Bradbury Classic Stories 1
From The Golden Apples of the Sun and R is for Rocket

Ray Bradbury

3/28/2006

Yes, I was on a Bradbury kick this month. The more of his work I read, the more I admire it, especially his short stories. This book took a group of short stories from two earlier collections. It's a good cross section of his work from the poignant to the ironic, from the everyday mundane to the fantastic future. They were all written in the later 1940's and 1950's.

Another of my all-time favorite short stories by Bradbury is in this collection from R is for Rocket. It is called "The Time Machine". One boy in a small town tells his friends that the man down the street has a time machine. They don't believe him and challenges him to prove it. So off the boys go. The first boy asks the Colonel to tell them about the famous magician he saw in 1910. After that story, he asks about the buffalo hunt he was on in 1875. Then the Colonel tells them about his battles in the Civil War. Finally one of the boys asks the first one where the time machine is. It's the Colonel, of course. I was fortunate enough to have a similar experience with my Grandfather within a week before he died. Bradbury reminds us how valuable our older people are - a good reminder in this age of youth consciousness.

There was one short story that made me chuckle. Two women were getting ready to leave to join their men in the frontier. They had been communicating since the men left. Now they are preparing to move to the frontier with them. The frontier is Mars. The year - 2003. We haven't lived up to Bradbury's technical vision of 50 years ago.

There are 32 stories in this collection. Every reader is bound to find something that appeals in this book. Ray Bradbury has the reputation of being a science fiction writer. But he is so much more. Have fun running through his mind in these stories.

You can find more about this book at .