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davechua's review against another edition
5.0
Didn't reread every story, but so many masterpieces such as 'The Veldt' and 'The Lake'. RIP Mr. Bradbury.
karen_hallam's review against another edition
5.0
Use to help me craft good short spec fiction. So I will be reading this over and over. I keep it at the lake.
maryehavens's review against another edition
4.0
I'm kind of torn on how many stars to give this. On the one hand: I really appreciated Christopher Buckley's foreward and the chronology of Bradbury. Did you know that Bradbury essentially wrote a short story a week? That's a lot of short stories!!
On the other hand, like any short story collection, some are definite hits, some are terrible misses, and some are just meh. This collection included several famous ones including The Fog Horn (it was o.k.), The Veldt (actually really good), and "I Sing the Body Electric" (I liked this one but I was very familiar with The Twilight Zone episode of the same name). I appreciated that Buckley explained why Bradbury only wrote "I Sing" for TTZ and then stopped (spoiler alert: he thought Serling changed it too much and would never have his works changed again).
So, while the previous mentioned works are possibly the most famous ones, they weren't my favorites. After 1,059 pages, here are my favorites:
"The Coffin" -- OH MY!!! This story is how I like my Bradbury - a delicious, gothic twist.
"There Will Come Soft Rains" -- kind of a twist of The Simpsons "House of Whacks" and the Terminator 2 dream sequence (deserted world, automated house)
"Mars is Heaven" -- like that show "Last Man Standing" but there's no January Jones ;)
"Sound of Thunder" -- time safari/killing TRex/Butterfly Effect
"The Murderer" -- Prescient view into the future - technology monitoring everything
"The Emissary" -- Slow read but AWESOME zombie ending :)
"The Man Upstairs" -- What exactly lives upstairs? Doug wants to know it allllllll
"Exorcism" -- oooooh, witchy woman! Red Hat Society meets witch
"Fever Dream" -- How I like my Bradbury - creepy with a bit of humor
"Frost & Fire" -- long, 40 page-ish short story about a human life cycle of 8 days but life finds a way
"The Screaming Woman" -- kids solve murder mystery of woman buried under parking lot
"Tomorrow's Child" -- what would happen if you were born into one dimension but resided in another one? Well, you'd look like a pyramid octopus
"The October Game" -- I tried explaining this story to my husband and he thought I was a monster. A man takes out the ultimate revenge/spite on his wife.
"The Black Ferris" -- Go forwards on the wheel, get older. Go backwards, get younger. Don't get greedy!
"The Better Part of Wisdom" -- I'm only including this one because it seemed to be centrally focused on a thinly homosexual plot. I thought that was interesting.
I found it interesting that I didn't really care for the Mars plots so I think I'll skip The Martian Chronicles. But I will likely read more Bradbury short stories in the future if only to ferret out those creepy little gems. :)
On the other hand, like any short story collection, some are definite hits, some are terrible misses, and some are just meh. This collection included several famous ones including The Fog Horn (it was o.k.), The Veldt (actually really good), and "I Sing the Body Electric" (I liked this one but I was very familiar with The Twilight Zone episode of the same name). I appreciated that Buckley explained why Bradbury only wrote "I Sing" for TTZ and then stopped (spoiler alert: he thought Serling changed it too much and would never have his works changed again).
So, while the previous mentioned works are possibly the most famous ones, they weren't my favorites. After 1,059 pages, here are my favorites:
"The Coffin" -- OH MY!!! This story is how I like my Bradbury - a delicious, gothic twist.
"There Will Come Soft Rains" -- kind of a twist of The Simpsons "House of Whacks" and the Terminator 2 dream sequence (deserted world, automated house)
"Mars is Heaven" -- like that show "Last Man Standing" but there's no January Jones ;)
"Sound of Thunder" -- time safari/killing TRex/Butterfly Effect
"The Murderer" -- Prescient view into the future - technology monitoring everything
"The Emissary" -- Slow read but AWESOME zombie ending :)
"The Man Upstairs" -- What exactly lives upstairs? Doug wants to know it allllllll
"Exorcism" -- oooooh, witchy woman! Red Hat Society meets witch
"Fever Dream" -- How I like my Bradbury - creepy with a bit of humor
"Frost & Fire" -- long, 40 page-ish short story about a human life cycle of 8 days but life finds a way
"The Screaming Woman" -- kids solve murder mystery of woman buried under parking lot
"Tomorrow's Child" -- what would happen if you were born into one dimension but resided in another one? Well, you'd look like a pyramid octopus
"The October Game" -- I tried explaining this story to my husband and he thought I was a monster. A man takes out the ultimate revenge/spite on his wife.
"The Black Ferris" -- Go forwards on the wheel, get older. Go backwards, get younger. Don't get greedy!
"The Better Part of Wisdom" -- I'm only including this one because it seemed to be centrally focused on a thinly homosexual plot. I thought that was interesting.
I found it interesting that I didn't really care for the Mars plots so I think I'll skip The Martian Chronicles. But I will likely read more Bradbury short stories in the future if only to ferret out those creepy little gems. :)
merv_d's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
iluvbooks13's review against another edition
It's amazing how many stories of his I've already read without knowing they were his! [a:Ray Bradbury|1630|Ray Bradbury|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1445955959p2/1630.jpg] is an amazing author!
rouver's review against another edition
4.0
THIS BOOK IS AWESOME. Ray Bradbury is the master of short stories. I highly recommend getting this book & using it to fill the time between reading your other books. It has 100 fantastic short stories in it. It's hard to read one after the other clear to the end...so I've been breaking it up. I've thoroughly enjoyed Bradbury's writing. It's truly *literature* & not just this fluffy stuff that everyone writes these days. Yet it's still easy to read. :)