The Martian Chronicles

I first read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles when I was in seventh grade, way back at Graham Middle School. Arguably it has been the most influential fictional book of my life - I read it probably six times before I started high school just two years later.

Written over the course of the late 1940s and early 1950s, The Martian Chronicles is a collection of short stories and vinettes that cover every imaginable topic even vaguely assocated with imperalism - the psychology of those being colonized, the morals of colonization, the rationality of patriotism in light of weapons of mass destruction, genocide, the freedom of the "frontier" (think of it as the anti-Heart of Darkness), and religious conversion to name a few. Not only that, Bradbury writes each episode in a powerful, heartbreaking way - you understand virtually everyone, and the one or two characters you find yourself hating, well, you ultimately find yourself pitying in short order.

Specifically, check out "The Earth Men" (it still gives me chills).

Read it. You'll thank me.