The blue cover of the classical Portuguese SF book collection edited long ago by Caminho graces one of my most dear books. It's a very suspect book, guilty of deviating my childhood mind from more orthodox readings. Quite the dangerous influence, I'd say, because since reading it i was forever unable to return to those books deemed important. You know whose I mean. Those recommended by teachers and critics, receivers of the highest literary honors. Utterly impossible, after savoring the tales in that yellowish blue book I could return nevermore. Before knowing what concepts such as surrealism, space opera, or magical realism meant the spiraling towers of the decaying ruins on the dusty shores under the red martian sky were imprinted in my mind. The Martian Chronicles was the book that made me discover and fall in love with science fiction.
What I've received from The Martian Chronicles was the first inkling of the stylistic element that distinguishes SF from other forms of literature: the sense of wonder, that far-reaching mood of boundless fascination with science, vast universe and pure adventure.
Bradbury's work is a constant in my life. I keep returning to his oneiric Mars, as well as tasting again and again his golden apples, machineries of joy, graveyards for lunatics, illustrated persons, flying men grounded by emperors, crushed butterflies that subtly change mankind's history, poetic chance encounters where men and alien beings find that they have so much in common, mechatronic dinosaurs, firemen that fall in love with the books they're supposed to burn, and rockets, rocket summers, glorious, fiery lancets that rip the skies and free mankind to dream of more distant frontiers. These, and so many other tales that delight by the purity of narrative, naivete tempered with knowledge, passion with forgotten elements of pop-cultural lore. A prolific writer and one of the great voices of the 20th Century, his legacy is delightful and marvelous.
Coelho, A. (2006). Crónicas Marcianas. Retrieved 03/12/13 from http://intergalacticrobot.blogspot.pt/2006/02/crnicas-marcianas.html
Coelho, A. (2012). Farewell, Mr. Bradbury. Retrieved 03/12/13 from http://intergalacticrobot.blogspot.pt/2012/06/farewell-mr-bradbury.html
Candeias, J. (2008). Bibliowiki: Crónicas Marcianas. Retrieved 03/12/13 from http://bibliowiki.com.pt/index.php/Cr%C3%B3nicas_Marcianas_(Caminho,_1985)
Ray Bradbury (1985). Crónicas Marcianas. Lisboa: Caminho.
