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Rocket Summer
A quiet Ohio Winter is interrupted by a launching rocket ship that melts the snow and heats up the whole town for a brief moment before the winter comes back. -
Ylla
A martian woman and her husband are no longer happy. Ylla has a dream about strange men (humans) coming from the third planet from the sun. Her husband, Yll, is enraged by this and calls the doctor while he goes hunting. Yll kills the humans when they step out of their rocket, bringing doom to the humans' first expedition to Mars. -
The Summert Night
The Martian's fun night is interrupted by the words to an Earth song permeating the minds of the Martians as they all get a feeling of impending calamity. They don't know exactly what it is however they do know that it is completely foreign to them, and the women even wake up crying in the middle of the night. -
The Earth Men
Men from Earth arrive on Mars and to their surprise, none of the Martians seem all that surprised by the fact that people from another planet are there. The men unknowingly sign themselves into an insane asylum, where they learn that Martians can create hallucinations in the minds of others, and people in the asylum seem to have lost control. The story ends with the Earth men being murdered and their killer ending his own life because he thinks their hallucinations have infected him. -
The Taxpayer
A man screams at the astronauts about a war coming and how he has to get off the Earth and onto Mars. The astronauts laugh at him and tell him that he should take his chances with the war. He must be removed from the premises. -
The Third Expedition
The Third Expedition to Mars meets the same fate as its predecessors. After initially arriving on the planet, the crew is cautious. One of the crew members sees dead relatives of his, however, whom he approaches with great enthusiasm. All of the men find dead loved ones. It's not until late in the night that the captain figures out that it's the Martians, and they all die regardless. A funeral is held in the morning for them -
-And the Moon Be Still As Bright
The fourth expedition to Mars is different. After landing, the doctor scouts around and finds that there are almost no Martians left, that they all died of Chicken-Pox. One man named Spender finds the partying and celebrating of the others so despicable that he kills most of them without a second thought, because this in not their planet to galavant around disrespecting the memory of those who came before. Ultimately, the Captain Wilder has to kill him for what he's done. -
The Settlers
This chronicle describes the first settlers on Mars, who were there without the intention of scouting, but to start building. There were those who went to Mars and are lonely because they left everything behind. -
The Green Morning
Benjamin Driscoll, a doctor with a background in plants who wants nothing more than to make mars lush with trees. He's feeling out of place due to the lack of need for a botanist. When told to plant trees, he went and planted until he collapsed. When he woke up all of the trees had grown into adults. -
The Locusts
Colonists begin to flock to Mars in a massive migration akin to that of Locusts. -
The Night Meeting
Tomas Gomez is headed to a party in a distant city on Mars, and on the way there stops for a drink. He meets a Martian, a rare sight on Mars these days, and offers him a drink. However the Martian just passes through it as if he were a ghost. The same goes for Tomas when he tries to touch the Martian's belongings. Tomas learns that Muhe Ca is actually also on his way to a party at a shining city: That to Tomas is completely dead. They part ways, knowing that they will never meet again. -
The Shore
Mars is an unexplored shore that sees many a man brave its land, and mostly Americans. However, soon diversity comes along, and the religious men. -
Fire Balloons
religion has arrived on Mars and with it a whole new idea of sin. This chronicle entails a few priests searching for the answer to Martian sin, and how to wipe it clean. They find their messianic figure in the shape of a flame encased in a glass sphere. -
Interim
Life goes on on Mars as people continue to flock there and build things there. -
The Musicians
Small children play in the dead cities against the wishes of their mothers and use the Martian corpses as pretend instruments. The children are caught, and scolded, and the firemen are called in to clear the bodies away. -
The Wilderness
Back on Earth, two women are preparing to leave to meet their husbands on Mars, and they take things of sentimental value rather than use. -
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The Naming of Names
More people migrate to Mars and places are renamed, given names that mean something to the people of earth. Soon, no one remembers the real names of these places. -
Usher II
An ex-librarian named William Stendahl moves to Mars and builds a house, the House of Usher, and fills it with Fairy Tales that have been banned because they stray from reality. A man named Mr. Garrett comes by to inspect, because he is supposed to uphold the morals of the society, and the robot copy he sent dies. Stendahl goes on to kill all members of that board by various over-the-top Poe inspired means, concluding with Amontillado. Then the house is swallowed by the ground. -
The Old Ones
The Elderly have come to Mars and are using it as a sort of retirement home. -
The Martian
An elderly couple have moved to Mars in their twilight years, and lament the fact that they didn't have more time with their young son. Then he comes back, and they're overjoyed but suspicious. It's a Martian, who tries to make people happy. They go to town, and the Martian is pulled in by the longing of another family for a lost loved one. After a brief chase following his escape, people crowd around the Martian chanting the names of their loved ones until he dies from the rapid transformations -
The Luggage Store
Father Peregrine and the proprietor of a luggage store have a discussion about what will happen if a war starts on Earth. The owner comes to the conclusion that people will flock back to the Earth to help with the War effort. After some convincing, Peregrine agrees. -
The Off Season
Sam Parkhill, a member, of the Fourth Expedition, is trying to start a hotdog stand and a martian wanders in and tries to give him something, but Sam shoots him. After being chased down, he is still handed the deeds to half of Mars. That night, the War starts on Earth. a -
The Watchers
People of Mars leave the planet to return home to the Earth to help with the War. -
The Silent Towns
A man named Walter is one of the only people left on Mars. He resigns himself to loneliness until he receives a call from a woman, and he build up this idea of beauty in his head. When he meets her, he finds that she's fat, unattractive and unbelievably annoying. So he runs. -
The Long Years
It's been twenty years since the war on Earth started and Hathaway of the Fourth Expedition has lost his family to a mysterious martian illness. When captain Wilder returns, he sees that Hathaway's family is in good health. Hathaway however dies at breakfast and the good Captain discovers that his family are androids. -
There Will Come Soft Rains
Back on Earth, virtually all life has been eliminated, and the only traces of humanity are their technologies, specifically an automated house that continues about its business as if there are people in it, even though there are none. Then, a tree falls through the window of the kitchen at 10 PM and the last breath of humanity is gone. -
The Million-Year Picnic
A family leaves the War torn Earth and departs for Mars, leaving the Earth and the identity that comes with that behind. They are Martians, through and through.
