The Thrilling Conclusion of The Crystal World

     So, with all the foreshadow the world around, with all the delightful plot developments (none of which really seem to draw you in or even really concern you), how possibly could this amazing book end?  By a general discussion about how the world is changing, like hiding the fact that Florida has been crystallized or how it was slowly going to overtake us all.  There had been blatant signs pointing out that being crystallized was amazing and a communing with God or something along that lines, like it doesn't kill you but unifies you.  Well, our main character with his weak personality becomes partially crystallized and nope, nothing except that rubies and gems hold in themselves light which seems to be time and melts the crystals for a short period of time.  Good to know but nothing amazing.  I don't understand why this one was considered an amazing book but I suppose I'm not on the board of 501 Books to Read because I certainly would not have picked it. 

     In the end, I was more disappointed than not, that's for sure.  It was hard to get through because the main character was petty and fickle with his love choices and then he leaves both of them to go wandering and keeps bumbling into situations and never are explained or even resolved.  So be it.  Good bye boring book, I've read you and am already trying to forget having done so.

      Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles are short, maybe 5-10 page stories time-lining our colonization of Mars and the effects of Martians and being interplanetary colonists have on both sides of the water.  It was started as random short stories in the 1940's and 1950's.  They were then compiled from their various magazines into a single short book with added original compositions to flesh out and complete them all.  It is a classic and in the sense of being an original and in the sense of being antiquated.  For example: in the year 2010 there is a census that put 10,000 people on Venus let alone Mars, if I remember correctly.  Tada.  It's the classic belief in space travel being the shaping drive of science for the next 50 years and a swift exponential increase of technology to match our ambitions to breach outwards into the last place we can look, beyond this planet.  If you enjoy sci-fi this is the most basic need and dream of the sci-fi.  It has more than just a classic that simply has plot.  This follows the rule of Nietzsche and the abyss of space and aliens looks back onto the human race.  This interacting relationship between man, the dream, and the Other makes even the oddest stories the best.  If I were to vote on this I say two thumbs up and a Irish jig.