| Author | Message | ||
     Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
It's Ray Bradbury's 86th birthday today. We should all celebrate. I'll be drinking a couple of glasses of Isle of Jura while re-reading the best of his short stories tonight. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.69.94 |
Thanks for reminding me Weber! He is one of the finest writers! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.160.23.143 |
You'll need quite a few nights, Weber. To re-read the best of his stories I mean, not to drink the whisky! Unless you mean the best story. Which is the best story? Joel's Bradbury Top 5: The Emissary The Scythe The Next in Line Heavy-Set Banshee | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
The Emissary (The story that got me into Bradbury in the first place) The scythe The women Fever dream The October game Mars is Heaven – (the third expedition) Anyone who claims Bradbury was too nice to write effective horror should read those stories The laurel and hardy love affair The Wish The Dragon (I think that’s what it’s called – about two knights waiting for a dragon in a field where time seems not to exist) Long after midnight Each of those stories brought a tear to my eye and the longest is 10 pages. The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl The Foghorn What’s that story called about the man who’s been wandering a deserted planet alone for 20 years when the phones start ringing and he gets messages from himself from the past? that's for starters. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.226.153 |
"The Telephones"? Haven't got my Bradbury books here. I know it's part of THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES cycle. Just a few of my favourite Bradbury yarns: "A Story of Love" "The Better Part of Wisdom" "The Next in Line" "Skeleton" "Lets Play Poison!" "Boys! Grow Giant Mushrooms in Your Cellars!" "The Pedestrian" | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.69.94 |
I love The Banshee, 'he wipes his hands on flesh;girls are his napkins, women his midnight lunch...' I have a soft spot for The Conflagration too. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Off the top of my head: I Sing the Body Electric! The October Country The Emmissary The Scythe Dark They Were and Golden Eyed Happy birthday, RB! | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
The Jar Skeleton brrrr... | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Dark they were and golden eyed, how could I have missed that off my list? Also "There will come soft rains". Another story that has me gently weeping. An extra special acheivement when you consider there isn't a single character in the story - unless you count the dog that appears for half a page and dies about two thirds through. Happy Birthday Mr B, may you keep writing for another 40 years. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
It was when the blob called him by name... And then some fool turned on the lights... some of the greatest closing lines ever | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
The telephone story isn't actually in Martian Chronicles (English or American editions, or the silver locusts. I have them all). I'll have to track it down, it's starting to bug me. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Pretty much the whole of R IS FOR ROCKET. When I was a kid I'd scour his collections for SF pieces. To find a pure collection of SF was a delight. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 79.70.1.208 |
He is indeed a wonder! | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.143.150 |
How could I forget 'The Foghorn'? And yes, 'The Women' is amazing. And 'The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl'. And 'The Black Ferris'... and 'The Smiling People'... 'On the Orient, North'... I was lucky enough to find THE OCTOBER COUNTRY in the local library when I was about twelve. One of my half-dozen favourite books ever. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.22 |
"The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl" is priceless, it reads like something by Roald Dahl. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.193.191 |
Limiting myself to stories that haven't been listed (I like all the ones mentioned so far), here are a few I remember affecting me when I first devoured his stories some thirty years ago: Interval in Sunlight The Veldt The Next in Line The Crowd Calling Mexico The Wind The Night The Small Assassin The Conflagration Up at the Old Place The Screaming Woman Happy birthday, Mr. Bradbury! | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.193.191 |
Oops... I see Joel and Hubert have already listed 'The Next in Line'. Allow me to replace it with 'Jack-in-the-Box'... or perhaps 'The Handler'. It's hard to choose when there are so many to pick from. God, this guy is prolific! | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 67.116.103.241 |
"The Next In Line" might very well be the single finest horror story ever written... if not, it's right up there... top five, no less.... | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
I think I'd vote for "The April Witch" as my favourite non-SF piece by him. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.22 |
And I still haven't read FAREWELL SUMMER! | ||
| Stu (Stu) Username: Stu Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 86.29.99.155 |
I tried Bradbury a few years back but his stuff didn't really grab me. But I recently picked up the 2 volume collection THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY for £1.99 in Oxfam and have really enjoyed the dozen or so stories I've read so far. It was also fairly recently that I realised that a story by an unnamed author which I'd had to read in an English lesson was Bradbury's 'The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl.' Only realised when I read a reprint of the EC Comics adaptation 'Touch and Go.' | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
The telephone story is "Night Call Collect" from the I sing the body electric collection. I have an edition with a really strange picture on the cover - a Centaur flexing his arms but instead of forearms he has another torso on the end of each arm, each one of those flexing (the two mini torsos do have hands) Great collection | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.22 |
I see he has a new book out as well - NOW AND FOREVER: "Two never-before-published novellas by one of America's finest living writers. A journalist bearing terrible news leaps from a still-moving train into a small town of wonderful, impossible secrets . . . The doomed crew of a starship follow their blind, mad captain on a quest into deepest space to joust with destiny, eternity, and God Himself . . ." The grand old man hasn't lost his touch . . . | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 91.110.239.122 |
I would rank some of Bradbury's work from the eighties – DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS and much of THE TOYNBEE CONVECTOR – among his finest achievements. His work since then has been relatively slight, though better than his detractors claim. FROM THE DUST RETURNED was fantastic, but it was really a triumph of self-editing: the selection of older stories, not the new writing, made it what it was. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.22 |
DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS is a great novel, full of dark poetic touches and humour (a vilain with smelly armpits  , no less). One of Bradbury's finest efforts. | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Now and forever is a great piece of work. "Somewhere a band is playing" is one of the best novellas I can remember reading. Leviathon 88 or whatever it's called ain't bad either. Death is a lonely business is arguably his best novel although Fahreneit 451 is a strong contender. Graveyard for Lunatics is an excellent read as well. I didn't think From the Dust returned really worked as a novel. As short stories theiy're up there with the absolute best of his work - The April Witch, The Homecoming etc. but as a novel they're contradictory and just didn't hold together. The Homecoming is also now available illustrated by dave McKean and was one of my "I can't afford that, I don't need that, oh fuck it!" purchases this year. What do people think is his best short story collection? My vote would go to either The October Country or Long After Midnight, or possibly the Martian Chronicles (a massively good collection, but too loose to work formally as a novel). | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.22 |
Difficult to say, they're all such great books. I read THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES, FAHRENHEIT 451 and much of ILLUSTRATED MAN, DARK CARNIVAL and THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN when I was but 12 years old, so they've pretty much become part of my psyche. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
The October Country, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. Each one is a flawless collection, IMHO. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
I'd got for R IS FOR ROCKET, followed by GOLDEN APPLES. Obviously the MARTIAN CHRONICLES if that's counting as a collection and not a novel. But in truth I haven't really all his collections. I've never owned a copy of TOYNBEE, for instance, as I kind of drifted away from his stuff for a while, only coming back to it with DRIVING BLIND (which contains another favourite, "Thunder in the Morning"). | ||
| Weber_gregston (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 83.98.9.4 |
Is Martian Chronocles a novel or a collection. My vote is collection as it's too loose to hold up as a novel/. I think the only truly successful compilation novel (or whtever the phrase is) that he wrote was Dandelion Wine. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.225.22 |
I've just reread "Kaleidoscope", from THE ILLUSTRATED MAN. What a beautiful story. Even after all these years it almost makes me cry. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.156.186.45 |
some things don't change... | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.180.121.224 |
I read stacks of Bradbury when I was a lad - sort of drifted away for some reason, but I've been picking up the PS reprints (mainly when they've been discounted) for a while now. Read R is for Rocket and S is for Space again recently and loved them all over again. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 94.197.127.186 |
Yeah, two of my favourites there, Mick. I think Ramsey's introduction to Long After Midnight in the PS range is just perfect for the collection too. Bradbury's South American stories are very underrated, don't we think? I think they're interchangeable with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short stuff, though Bradbury's better for the most part. | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
A whole list of stories I haven't read yet- which is great! More Bradbury to discover! Favourites: The Scythe (all time favourite) The Next In Line The Foghorn The Jar Heavy Set A Sound Of Thunder And so many, many more... | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Great choices, Simon! Other faves: The Emissary The Black Ferris The Traveler The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl And the Rock Cried Out The Banshee | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Of which I've only read half! Time to order some more Bradbury in, methinks! | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
The Crowd Long after Midnight A touch of Petulance Invisible Boy (which I disliked intensely first time I read it - then when I grew up I read it from an adult perspective and realised I'd looked at the story from the wrong character's perspective which was why I felt so cheated first time - because his character does get cheated - when you understand the old woman's reasons for doing what she does, it's one of his saddest stories) the Illustrated Woman The Veldt | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Someone really needs to friggin' just do a Bradbury anthology horror film, I mean come on! You'd have to put in THE SMALL ASSASSIN and THE CROWD and THE OCTOBER GAME, no question... as for the others, there'd be so many to choose from.... | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.156.186.45 |
They did the Illustrated Man back in the 70's or 80's - with Rod Steiger. Allegedly A Sound of Thunder is being/has been filmed. Beast from 20,000 fathoms was based on the Foghorn. But yeah, we need more Bradbury based movies. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.176.15.67 |
I recall liking "Something Wicked This Way Comes", although I know that's not based on short stories; the scene in the library with Jonathan Pryce tearing the pages from a book to illustrate the passing years of Jason Robard's life was wonderful, I thought. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.254.29 |
Agreed, Mick. That movie was a flawed masterpiece. And that scene was just perfect. It's on You Tube. Heartbreaking. |