Friday, July 20, 2001

Martians, Go Home

by Fredric Brown

It seems like every time I try to make room on my bookshelves by getting rid of a few books I end up pulling out this novel and rereading it. Somehow, it always makes the cut and goes back on the shelf. It's not spectacular, but rather a nice amusing little tale that one can devour in a couple of hours. Simply put, the book is about a Martian invasion of Earth. Unlike The War of the Worlds however, the Martians here aren't out to conquer the Earth. Instead they've come to observe and heckle it. To quote the back cover of the Del Rey October 1981 edition, Brown's Martians were "obnoxious green creatures who could be seen and heard, but not harmed, and who probed private sex lives as shamelessly as they probed government secrets." It makes for an amusing tale, and for something first published in 1954, it reads quite well. Aside from obvious anachronisms like typewriters (remember those?) and the cold war, the story could have been written today. (Or maybe I'm just getting old.) So, I guess I'll just have to find another book to dispose of and put Martians, Go Home back where I found it.

LibraryThing link

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