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For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from a lifetime of words and ideas -- tales that amaze, enthrall, and horrify; breathtaking journeys backward and forward in time; classic show more stories with the undiminished power to tantalize, mystify, elate, and move the reader to tears. Each small gem in the master's collection remains as dazzling as when it first appeared in print. There is magic in these pages: the wonders of interstellar flight, a conspiracy of insects, the early bloom of love in the warmth of August. Both the world of Ray Bradbury and its people are vivid and alive, as colorfully unique as a poker chip hand-painted by a brilliant artist or as warmly familiar as the well-used settings on a family's dining room table. In a poor man's desire for the stars, in the twisted night games of a hateful embalmer, in a magnificent fraud perpetrated to banish despair and repair a future, in a writer's wonderful death is the glowing proof of the timeless artistry of one of America's greatest living bards. The one hundred stories in this volume were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining. This is Bradbury at his very best -- golden visions of tomorrow, poetic memories of yesterday, dark nightmares and glorious dreams -- a grand celebration of humankind, God's intricate yet poignantly fallible machineries of joy. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
It may very well have been a novel by Ray Bradbury, though it could have been one by Zenna Henderson, Isaac Asimov, or any one of a dozen other authors, that I was holding that summer, long ago, when I heard my father mutter as he stomped out the door with the hoe in his hand, "You read too much!" Suffice it to say that I am no stranger to Ray Bradbury's longer works, but this was my first exposure to a collection of his short stories, and I was not disappointed.
When we describe this collection as one of short stories, we do mean short. Most of the stories here run from two to six pages in length, and it is to Bradbury's credit that he packs almost every one with significance and meaning far beyond the scope of the story itself. Here, show more the reader will find profound observations on the human condition, on the thin veneer of civilization that can be easily ripped asunder, on the human need for approbation, on the human need for love, on the human need for belief and spirituality, and on every other characteristic that makes one human. Do not misconstrue my comments: this not a book of essays preaching and pontificating on any of these profound things; this is a book filled with fascinating characters and wondrous interactions. Bradbury never beats his reader over the head with profundity; it is the reader himself who adds that to Bradbury's intriguing tales.
Tales-that's the word I've been searching for. This is a book of tales. Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" is a short story. Ray Bradbury's "The Man in the Rorschach Shirt" is a tale. In fact, let us use the French word "conte" as we would to describe the little slices of the world that we see in the contes of Guy de Maupassant. Bradbury is the English de Maupassant as de Maupassant is the French Bradbury.
I used to picture Bradbury as purely a writer of science fiction, but I was wrong to limit him to a specific genre. This collection of one hundred tales is proof irrefutable of Bradbury's broad range and scope. The book should take one quite a while to read, by the way. True, one could blast through it with all those remarkable speed reading techniques, but what a shame to do so. These tales need to be read one at a time and then pondered and mulled over as one would savor the taste of fine food and good wine. To gulp them down in a feeding frenzy is to forgo the pleasure of remembering them and of adding their implicit lessons to one's own repertoire of knowledge. In fact, the three months I spent on this book was too brief a period. I shall keep it at hand and reread these tales, perhaps one a week for the next one hundred weeks. This feast is incredible, and I would not have it fade from memory too quickly. Please join me at the table and dine on Bradbury's joyously creative wit and wisdom. show less
When we describe this collection as one of short stories, we do mean short. Most of the stories here run from two to six pages in length, and it is to Bradbury's credit that he packs almost every one with significance and meaning far beyond the scope of the story itself. Here, show more the reader will find profound observations on the human condition, on the thin veneer of civilization that can be easily ripped asunder, on the human need for approbation, on the human need for love, on the human need for belief and spirituality, and on every other characteristic that makes one human. Do not misconstrue my comments: this not a book of essays preaching and pontificating on any of these profound things; this is a book filled with fascinating characters and wondrous interactions. Bradbury never beats his reader over the head with profundity; it is the reader himself who adds that to Bradbury's intriguing tales.
Tales-that's the word I've been searching for. This is a book of tales. Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Sharer" is a short story. Ray Bradbury's "The Man in the Rorschach Shirt" is a tale. In fact, let us use the French word "conte" as we would to describe the little slices of the world that we see in the contes of Guy de Maupassant. Bradbury is the English de Maupassant as de Maupassant is the French Bradbury.
I used to picture Bradbury as purely a writer of science fiction, but I was wrong to limit him to a specific genre. This collection of one hundred tales is proof irrefutable of Bradbury's broad range and scope. The book should take one quite a while to read, by the way. True, one could blast through it with all those remarkable speed reading techniques, but what a shame to do so. These tales need to be read one at a time and then pondered and mulled over as one would savor the taste of fine food and good wine. To gulp them down in a feeding frenzy is to forgo the pleasure of remembering them and of adding their implicit lessons to one's own repertoire of knowledge. In fact, the three months I spent on this book was too brief a period. I shall keep it at hand and reread these tales, perhaps one a week for the next one hundred weeks. This feast is incredible, and I would not have it fade from memory too quickly. Please join me at the table and dine on Bradbury's joyously creative wit and wisdom. show less
I've always been a huge Bradbury fan, and I've read so much of his work. Perhaps it's that familiarity that left me feeling disappointed by this collection. Perhaps it's that authors have been using so much of what he did in his stories for the past decades, whether as homage or pastiche or plain stealing, that so many of these stories seemed cliched and predictable. Still, he's a great writer and some of the stories in the collection are still excellent; it was just fewer than I expected.
I found this collection to be like a box of high quality chocolates in that I only wanted to read a few at a time and some of them weren't to my taste but the good ones were worth savouring slowly. Hence the six months it's taken me to read both volumes.
These stories are excellent, a really huge hotch potch of different types set in wide ranging locations, from a putative Mars to a back garden. Some were straightforward, but most had an interesting quirk or twist that made them unusual, with fantasy as well as science fiction. Nor are they dated either.
The stories ranged in quality but I had no idea Ray wrote quite so prolifically, especially where short stories are concerned.
These stories are excellent, a really huge hotch potch of different types set in wide ranging locations, from a putative Mars to a back garden. Some were straightforward, but most had an interesting quirk or twist that made them unusual, with fantasy as well as science fiction. Nor are they dated either.
The stories ranged in quality but I had no idea Ray wrote quite so prolifically, especially where short stories are concerned.
Bradbury's someone u either love or loathe. If u loathe him, he's forever the evergreen oldman stuck in a time warp, building stories with no beginning, no end, and no plot. If u love him, he's a painter - each metaphor a brush stroke that paints rainbow dreams on ur mind's canvas, and becomes part of your life. U have to pick up one of his books and read them to find out which faction u belong to.
This book took a while. Part of that was because it is massive (888 pages); part of it is because this is the kind of book that you savor. It you read too much of it in a stretch, then you start losing the beauty of the writing. Bradbury paints pictures in his stories. Some of these are science fiction, some are fantasy, and other have just a touch of horror. It isn't the horror that leaves nothing to the imagination, but rather the one that you just know that what happens after the last word is going to be unpleasant.
Many of the stories I knew from other collections, still others were new to me. All of them are good. I'd suggest if you are reading to meet a goal of "X" number of books that you save this until after you've met your goal show more or that you read it in between books. You'll want to dip in and enjoy it.
Who will like this book? Anyone who enjoys fantasy or enjoys reading beautifully drawn stories. I think you will find it rewarding. show less
Many of the stories I knew from other collections, still others were new to me. All of them are good. I'd suggest if you are reading to meet a goal of "X" number of books that you save this until after you've met your goal show more or that you read it in between books. You'll want to dip in and enjoy it.
Who will like this book? Anyone who enjoys fantasy or enjoys reading beautifully drawn stories. I think you will find it rewarding. show less
Ray Bradbury was one of the true giants of 20th century literature, with close to fifty books published, including classics such as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, etc. He also wrote poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays and screenplays -- he was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay to John Huston's version of Moby Dick. But one of the things he'll be best remembered for is the hundreds, yes, hundreds of short stories he wrote over the course of his career. I grew up reading his classic collections, such as R is for Rocket and S is for Space in my school library as a kid, growing into The Martian Chronicles and others as I got older. For me, show more Bradbury has become one of my top five favorite authors of all time. He's had so many stories published in his lifetime, that it is sometimes difficult to track them all down. This collection, Bradbury Stories, assembles 100 of his absolute best short works, and is a perfect way to pay tribute to the master, now that he has passed away, just this month. It's impossible to single out which of Ray's stories have most affected me over the years -- he's such a lyrical, stylized writer, with a gift for capturing a "sense of place" and nailing characters in just a few phrases. But, if you've never read Bradbury (shame on you), I would definitely start with "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "A Sound of Thunder" (perhaps one of the two or three best "time travel" stories ever written!). Though those two stories are not in this particular 2003 volume (from which I'd recommend "The Burning Man" and "The Toynbee Convector"), this collection is still to be savored -- don't try to read it all in one short period of time -- instead, read a few stories at a time and spread out the pleasure. You've got a treasure chest waiting to be opened! [If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try any of Bradbury's other short story collections or novels, including Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Illustrated Man, The Halloween Tree, and many more. Another excellent story collection is The Stories of Ray Bradbury, released in 1980.]
Originally reviewed for my local library's website: http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/srec/staffrec12-06.htm show less
Originally reviewed for my local library's website: http://www.lincolnlibraries.org/depts/bookguide/srec/staffrec12-06.htm show less
Review by Stuart Mayne:
A huge two volume, 100 story collection of Ray Bradbury's short fiction output. Since the beginning of his career in the 1940s, Bradbury became synonymous with great writing. He was able to do a rare thing, capturing both the popular and literary imagination. The reader will be transported and transfixed by a writer's vision and be left inspired by the absorbing short story output of a master writer.
The strength of this collection is the breadth of story type and quality. Not every story is excellent; the reader is able to find examples that are good, but not great, running along side stories that are great or brilliant. The merit of this? Reading this collection will give encouragement to the developing writer show more that not every story has to be great or brilliant. It shows that masters of the genre don't always get it perfect. If you study this collection you will experience the pleasure of seeing a writer at his most human: marvelous and flawed. show less
A huge two volume, 100 story collection of Ray Bradbury's short fiction output. Since the beginning of his career in the 1940s, Bradbury became synonymous with great writing. He was able to do a rare thing, capturing both the popular and literary imagination. The reader will be transported and transfixed by a writer's vision and be left inspired by the absorbing short story output of a master writer.
The strength of this collection is the breadth of story type and quality. Not every story is excellent; the reader is able to find examples that are good, but not great, running along side stories that are great or brilliant. The merit of this? Reading this collection will give encouragement to the developing writer show more that not every story has to be great or brilliant. It shows that masters of the genre don't always get it perfect. If you study this collection you will experience the pleasure of seeing a writer at his most human: marvelous and flawed. show less
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Ray Bradbury was born in Waukegan, Illinois on August 22, 1920. At the age of fifteen, he started submitting short stories to national magazines. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 600 stories, poems, essays, plays, films, television plays, radio, music, and comic books. His books include The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, The show more Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Bradbury Speaks. He won numerous awards for his works including a World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1977, the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation. He wrote the screen play for John Huston's classic film adaptation of Moby Dick, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted 65 of his stories for television's The Ray Bradbury Theater, and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. The film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit was written by Ray Bradbury and was based on his story The Magic White Suit. He was the idea consultant and wrote the basic scenario for the United States pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair, as well as being an imagineer for Walt Disney Enterprises, where he designed the Spaceship Earth exhibition at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center. He died after a long illness on June 5, 2012 at the age of 91. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Series
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
- Alternate titles
- Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 2
- Original publication date
- 2003
- Related movies
- The Illustrated Man (1969 | IMDb)
- Quotations
- I’ve never been in charge of my stories, they’ve always been in charge of me. As each new one has called to me, ordering me to give it voice and form and life, I’ve followed the advice I’ve shared with other writers o... (show all)ver the years: Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down.
- Original language
- English
- Disambiguation notice
- Be careful when combining similarly-named Ray Bradbury story collections. "Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Finest Tales" from 2003 was later reprinted in 2008 as "Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 2" (containing the same 100 stories)... (show all). Do not confuse these with "The Stories of Ray Bradbury" from 1980 which contains a different set of 100 stories and was reprinted in 2008 as "Ray Bradbury Stories Volume 1".
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- Reviews
- 22
- Rating
- (4.32)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 4