Puss Reboots: Blog: November 2010: The Real Martian Chronicles

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Amor Fugit by Alexandra Duncan
Babymouse: The Musical by Jennifer Holm
The Broken Ear by Georges Remi Hergé
City Makers by Remi A. Nadeau
Cowboy and Octopus by Jon Scieszka
Crow Call by Lois Lowry
The Department of Mad Scientists by Michael Belfiore
Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia
The Fairy Princess by Dennis Danvers
Ground Truth edited by John Pickles
Hell of a Fix by Matthew Hughes
How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell
I Miss You Everyday by Simms Taback
Inside Job by Connie Willis
King & King by Linda de Haan
The Light, The Dark and Ember Between by J.W. Nicklaus
Monsters on Machines by Deb Lund
Night of the Ninjas (MTH #5) by Mary Pope Osborne
Peppermints in the Parlor by Barbara Brooks Wallace
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen
The Real Martian Chronicles by John Sladek
San Francisco Then and Now by Bill Yenne
The Secret Lives of Fairy Tales by Steven Popkes
Selfless by David Michael Slater
Singer of Souls by Adam Stemple
Strange But True America by John Hafnor
Sugar Would Not Eat It by Emily Jenkins
ttyl by Lauren Myracle
Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

The Real Martian Chronicles: 11/25/10

John Sladek died in 2000. "The Real Martian Chronicles" was apparently found in his papers and was previous unpublished. Although I've been reading humorous science fiction for most of my life, I've never run into Sladek's work before. Now that I have, I hope to track down his other books and stories.

"The Real Martian Chronicles" is one of the funniest stories I've ever read The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It's written in diary form and is about a British family moving to a Martian colony and trying to make a normal life for themselves.

While there's big stuff going on behind the scenes, the protagonist is worrying about mundane things like having enough custard. His always upbeat tone of voice no matter what he's describing is a big part of what makes this story work. It reminds me quite favorably of Martian Time Slip by Philip K. Dick except that it's shorter and sillier.