The Exiles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Exiles is a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury. This story was originally published in 1950 by Fantasy Fiction, Inc. It is included in the collection A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories (2005).
[edit] Plot summary
The crew of a rocket ship headed for the planet Mars is dying and plagued by nightmarish visions and dreams. Meanwhile, the people living on Mars - prominent authors such as Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Ambrose Bierce - are also dying, fading from existence as the people of Earth burn their books, outlawed a century ago for their superstitious themes. The last copies that survived, brought with him by the captain acting on an unknown hunch, are all that stand in the way of the destruction of the literary race of Martian people.