Editorial Review

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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. Classics    2. Fiction    3. General    4. Large type books    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Science Fiction - General    7. State-sponsored terrorism    8. Totalitarianism   

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

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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. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Large type books    4. Science Fiction    5. Science fiction, American   

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Beautiful, Heart-Wrenching, Fun, Tender, and Vibrant
It's odd for me to feel so drained after reading a book of short stories.After a novel, sure--after investing one's attention into four hundred pages of characters and their coarse plot, but not after a collection of unconnected stories.
Another From The Master
"Quicker than the Eye" is a short story collection from Ray Bradbury, published originally in 1996.It consists of twenty-one short stories, most of which were published between 1994 and 1996.The one exception to this is "The Electrocution", which was first published in August of 1946 in "The Californian".Fourteen of these stories were published before, in a variety of magazines, and the other 7 are published for the first time in this collection.There is also an afterword, in which Bradbury discusses where his stories come from, and how he writes.
Wonderful little journeys to the unexpected
In his rather indulgent afterword, Bradbury hints that he dashes off many of his short stories in two hours or less. What's this mean for the reader? It means that, in general, the stories are short, even for the genre of short stories. It means that many of them are almost like little sketches of a single, simple idea rather than well-polished texts that contain many conscious layers. It also means that many of the stories are fun and quirky. Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction - General    2. Large Print    3. Large type books    4. Science fiction    5. Short Stories (single author)   

Editorial Review

A masterpiece of modern Gothic literature, Read more

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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. Classics    3. Espionage/Intrigue    4. Fantasy - Dark/Horror    5. Fathers and sons    6. Fiction    7. Fiction - Espionage / Thriller    8. General    9. Horror    10. Horror - General    11. Large type books    12. Male friendship    13. Occult   

Editorial Review

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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. Fiction - General    2. General    3. Large Print    4. Large type books    5. Science fiction, American    6. Science fiction   

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

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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. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Science Fiction    4. Science Fiction    5. Science Fiction - 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

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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. Comics & Graphic Novels    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - Science Fiction    4. Foundlings    5. Graphic Novels - General    6. Illinois    7. Immortalism    8. Science Fiction - General    9. Vampires