Full Summary
Ray Bradbury
The Exiles (1949) Summary Brandon A
On the planet mars, three witches from the famous play written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, are predicting and planning the arrival of a rocket coming from earth to mars. On the rocket are the crewman who are slowly dying. Recently some of the crewman, Perse and Reynolds had died, furthermore Grenville had gone blind all due to unknown reasons. Perse had complained earlier about his pains, how it felt like a needle through his heart, however the doctor couldn’t not find a reason for his death. The captain of the crewman had been experiencing random hallucinations and appearances of bats and strange things, he is puzzled and concerned on what is happening with his crew. He later finds that Smith, another crewmen of the rocket had also been experiencing weird appearances and nightmares weeks before they left earth. Before they had left the Captain had retrieved 200 books from the museum and brought them with him on the rocket. These books were the last copies of their kind existent, stored in a museum vault as all of them were burnt a century ago due to their unusual and twisted subjects.
Using a special crystal the witches are able to watch and observe the rocket and its crew, they do not have much time before the rocket lands, they go and warn the others in The Emerald City. Up in the tower there are famous writer Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe talking about what will happen when the rocket finally arrives. They decide that it is time to inform Charles Dickens about the situation. They want to discuss what they would do if the men would take over mars, and Poe suggest that they can always wait for an atomic war and the destruction of mankind or in the worst case they would leave to other planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and even Pluto. Ambrose Bierce doesn’t take the situation seriously and finds entertainment in it, whereas Poe is furious and is ready to fight back.
They are soon informed from Algernon Blackwood that the rocket would arrive in a matter of hours. When Poe and Bierce reach Charles Dickens place, he is in no mood to deal with them and their problems, he believes that the burning of his books was a mistake, and that he did not write like the others, his work was clean and would only on occasion mention weird tales and horror. He does not understand why Poe, Bierce and the rest were out here on Mars to begin with. Poe explains that there books were banned and then burned a century ago around 2020 because of their superstitious themes, and the only way to save themselves and their creations was to leave, come to Mars and start over, create a new home. And know the rocket men are coming to their home with the last of their books and works. They do not know what will happen to them when the final copies of their creation are destroyed.
They have no time left, Bierce and Poe rush to the “dry sea” where they meet and team up with A.E. Coppard and Arthur Machen. They are frightened as to what will happen, as they have met earlier a skinny white man named Santa Claus, who has come here after the banning of Christmas and Halloween, now is shriveled and slowly dying away. The rocket finally about to land on there planet and suddenly Bierce had faded away in to dust, gone, as his final book had been destroyed.
As the rocket lands, Blackwood recommends to retreat right away to a different planet, that they still had hope, however Poe had different plans. He is enraged and angered. All there attempts to try to scare off, slowly kill off the men with wax molds and needles, there witchcraft, and Poe’s “Red Death” had failed, the rocket has landed. Poe tries everything in his power to try and stop the rocket from landing but to no success.
The doors of the rocket swing open and the crew gets out, the captain last to leave. Forming a demi-circle formation, with their guns ready to fire, listening and paying close attention to anything around them. They find nothing at first and continue. They setup quickly and burn all their books they brought. The crewman hear screams coming from somewhere but they do not know what it could be, then there was a sound of air coming to fill up a vacuum where there had been something before. Smith claims he saw the Emerald City of Oz out in the distance, just like a story he had read, the beautiful city started to fall. The captain denies hearing or seeing anything and demand Smith to take a psychoanalysis test the next day. The men explored the area, and found nothing and no one at all.
The Exiles (1949) Summary Brandon A
On the planet mars, three witches from the famous play written by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, are predicting and planning the arrival of a rocket coming from earth to mars. On the rocket are the crewman who are slowly dying. Recently some of the crewman, Perse and Reynolds had died, furthermore Grenville had gone blind all due to unknown reasons. Perse had complained earlier about his pains, how it felt like a needle through his heart, however the doctor couldn’t not find a reason for his death. The captain of the crewman had been experiencing random hallucinations and appearances of bats and strange things, he is puzzled and concerned on what is happening with his crew. He later finds that Smith, another crewmen of the rocket had also been experiencing weird appearances and nightmares weeks before they left earth. Before they had left the Captain had retrieved 200 books from the museum and brought them with him on the rocket. These books were the last copies of their kind existent, stored in a museum vault as all of them were burnt a century ago due to their unusual and twisted subjects.
Using a special crystal the witches are able to watch and observe the rocket and its crew, they do not have much time before the rocket lands, they go and warn the others in The Emerald City. Up in the tower there are famous writer Ambrose Bierce and Edgar Allen Poe talking about what will happen when the rocket finally arrives. They decide that it is time to inform Charles Dickens about the situation. They want to discuss what they would do if the men would take over mars, and Poe suggest that they can always wait for an atomic war and the destruction of mankind or in the worst case they would leave to other planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and even Pluto. Ambrose Bierce doesn’t take the situation seriously and finds entertainment in it, whereas Poe is furious and is ready to fight back.
They are soon informed from Algernon Blackwood that the rocket would arrive in a matter of hours. When Poe and Bierce reach Charles Dickens place, he is in no mood to deal with them and their problems, he believes that the burning of his books was a mistake, and that he did not write like the others, his work was clean and would only on occasion mention weird tales and horror. He does not understand why Poe, Bierce and the rest were out here on Mars to begin with. Poe explains that there books were banned and then burned a century ago around 2020 because of their superstitious themes, and the only way to save themselves and their creations was to leave, come to Mars and start over, create a new home. And know the rocket men are coming to their home with the last of their books and works. They do not know what will happen to them when the final copies of their creation are destroyed.
They have no time left, Bierce and Poe rush to the “dry sea” where they meet and team up with A.E. Coppard and Arthur Machen. They are frightened as to what will happen, as they have met earlier a skinny white man named Santa Claus, who has come here after the banning of Christmas and Halloween, now is shriveled and slowly dying away. The rocket finally about to land on there planet and suddenly Bierce had faded away in to dust, gone, as his final book had been destroyed.
As the rocket lands, Blackwood recommends to retreat right away to a different planet, that they still had hope, however Poe had different plans. He is enraged and angered. All there attempts to try to scare off, slowly kill off the men with wax molds and needles, there witchcraft, and Poe’s “Red Death” had failed, the rocket has landed. Poe tries everything in his power to try and stop the rocket from landing but to no success.
The doors of the rocket swing open and the crew gets out, the captain last to leave. Forming a demi-circle formation, with their guns ready to fire, listening and paying close attention to anything around them. They find nothing at first and continue. They setup quickly and burn all their books they brought. The crewman hear screams coming from somewhere but they do not know what it could be, then there was a sound of air coming to fill up a vacuum where there had been something before. Smith claims he saw the Emerald City of Oz out in the distance, just like a story he had read, the beautiful city started to fall. The captain denies hearing or seeing anything and demand Smith to take a psychoanalysis test the next day. The men explored the area, and found nothing and no one at all.