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Rocket Summer
A rocket lands in Ohio, large enough to melt the snow and create a temporary summer in a small town. -
Ylla
We are introduced to the Martians, one of which is named Ylla, and her husband, Yll. Ylla has strange vision like dreams where a human lands on Mars and befriends her. Her husband is upset by this, and when he finds out where the rocket wil land, he goes there and kills the astronauts on board. -
The Summer Night
Across mars, martians start singing and thinking in English, a language that they don't know how to speak. Their minds have detected the incoming earth men and this happens as a result. They are terrified because of it. -
The Earth Men
The second expedition reaches mars and the men meet martians. The martian people do not believe that they are from Earth, thinking that they are just hallucinating and projecting themselves as earth men. The men are put into an insane asylum. The captain tries to prove his sanity by taking the martian Mr. Xxx to his rocket. Mr. Xxx thinks it is a continuation of the hallucination, so he shoots the captain and his crew. When they are dead and the "hallucination" is still there, he kills himself. -
The Taxpayer
A man named Pritchard on Earth begs to be taken to mars because he wants to escape the potential war. He claims he is entitled to go because he pays his taxes. -
The Third Expedition
A new group of men from Earth go to mars, this time finding a town filled with their dead loved ones. A few men are doubtful, but eventually they all accept it and spend time with their long lost family and friends. At night, the captain realizes that it is a hallucination projected by the martians just before he and the rest of the crew is klled. The martians hold an Earth style funeral for the crew. -
-and the Moon Be Still as Bright
A fourth expedition lands on mars to find that the martians had been wiped out by chicken pox brought to the planet by previous expeditions. Spender, an archaeologist, gets offended by the disrespectful actions of his crew and abandons them. He comes back a few days later and kills five members of the crew, claiming to be the last martian. He goes on the run, attempts to convince the captain to join him, but eventually gives himself up and is killed. -
The Settlers
More and more people leave Earth to colonize Mars. They view Earth outside the rocket windows and grow homesick, realizing their entire lives are insignificant and small. -
The Green Morning
A man named Benjamin Driscol can hardly breathe on Mars and is told to go back to Earth. He refuses and decides to plany as many trees as he can. One day, it rains, and all the trees grow fully in a matter of minutes. The humans are transforming mars into what they want it to be. -
The Locusts
Thousands more humans make the journey to Mars. They build their own towns and settle in. The humans are taking control of mars and making it their own. -
Night Meeting
A human and a martian meet on the side of a highway (which sounds like the start of a bad joke) and find out that they seem to be living in two different worlds. The martian sees a martian city full of martians, while the human sees a human town full of humans. Neither the martian nor the human can touch each other. They eventually accept this and part ways. -
The Shore
Many more men come to Mars, all of them American. They come from all different walks of life and are all going to Mars to get away from something. -
The Fire Balloon
A group of priests arrive on Mars with the mission of 'saving' the men there from their sins. However, father Peregrine discovers that an ancient Martian race exists and that it seems to be intelligent as it saves the lives of people. He travels up into the mountains with the intention of converting these blue orb-like beings but eventually realize that they have found God on their own and transcended to a plane of existence beyond them, without the need of bodies anymore. -
The Interim
Humans continue to develop Mars, building new towns and making Mars more and more like home. -
The Musicians
Children hike up to the ruins of old Martian cities and play in the ashes and bones of the Martians. The Firemen, a group of men dedicated to burning the remains of the Martians that once lived there, eventually get rid of the remains. -
Period: to
The Naming of Names
Humans name the places and towns on Mars after things that matter to them. The old Martian names for the places are lost and in its place are the humans. -
Usher II
Stendahl, a man who owned a library that was burned down by the "Moral Climate" censors on Earth, travels to Mars and builds a multi-million dollar haunted mansion based on Edgar Allen Poe and other famous literary works. A Moral Climate Investigator named Garret arrives to investigate and tear down the house. Stendahl kills him, but it ends up just being a robot. He hosts a party, killing the guests while their robot counterparts look on. Garret arrives again, this time in person. -
The Old Ones
Old people begin to come to mars in large numbers for retirement. -
The Martian
A lone martian appears in the form of a man and wifes long dead son. The man knows what the martian really is, but goes along with it because the martian begs him to and he doesn't want to give up more time with his son anyways. One day they go into town and the martian can not control himself. He changes into another family's lost daughter. The man gets him to come back with him, but a crowd follows them and the martian flickers between many different people, eventually dying because of it. -
The Luggage Store
War on Earth is just about to begin, and nearly everyone prepares to leave Mars to go back to Earth. -
The Off Season
Sam Parkhill, one of the disrespectful members of the fourth expedition, builds a hot dog stand on the side of a highway by a large city. A martian comes to talk to him, but Sam grows paranoid because of his greed and shoots the martian before he can deliver his message. Sam grabs his wife and takes off on a stolen martian sand ship, folowed closely by a fleet of martians. He kills a few more martians, but eventually is caught. He is given half the planet. Later, Earth seems to explode. -
The Watchers
Earth is experiencing a great war. Many population centers have been attacked with atomic bombs. A message from Earth reaches the people on Mars, telling them to come home. With very few exceptions, they do. -
The Silent Towns
Walter Gripp appears to be the last man on the planet. He begins to go insane in his lonely, silent town. He manages to make contact on the phone with a woman named Genevieve, and goes out looking for her. Eventually, they meet, and she is not what he expected. She tries to force Walter to marry her, and he runs away. He would rather be completely alone than with her. -
The Long Years
Mr. Hathaway, another one of the fourth expedition crew members, is still on Mars. Captain Wilder and his crew come back to mars after exploring other planets and find Hathaway and his 'family.' His family hasn't aged in twenty years. Wilder and his crew realize that Hathaway's family died and he built a robotic family to cope with the loneliness. Hathaway dies shortly after Wilder arrives, and Wilder leaves for Earth, letting the robot family live in peace. -
There Will Come Soft Rains
A house on Earth whose occupants died in an atomic blast continues to operate, going through its day to day functions. Then a tree crashes through the house, setting it on fire. The house tries to save itself but it eventually burns down. -
The Million-Year Picnic
The Hathaways are a family made up of a mom and dad and their three sons. They have escaped to Mars in their personal rocket. When they arrive, the father blows up the rocket and claims another family with daughters is coming to join them and they are going to save the human race from itself. The boys are upset at first, but when the father shows them the cities they "own," they begin to accept their new life.
