Editorial Review

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Reviews (1149)

The politically correct shall inherit the earth
Mr. Bradbury's prophetic work has come to pass in the politically correct world of thought controlled by political expediency and special interests.
Thought provoking, but not amazing
What made me pick up this book in the first place was everyone's fixation on how "thought-provoking" and "different" it was. I read it, and found myself agreeing with some aspects, confused by others, and downright bored by some.
read me
Fahrenheit 451 is a read rich with a delicious story and social commentary.Guy Montag lives in a world made ironic because of the stark contrast to the way we wish our society was today.Firemen don't keep people safe from fires, they bust into houses starting fires.Scholars and professors live on the outside of society because of their love for books, philosophy, and sociology where in our world professors are on the inside and the ignorant majority are on the outside because of their lack of interest for the said disciplines.
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Subjects:  1. Book burning    2. Bradbury, Ray - Prose & Criticism    3. Censorship    4. Classics    5. Fiction    6. Fiction - General    7. General    8. Science Fiction - General    9. State-sponsored terrorism    10. Totalitarianism    11. Fiction / General   

Editorial Review

World-renowned fantasist Ray Bradbury has on several occasions stepped outside the arenas of horror, fantasy, and science fiction. An unabashed romantic, his first novel in 1957 was basically a love letter tohis childhood. (For those who want to undertake an even more evocative look at the dark side of youth, five years later the author would write the chilling classic Read more

Reviews (241)

A Thoroughly Charming Classic Of Bygone Americana
This book is Bradbury in top form. Although not my absolute favorite title by this author, I have found a lot of joy over the years in re-reading this little book that I first picked up off a school library shelf when I was eight. It's obvious Bradbury was writing a story set in the time and place of his own childhood "as it should have been" and it makes me wonder if given time I'll think back on my own youth in similar terms. When I was little, after I read this book, all anyone had to do was say, "Watch out for Lonely One" referring to the killer who stalked Green Town's ravine at night and I was good and scared. Heck, that probably works today, too. From its unique May-December romance to its protagonist who becomes that one soul in a million to truly understand that precious gift of what it means to be alive, Dandelion Wine is simply wonderful. Read this book and travel back with the national treasure who is Ray Bradbury to the delightful world of the fantasy-powered Midwest of the 1920's (as it should have been).

Believe & Partake!or The Meaning of Life, a la Bradbury
I first read Ray Bradbury's miracle of a book, Dandelion Wine, when I was 16, and I have read it every year since.Over time I continue to gain a deeper appreciation for these lovely, strange, often magical vignettes (more properly parables, each one with a little implied moral) that explore the nature of happiness, the magic of love and, above all, what it means to be alive.To me, the overarching intent of the book is to remind all us adults that:
Not really for children.
Its protagonist may be a child, but this novel is not really suitable for a thrill-seeking, modern juvenile audience.
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Subjects:  1. Bradbury, Ray - Prose & Criticism    2. Classics    3. Fantasy    4. Fantasy - General    5. Fiction    6. Literary    7. Literature - Classics / Criticism    8. Fiction / Fantasy / General    9. Science fiction   

Reviews (6)

Bradbury at his best
This is a wonderful collection of Bradbury's tales. There are stories here such as Trapdoor which I had read years ago and haven't been able to find since. It is clear that Bradbury loves his work. His stories have a certain characteristic about them that sets them apart from all other works. I would say it is hard to call Bradbury a science-fiction, drama, horror, or fantasy writer though because in truth he is all of these. In a lot of ways his work makes me think of Owen Crawfrod's work. His book The Death of Sara could be the sister of Bradbury's The October Country.
Prepare To Enter Another Dimension
Some may complain about the stories that were left out, and considering the author has penned a story a week for most of the last sixty years, there are sure to be many fine tales that didn't make the final cut. That said, this is an immensely satisfying collection of Bradbury's fiction, some of it recent, other pieces pre-dating the space age. Most of the best is here and whether this is someone's first introduction to Ray Bradbury, or this is bought by a longtime fan, this anthology is sure to provide hours of enjoyment for an imaginative reader.

Guy de Maupassant, the English Version
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.
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Subjects:  1. Fantasy fiction    2. Fantasy fiction, American    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - General    5. Literary    6. Science fiction    7. Science fiction, American    8. Short Stories (single author)    9. Short stories    10. Fiction / Short Stories (single author)   

Editorial Review

Special indeed are holiday stories with the right mix of high spiritsand subtle mystery to please both adults and children--Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," for example. Or Ray Bradbury's classic Read more

Reviews (31)

I didn't see much to recommend the Halloween Tree.
The Halloween Tree has a trite and predictable storyline. The characters were one dimensional. The prose style Bradbury elected to use was hyperbolic to the point of a saccharine mania. The central theme of the story was to travel back in time to find the true meaning of Halloween. Unfortunately, the history of Halloween he presented was not accurate. Samhain was not a grim reaper-like god; rather it was a pagan festival that is the basis of the Halloween tradition. Bradbury also got the myth of Osiris mixed up with that of Ra. Bradbury either did not check his facts or, as in The Martian Chronicles, decided not to let the facts get in the way of a "good" story. While some may argue this book was written as an allegory so accuracy is moot, I would say allegories work best when their weakness are not such an obvious distraction.
Great book for young people
THE HALLOWEEN TREE is a book that is geared for younger readers (in the 10 year old range would be about right, I'd say), but is generally satisfying to anyone who picks it up. For an adult, it can be easily read in an afternoon. The characterization is not deep, but Bradbury has a way with language in the book; he is evocative and nostolgic in the way that only he can be. He effortlessly conjures up images of male youth, complete with faux bravado and the sense of mystery that surrounds events like Halloween. He gives a respectful, multicultural view of Halloween, and it's roots in many cultures. Toward the end of the story, he gives our boys a choice: will they sacrifice part of themselves for the good of another? It gives the story some moral grounding and resolves the plot nicely. But the real draw is the poetic use of words--it's a great way to get kids interested in reading, and not a bad diversion for those of us who are a bit older as well.

Haunting as Mr. Moundshroud
"Halloween Tree" recaptures the surreal spookiness of a child's Halloween with the knowledge of an adult. One of Ray Bradbury's relatively few books for children is a wildly imaginative ride, with a strong subtext about friendship and death itself.
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Subjects:  1. Children's Books/Ages 9-12 Fiction    2. Children: Grades 3-4    3. Fiction    4. Halloween    5. Holidays & Celebrations - Halloween    6. Horror & Ghost Stories    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic    9. Science fiction    10. Space and time   

Editorial Review

A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Read more

Reviews (186)

Heartwarming Horror - No kidding... and it's great.
Well, Ray Bradbury pulled off something I never thought I'd see: heartwarming horror.Something Wicked This Way Comes is a truly frightening horror story about two boys living in a midwestern town visited by a mysterious carnival and its group of evil proprietors and "freaks."The boys see too much and become the target of the malevolent forces of the carnival.Bradbury writes these characters to be truly frightening.
Carousel music from hell
Carnivals are creepy. I have always thought they were creepy and I will not hear otherwise. My only source of confusion is whether I've always felt this way or only since reading "Something Wicked This Way Comes."
Evil Is A Soft Option
Ray Bradbury's dark novel of a mysterious carnival that strolls one night into a quiet Midwestern town has attained a deserved classic status in the forty-some years since its unheralded release. Here Bradbury's oft-demonstrated gift for recalling the mindset of childhood and returning it however briefly to a reader, is in full bloom. Two thirteen-year-old boys, James Nightshade and William Halloway, each a sort of contrast of the other, exist as the heroes in this fable of good versus evil. In this book the weight of the desires of the human heart and the capacity of those desires to ensnare the soul (here, literally) merit the fullest exploration. Nowhere else in literature is a Mephistophelian bargain made so simplistically appealing, and it is a delight to see how Bradbury delivers his temptations like ripe red apples inwardly rotten to the core. And while thinking about the nature of evil, it seems certain constants have been there to bind the forces of ill in the genre of light versus darkness. One of these is that evil has universally stood revealed in the end. Can evil not hide itself? It seems it always gives its nature away. In this book at least Bradbury has the unmasking come in the form of the intuitive perspicacity of two small boys. I liked this enjoyable tale and I liked its characters, from the wickedly charismatic ringmaster Mr. Dark, to its peculiarly vulnerable wicked witch, to the town librarian, Mr. Halloway, whose seemingly dull life is truly one of secret worlds opening to him each night amid the stacks of books. And what WOULD we each give, either now or one day, to be young all over again? Stop to think about that. And if not a return to youth, do we each have some secret desire for which we would do anything, or pay any price? Under the guise of a soft read, Something Wicked This Way Comes delves deep into humanity's consciousness, and explores what lies within. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Boys    2. Carnival    3. Classics    4. Fantasy - Dark/Horror    5. Fathers and sons    6. Fiction    7. Fiction - Fantasy    8. General    9. Literary    10. Male friendship    11. Fiction / Literary   

Editorial Review

From "Rocket Summer" to "The Million-Year Picnic," Ray Bradbury'sstories of the colonization of Mars form an eerie mesh of past and future. Written in the 1940s, the chronicles drip with nostalgic atmosphere--shady porches with tinklingpitchers of lemonade, grandfather clocks, chintz-covered sofas.But longing for this comfortable past proves dangerous in every way to Bradbury's characters--the golden-eyed Martians as well as the humans.Starting in the far-flung future of 1999, expedition after expedition leaves Earth to investigate Mars.The Martians guard their mysteries well, but they are decimated by the diseases that arrive with the rockets.Colonists appear, most with ideas no more lofty than starting a hot-dog stand, and with no respect for the culture they've displaced.Read more

Reviews (287)

A Wide Variety of Commentary by the Sci-Fi Master
The Martian Chronicles are a mixed work by the Science Fiction master, Ray Bradbury, sometimes functioning just to entertain, but at most times functioning to comment on the inhumanity of man.
The Martian Chronicles is great reading!
This is really one of my favorite books.I pick it up every year and reread it purely for the pleasure.If you like fantasy, this one's for you.I hope that someday, Peter Jackson will make a movie of this story.After what he did with Rings, I know he could do it justice that the old TV mini series did not.Check this one out.It was written a while back, so add some years to some of the dates mentioned and remember, it's a fantasy...for now!

School Book Review
The Martian Chronicles is actually a collection of stories rather than a novel.Each story is separate from the others, with different characters and different conflicts.Though they are all different they all concentrate on the same subject, mars, and its exploration by the people of earth.
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Subjects:  1. Bradbury, Ray - Prose & Criticism    2. Classics    3. Fiction    4. Literature - Classics / Criticism    5. Psychological    6. Science Fiction    7. Science Fiction - Adventure    8. Science Fiction - Space Opera    9. Fiction / Science Fiction / Space Opera   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (190)

Great overall, almost excellent if not for...
The book is a good read with the short stories and the relevance to today's world is striking is some of those stories.The stories are mainly from the late 40's and early 50's and show a haunting look at what could be.There are, however, some stories that do drag and really don't hold the readers attention, but, thankfully, these stories are few and far between.
An Illustrated Tale . . .
This book is simply amazing!I needed to read this book as a summer reading project, and as soon as I read the first story, I found out that the book was based on Science Fiction.It's a topic that I really hate it!However, as I read further and further into the book, I decided that I loved it!Each story bases itself around science, like people living on the moon or on Mars.Also, there are some controversial goings-on in this novel.In one short story titled "The Man", it seems as though a traveler would stop by towns and heal people.The man in this story almost sounds as though he is Jesus.Anyway, this book is still amazing.If you love Sci Fi, then buy it now!!

I would give it 10 stars if I could...
I think it was first my 8th grade teacher Mrs. Forenza who introducted me to Ray Bradbury when we studied the story "The Veldt"... then it was my father who opened his bookshelves and gave me his entire collection of Ray Bradbury when I asked him if he ever heard of him.
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Subjects:  1. Bradbury, Ray - Prose & Criticism    2. Fantasy - General    3. Fiction    4. Fiction - Science Fiction    5. Science Fiction    6. Science Fiction - Short Stories    7. Science Fiction And Fantasy    8. Science fiction, American    9. Short stories    10. Fiction / Fantasy / General   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (19)

Why not go for a double.
What can I say about this collection, except that is essential reading for anyone serious about Science Fiction or Fantasy as a form of literature (that's right I said it-the dreaded "l" word)Bradbury has piled up enough superlatives in his life that I don't think I need to go into them.
The stories create powerful virtual images
It is hard to categorize Ray Bradbury as a writer. To many he is known as a science fiction writer, largely due to "The Martian Chronicles." However, he is much more versatile than that, his stories cover many different themes of life, death and strange things in between.
An Average Collection.
If you buy this book with the newer Bradbury collection, you will have a fairly comprehensive collection of short stories by the master. This collection is not the best. It has it's share of mediocre stories, but even so the great stories are wonderful. "The Veldt", "The Fog Horn", and "The Jar" are my absolute favorites, but there are more gems scattered about the book.
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Subjects:  1. Bradbury, Ray - Prose & Criticism    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Science Fiction    4. Science Fiction - General    5. Science fiction    6. Science fiction, American    7. Short Stories (single author)    8. Short stories    9. Fantasy fiction, American    10. Fiction / Short Stories (single author)    11. Modern fiction   

Editorial Review

Ray Bradbury's first short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!? ... Read more

Reviews (33)

A small collection of varied worlds
I liked this book.Some of the stories veer a little too far into fantasy for my taste--with vampires, et cetera--but many of them are very original, and very memorable.Ray Bradbury, as anyone who's read "Dandelion Wine" can tell you, is not just a hack writer with good ideas: he's also a terrific writer, period.His prose is lovely; he could write any genre he wanted to.He could write about nothing and it would probably have good enough tone, style, sound, and metaphors to pull it off.But he doesn't.Instead, he crams his stories full of the weird and the unusual: a jar full of something that everyone obsesses over, a baby that kills, a man who finds himself becoming the grim reaper.
What in the country?!?!?
I only read two stories: The Small Assasin and The Dwarf. If I wasn't required to read them, I would have put this book down weeks ago. I have to admit the Bradbury does have some excellent imagery, but in no way is the writing interesting at all. I tried to keep an open mind as I read this novel...but I really could not bring myself to enjoy it. Don't read this unless you HAVE to...or you are extremely bored.

Great even decades later
Creepy.The stories stay with you long after you put the book down.Certainly one of the best short story collections I have read in a long time and I try to read 'em all.Enjoy. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bradbury, Ray - Prose & Criticism    2. Fantasy - Dark/Horror    3. Fantasy - Short Stories (Single Author)    4. Fantasy fiction, American    5. Fiction    6. Horror tales, American    7. Literary    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Science fiction    10. Short Stories (single author)    11. Short stories    12. Fiction / Fantasy / General   

Editorial Review

High on a hill by a forked tree, the House beckons its family homeward, and they come--travelers from the lyrical, lush imagination of Ray Bradbury.Read more

Reviews (49)

Pure poetry!
This is the first Ray Bradbury book i've read. *cringes* But it was the most beautiful story i've heard in a long time. Mr. Bradbury knows how to paint the most vivid pictures in ones mind with his words. The dream-like atmosphere is enough to lull one into a mind-set where truly, a family such as this, can exist. It is a quick read, but so worth revisiting. Overflowing with imagery and poetry, this book is just amazing....

Probably not what you are expecting, but worth checking out
I purchased this book having heard nothing about it, but knowing much of its author, the legendary Ray Bradbury.
I Mourne The Trees That Died To Create This Book
After reading a book I was so looking forward to, I feel violated as if Mr. Bradbury himself wanted to rip out my fondest memories of his brilliant tales and replace them with raw sewage. (See, I can write arty farty rubbish just like Ray did with this book!!) My sole comfort is that I purchased it on the secondary market so Mr. Bradbury procured no money from it. Shame on you, Ray!! What a waste of a Charles Addams art work!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fantasy - General    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Fantasy    4. Foundlings    5. Illinois    6. Immortalism    7. Vampires    8. Reading Group Guide   

Reviews (14)

Classic Anthology by America's Master story teller...
After more than half-century of wondrous writing,Ray Bradbury isrecognized as America's master story teller and one of the world's greatest fabulists.DARK CARNIVALis seminal treasure trove anthology of anti-fairy tales of horror and fantasy...WEIRD TALES...marking him as 20th century Poe.Soon--in "mature"stage-- Bradbury would surpass himself and become unique;a peerless,iconcraftsman artist of modern,mythological fables(FAHRENHEIT 451; SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES).
Best money I've spent !
I've long been a fan of Ray Bradbury. To own the signed edition with the cover of a painting, also by Bradbury, is a treasure. Stories never seen, and won't be again, lie waiting to take you on magical journeys. I say BRAVO to Gauntlet Press for all their hard work in collaborating with Mr. Bradbury to design the book as he wanted it! (Gauntlet works with authors, including Matheson, Bloch. Check them out). This book is the best of Bradbury. Incuded are his doodles, plus the cover pages of the magazines where the stories first appeared. No author can weave the web of magic that Bradbury does, and this book is a testament to that. Tempting yet revolting...
Unfortunately, I haven't had the pleasure of reading this collection of stories, and I probably never will.I would LOVE to have a copy of DARK CARNIVAL, but this limited edition is outrageous.For such a price I would expect the absolute works, and based on the reviews, this book offers nothing more than being an expensive and intentionally rare book full of great stories.
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Subjects:  1. Fantasy    2. Fantasy - Dark/Horror    3. Fantasy - Short Stories    4. Fiction    5. Fiction - Fantasy    6. Short Stories (single author)   

Reviews (8)

A wondrous tribute to America's master story teller...
Jerry Weist has constructed wondrous tribute to America's master story teller,and one of the world's now iconic fabulists. Unlikebiographies which...justly...abound concerning the life and legend of Ray Douglas Bradbury,this multi-format comprise isgraphic extravaganza of print;drawings;photos;movie posters; letters;excerpts from movie scripts and dialogue from plays. Copies of original paintings[some by Bradbury himself--includingstunning glossy of the black,pthalo blue oil book cover adorning DARK CARNIVAL;the 700 copy signed limited edition of his first collection of short stories recently reprised per GAUNTLET publications now valued at over $3000]abound.Classic "fanta-sci fi"work by Joseph Mugnaini and Al Feldstein abounds and is often astounding.
Mars is Heaven!
Now that Sam Weller's "The Bradbury Chronicles:the Life of Ray Bradbury" is selling like water at the bookshops,we'll see the importance of Jerry Weist's "BRADBURY,AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE,A JOURNEY TO METAPHOR".I didn't read yet Weller's book,but I know that Frederik Pohl didn't like it.Iown a copy of "Bradbury,an illustrated life...", since it appeared.And I loved it.What a gorgeous "objet d'art"!The ailing Bradbury must be proud to have inspired a book as beautiful-and good-as this one.The text by Jerry Weist is well written,professional,competent.The Foreword,by Bradbury's archivist ,collector and friend,Donn Albright,is very informative about a few ofBradbury's illustrators.The Introduction,penned by Bradbury himself,is enlightening.
A biography of Bradbury, told in pictures
There's a point in this book where the author says "You have to be an amazing writer to inspire so many illustrations and paintings." And that's why Bradbury is so great. After reading a book like The Martian Chronicles, you can easily imagine what he was describing. And if you can draw or paint, you'll want to create those images on canvas.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1920-    2. 20th century    3. American authors    4. Authors, American    5. Authorship    6. Biography    7. Biography & Autobiography    8. Biography / Autobiography    9. Biography/Autobiography    10. Bradbury, Ray,    11. Commercial - Illustration - Sci-Fi & Fantasy    12. Entertainment & Performing Arts - General    13. Literary    14. Popular Culture - General    15. Science Fiction & Fantasy    16. Science fiction    17. American English    18. Biography: general    19. Bradbury, Ray    20. Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -   

Reviews (1)

New Appreciation for an American Treasure
This is a superior book throughout.If you're a Bradbury fan, Eller & Toupence will give you a new appreciation of an old favorite.The biographical details and info on the pulp magazine world of the 1940s and 1950s were eye-opening as well.Reading this, I came to understand how Bradbury worked his ass off to bring us the stories and books that have become part of American culture.On their best days, Poe and Hemingway couldn't touch R.B.Kudos to Eller & Toupence for their fantastic work. (I recommend, though, skipping the lengthy introduction, which is an academic-style snooze, unlike the rest of the book).Here's hoping mainstream literati will read this, and celebrate Bradbury as the genius he is.In other words, a damn fine effort. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1920-    2. 20th century    3. Authors, American    4. Authorship    5. Biography    6. Biography & Autobiography    7. Biography/Autobiography    8. Bradbury, Ray,    9. General    10. History and criticism    11. Literature - Classics / Criticism    12. Science Fiction & Fantasy    13. Science fiction    14. Science fiction, American    15. English    16. Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -    17. Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000    18. USA   

Reviews (12)

Magic, Monsters, Mystery--A Great Collection
I was disappointed when I read One More For the Road.That was not on of Mr. Bradbury's better collections.But The Toynbee Convector is full of all the tales and ideas we know Mr. Bradbury is capable of. STORIES THAT SPAN BRADBURY'S CAREER
By reading the information on the copyright page, the reader will note that the stories in this book have been culled from over a half dozen publications, possibly many more.As such, it seems reasonable to assume that they were written over a span of a great number of years.I would have found it helpful had the original copyright dates of each entry been included so one could, in some ways, track Bradbury's development as a writer. It's got the Laurel and Hardy Love Affair!!!!!
If Ray Bradbury had never writeen anything but "The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair," a short story which is in this book, he'd be my favorite writer.Of course, I'm a huge fan of those two comedians, and one of their best movies is the "subject" of the article, but the story is just great...I'll bet I've read it at least once a month for over 20 years.Buy this book to read that story! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Science Fiction    4. Science Fiction - General    5. Science fiction    6. Space and time    7. Time travel   

Subjects:  1. Literature: Classics    2. Science fiction