Ray Bradbury Collected Short Stories (The Great Author Series) [Hardcover]

Ray Bradbury (Author), Robert Court (Illustrator)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 104 pages
• Publisher: Peterson Pub (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970903324
• ISBN-13: 978-0970903327
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,309,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ray Bradbury has published some 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems since his first story appeared in Weird Tales when he was twenty years old. Among his many famous works are 'Fahrenheit 451', 'The Illustrated Man' and 'The Martian Chronicles'.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good introductions to Bradbury, September 24, 2002

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ray Bradbury Collected Short Stories (The Great Author Series) (Hardcover)

Ray Bradbury has become a much revered master of the SF/fantasy/horror, and rightfully so. As a part of the "Great Author Series," three of his best short stories are presented in a sturdy hardcover edition

"The Other Foot" takes place twenty years after African-Americans left Earth for Mars, and have lived peacefully for many years in an enviroment free of racism and segregation. But old grudges and hatreds flare up when a Caucasian man arrives in a rocketship.

"April Witch" is about Cecy, a part of the bizarre Family also featured in "From the Dust Returned." The immortal, mind-travelling Cecy longs to fall in love, but the only way she can is to temporarily possess the body of a young girl and romance a mortal man...

"The Veldt" is a chilling look at what happens in a mechanized house where a holographic nursery begins to exert a mysterious power over its inhabitants.

Ray Bradbury's mastering of the subtle message, the sense of the surreal, and a growing sense of horror are well shown in this collection. His prose is spare and his dialogue is simple, but each story packs a punch. This edition is also very well bound, with a pleasant hard cover and thick, smooth paper. And as an extra bonus, there are study guides for each of the three stories, and a biography of the author at the end

For those new to Bradbury, this is a good introduction with some of his best material.

3.0 out of 5 stars Ray Bradbury: Leaves of electric glass, March 23, 2006

By 

Menachem Rephun "Billy Sluthers McShea" (Passaic, N.J) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ray Bradbury Collected Short Stories (The Great Author Series) (Hardcover)

Ray Bradbury is an author whose colorful, entertaining and imaginative stories read like those of Isaac Asimov, though with more poetry and less scientific jargon. His writings, particularly the "science-fiction/fantasy" stories for which he is most reknowned, are written in a thoroughly unique and distinctive style, rich in poetry and metaphors. His imagination is vast, his appeal as a writer equally immense: it might even be tempting to call him a great writer, were it not for a few shortcomings which arguably prevent the title from being ascribed to him.
Firstly, his style, though lyrical, has a tendency to grow somewhat stale and redundant: though rich in metaphors and texture, it sometimes seems as though Bradbury were restating the same themes, recycling the same images too frequently...one can read through a few of his books, only to find that, if consumed too frequently and in too large doses, they have lost much of their freshness. Another problem is that, like much science-fiction, Bradbury's stories assume an all too playful and self-mocking tone, never quite taking themselves seriously enough. At times, one can detect a note of self-depredation in his stories, almost as though he were saying: "Sure, I can write well, but I'll never be a Steinbeck, or a Hemingway..." This implied attitude can sometimes be frustrating when one reads the work of science-fiction authors.
And yet, nevertheless, reading Bradbury, one never ceases to marvel at his technical ingenuity, the originality and inspired visionary quality of his poetry, the weird dream-worlds he seems so effortlessly to create. One could perhaps compare Bradbury to a contemporary Lovecraft, Wells, or Poe: yet ultimately he stands in a category all his own, one which, as has often been noted, transcends all genres, including fantasy and science-fiction. Bradbury's stories skillfully straddle the line between fantasy and reality, between an attempt to deal with the present and a charming and melancholy nostalgia for the purity and innocence of childhood. In many ways, he is like a young Mozart, impressing his listeners with his talents by strumming on the harpsichord, all the while exclaiming, "Look what I can do!" He is, in short, a virtuoso.