I, Mars

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About this book

On his eightieth birthday, Emil Barton faces an unexpected call in a deserted Martian town. The caller identifies himself as Barton too, but claims to be twenty. Sixty years earlier, after being left behind when the colonists returned to Earth, Barton built an elaborate telephone system to provide himself with company. Its automatic responses preserve his younger outlook, bringing old hopes into painful contact with the life he has actually lived.

Ray Bradbury turns this encounter into a short science fiction story about loneliness, memory and the distance between youth and age. Empty towns, hidden circuits and artificial cooking smells show how much effort Barton has put into imitating ordinary social life. The machines he once found clever now test his patience and his hope of rescue. Readers interested in invented companionship will find a compact study of how technology can preserve a personality while its creator changes.

About the author

Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.