Mars is Heaven!
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| "Mars is Heaven!" | |
| Author | Ray Bradbury |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction short story |
| Media type | Print (Magazine) |
| Publication date | 1948 |
"Mars is Heaven!" is a science fiction short story by Ray Bradbury originally published in 1948. "Mars is Heaven!" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one the best science fiction short stories of all time. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929-1964. It also appears as the sixth chapter of The Martian Chronicles, entitled "The Third Expedition" and set forty years later.
[edit] Plot summary
It is 1960, and the first spaceship from Earth is landing on Mars, where the crew are shocked to discover a Rockwellian small town. The people who live there believe it to be 1926. Soon, crew members discover old friends and deceased relatives in the town. Those who had been ordered to stay behind and guard the rocket abandon their post in order to join the reunions and festivities.
Members of the crew split up to spend the night in the homes of their lost comrades and relatives. The ship's captain, John Black, remains skeptical, and realizes in the middle of the night that the entire situation may have been contrived by telepathic aliens to lower the Earthmen's guards. Before he can warn the others or reestablish a guard on the spaceship, he is proved right as he and the entire staff of the ship are killed.
