Having read some science fiction now, and seen movies about martian travel all my life, this book was a refreshing new perspective on the red planet. Bradbury writes naieve superficial stories that skim the surface of the fantasy world that mars must have seemed to readers in the early part of last century. Having now seen actual video recorded on the surface of the planet it has lost much of it's luster in recent years. But in Bradbury's world it is stage to extraterrestrial, as well as racial and cultural conflict; home to shape shifting psychics, and american mavericks and hermits. The picture he paints is one that seems more like the American southwest complete with disenfranchised natives, than the Mars we see in popular culture today. I found this book immensely entertaining for it's commentary on the human condition, not for it's futurism.