" -prostitutes. -
The Fire Balloons
Father Peregrine, Father Stone, and some other Episcopal priests are heading off to Mars. 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.They'll go convert these blue spheres instead. However the Martians say no. -
Interim
Humans remake a regular Earthlike town on Mars. They bring supplies to make houses. -
The Musicians
Young boys on Mars go hiking, and they find some old Martian bones, they then start to 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. This just shows hoe the people from Earth are trying to hide everything and anything from the original Mars. -
The Wilderness
In Independence, Missouri, Janice Smith and Leonora Holmes prepare for their trip to Mars. Janice is not looking forward to her ride in a spaceship, because she was once stuck in a dark closet and fell down a flight of dark stairs. Janice and Leonora say goodbye to their town one last time—goodbye trees, goodbye chocolate malted at the soda shop, goodbye perfume. She calls her bf and the only thing said is "love". -
Usher 2
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." Unfortunately, the same people who banned fantasy on Earth have now come to Mars. tendahl destroys the House of Usher and flies away with Pikes. -
The Old Ones
After Mars is made safe and boring, old people come to retire there. Basically, Mars becomes Florida without the hurricanes and orange juice. -
The Martian
Lafe and Anna LaFarge are an old married couple. We know they're old because this story follows the interchapter entitled "The Old Ones." The LaFarges are on Mars to forget their dead son Tom.But that proves difficult when Tom shows up, the same 14-year-old he was when he died. The only problem is that when Tom gets close to other people, he starts to change his appearance. Their 'son' is a martian, who melts to dealth. -
The Naming of Names
Spender was right. Remember how he said in "—And the Moon Be Still as Bright" that the Earth Men would rename Mars? Since Mars is safe now, a whole new set of people are on their way—not just lone pioneer types, but bureaucrats and busybodies. And there goes the neighborhood. -
The Luggage Store
Father Peregrine (from "The Fire Balloons") comes to talk to the luggage-store owner about the war that's coming on Earth.
Just one of your light, humorous conversations about nuclear war. 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 Off Season
Sam Parkhill, now he's married to Elma and he's just started up a new business. Sam has elaborate plans for operating the best hot dog stand on Mars, but the last few Martians seem to be bothering him. Well, they just want to tell him something, but he panics anyway.First, Sam shoots one Martian. Then, when the others come to talk to him, he jumps into his Martian sand ship. The Martians give him half of Mars because they know no one is coming to Mars anytime soon. -
The Watchers
Hearing the news of possible war, a lot of the colonists on Mars come out to watch the Earth at night. They see explosions all over the Earth. The survivors on Earth radio up to the people on Mars to come home. So, obviously they do. Because everything, even nuclear war, is better with family. -
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.But now he's really isolated, and also really sad about it. Until, that is, he hears a phone ringing. It's the last woman on Mars, Genevieve Selsor. He finds her, but she's not exactly his dream girl. When Genevieve brings out a wedding dress, Gripp runs away and lives happily by himself. -
The Long Years
Dr. Hathaway lives all alone on Mars—except for his beautiful family.They missed the rockets going home because they were off doing archeology in the hills. One day a rocket comes down to Mars.It's Captain Wilder, who we last saw in the Fourth Expedition.Wilder sends his crewman Williamson off to investigate the cemetery, where he discovers that the four tombstones are for his real family, who has no feelings when he dies. -
There Will Come Soft Rains
In Allendale, California, an automated house goes on its automated way. Every hour is announced and the house does what's it's supposed to do. It makes breakfast in the morning for the family and lights a cigar for the husband at night. They're all dead, and the rest of the city is a heap of radioactive rubble.The only trace of the family that lived here is the shadows that burned into the side of the house when they were vaporized.The house reads Sara Teasdale's poem "There Will Come Soft Rain" -
The MIllion- Year Picnic
Timothy and his family are off on a vaction to Mars. They're supposed to go fishing, but 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. Then he goes to show the family where the Martians are. Then he brings them to a canal where they can see their reflection.