Pretty good collection of short stories here. Many of them I read for the first time. If you like Bradbury you will like these stories. It seems like a lot of these stories were not as good as what he usually wrote, but there are some gems in here such as "Embroidery" a story about an atomic holocaust, and "Sound of Thunder" of course that is politically prophetic based on our current situation in the U.S. The best short story in this collection is "Frost and Ice" about a race of earthlings on Mars who can only live for days because of the harsh conditions so that each week is a new generation. Great job on that one Ray, RIP.

***WHO SUCKED ME IN***
Tori Morrow on YouTube in their Science Fiction in One Sitting | 8 Short Recommendations video published on 25 aug. 2020

Short stories I can read in one sitting but also science fiction that actually work in a short book?! How can I not get sucked in. Bit of a shame that I can't seem to get most of them in paperback. I actually like to buy novella's even though they are a bit pricey. I don't know I'm always a bit worried that if I don't buy them in physical form, they will somehow disappear from my memory even if I enjoyed them so much. Also novella's are perfect to recommend to non-readers!

“A Sound of Thunder” is a science fiction story about a man named Eckels who hires a time travel company to take him on a hunting expedition in the age of the dinosaurs. In "A Sound of Thunder" the main conflict is man versus man and man versus nature, as Eckels fights with Travis who is attempting to keep him from changing the future and the dinosaurs he is attempting to hunt. Bradbury's purpose is to develop a theme about small actions that have long-term consequences, especially when related to technology... cautioning readers to be wary of technology that enables them to do too much. One must look deep into the meaning of the story to find that theme, and I am a fan of that! I would suggest this story to anyone who enjoys reading or analyzing the actions of a society when a very small event can have large unintended consequences.

Personal Response: I really enjoyed the short story A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury. It was very interesting and fun to read. It is one of my favorite short stories.

Plot: The short story starts out with a guy named Eckels reading a sign. It was a sign that was from a time travel company that takes people on hunting trips. He went into their building and paid a fee to go on this expedition. The man that took his check said that it is dangerous and he might die. Eckels understood and went over to the time machine. He then met his hunting guide, Travis, his assistant, Lesperance, and two other hunters, Billings and Kramer. They traveled through time and Travis warned them of the dangers of messing with things from the past. He tells them that they can only shoot things if he says it is fine and not to go off the path. The future could be affected by even stepping on a little insect. They all understand as they arrive. They step out of the machine and go to the spot where they are going to kill a T-Rex. They T-Rex comes out and it is massive. Eckels then starts to freak out. He starts yelling and runs back to the machine. The T-Rex then sees them and charges after the hunters. The two guides shoot down the T-Rex and then go back to the Time Machine. They yell at Eckels for freaking out and for going off the path. They noticed that he had mud on his boots. Travis threatened to kill him but decided not to. Instead they made Eckels go cut out the bullets in the T-Rex because they can’t leave them there. He came back to the time machine and they went back to the present. Eckels came back and noticed that something was off. Everything just seemed different. He walked outside and read the sign that he read in the beginning of the story. The sign was written with different letters in places for others. The y’s in the sign were changed to i’s. Eckels walked back in and asked a guy at the desk who the president was. It was a different guy than it had been before they left. Eckels turned to Travis and Travis shot him.

Characterization: There wasn’t a whole lot of characterization in this short story. Eckels is a man and her acts very brave. He isn’t though and shrivels up when things go bad. Travis is a man and seems like a leader. He is very stubborn and likes things to be done his way. Lesperance is another guy in the short story. He is very quiet and defends Eckels.

Rating/Recommendation: I enjoyed this short story a lot. It was very fun to read. I rate it 5 stars out of 5. I recommend this short story to anyone in High School or older.

Did not know that Ray Bradbury basically gave us the Butterfly Effect!
Short stories, still very hit and miss for me. Loved some of them (I liked The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl, and The Murderer was wonderful), didn't care for others.

I read everything I could get my hands on by Ray Bradbury when I was in high school so it was fun to revisit these stories from the Golden Apples of the Sun and R is for Rocket 45 - 50 years later.

I appreciate Bradbury's talent for capturing raw emotion immensely. His short stories timeless, and I enjoy teaching them to my middle school students when studying dystopian texts. This book really pulled at my heart strings. From the lonely sea creature who destroys her/his one possible connection to another being, to Chris, who must leave his best friend and mother behind to fulfill his destiny...these stories have left an impact.

This is a fine collection of short stories written between 1943 and 1957. The stories range from some, not many, that are so-so to those that soar, like the title story, a superb time travel tale. Most are highly entertaining and all show how much Bradbury's imagination was stimulating and creative.

If you think sci-fi stories are mainly stories of alien invasions, think again. In some, it's the humans who are the alien invaders. Overall, though, the stories are tales that explore human behavior and relationships, and a few are paens to hope and wonder.

Favourite stories: The Fog Horn, The Wilderness, The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl, The Flying Machine, The Great Wide World Over There, The Powerhouse, The Rocket Man (reread), The Exiles (reread), Here There Be Tygers, The Strawberry Window, The Dragon, Frost and Fire, The Sound of Summer Running (reread).

bradbury kicks my ass every time

Ray Bradbury is sometimes science fiction, sometimes not, and the stories in this volume have no strong opinion about which is which. Bradbury is, simply, a storyteller.

I found some of the stories incredible: The Fog Horn, The Flying Machine, The Murderer, I See You Never, The Big Black and White Game, Sun and Shadow, The Meadow, The Rocket (one of the great parenting stories I've ever read), The Exiles, Frost and Fire, Uncle Einar (another wonderful parenting story), and The Time Machine.

Yes, that's about half the stories in the book. Honestly, I had given this book 4 out of 5 stars until I started going back and creating the previous list, which made me realize that the collection is mostly amazing.

The Murderer is especially profound for our current moment of technical ubiquity. It's about a man that's had enough with technology and its interruptions, so he starts murdering devices like radio watches and phones:

"It frightened me as a child. Uncle of mine called it the Ghost Machine. Voices without bodies. Scared the living hell out of me. Later in life I was never comfortable. Seemed to me a phone was an impersonal instrument. If it felt like it, it let your personality go through its wires. If it didn't want to, it just drained your personality away until what slipped through at the other end was some cold fish of a voice all steel, copper, plastic, no warmth, no reality. It's easy to say the wrong thing on the telephones; the telephone changes your meaning on you. First thing you know, you've made an enemy. Then of course, the telephone's such a convenient thing; it just sits there and demands you call someone who doesn't want to be called. Friends were always calling, calling, calling me. Hell, I hadn't any time of my own. When it wasn't the telephone it was the television, the radio, the phonograph. When it wasn't the television or radio or the phonograph it was motion pictures at the corner theater, motion pictures projected, with commercials on low-lying cumulus clouds. It doesn't rain rain any more, it rains soapsuds. When it wasn't High-Fly Cloud advertisements, it was music by Mozzek in every restaurant; music and commercials on the busses I rode to work. When it wasn't music, it was inter-office communications, and my horror chamber of a radio wrist watch on which my friends and my wife phoned every five minutes. What is there about such 'conveniences' that makes them so temptingly convenient? The average man think, Here I am, time on my hands, and there on my wrist is a wrist telephone, so why not just buzz old Joe up, eh? 'Hello, hello!' I love my friends, my wife, humanity, very much, but when one minute my wife calls to say, 'Where are now dear?' And a friend alls and says, 'Got the best off-color joke to tell you. Seems there was a guy---' And a stranger calls and cries out, 'This is the Find-Fax Poll. What gum are you chewing this very instant!' Well!"
...
"It grew on me!" Brock rubbed his hands together. "Why didn't I start a solitary revolution, deliver man from certain 'conveniences'? 'Convenient for whom?' I cried. Convenient for friends: 'Hey, Al, thought I'd call you from the locker room out here at Green Hills. Just made a sock-dowager hole in one! A hole in one Al! A beautiful day. Having a shot of whiskey now. Thought you'd want to know, Al!' Convenient for my office, so when I'm in the field with my radio car there's no moment when I'm not in touch. In touch! There's a slimy phrase. Touch, hell. Gripped! Pawed, rather. Mauled and messaged and pounded by FM voices. You can't leave your car without checking in: 'Have stopped to visit gas-station men's room.' 'Okay, Brock, step on it!' 'Brock, what took you so long?' 'Sorry, sir.' 'Watch it next time, Brock.' 'Yes, sir!' So, do you know what I did, Doctor? I brought a quart of French chocolate ice cream and spooned it into the car radio transmitter."
...
"That's semantically accurate. Kill it dead. It's one of those talking, singing, humming, weather-reporting, poetry-reading, novel-reciting, jingle-jangling, rockaby-crooning-when-you-go-to-bed houses. A house that screams opera to you in the shower and teaches you Spanish in your sleep. One of those blathering caves where all kinds of electronic Oracles make you feel a trifle larger than a thimble, with stoves that say, "I'm apricot pie, and I'm done,' or 'I'm prime roast beef, so baste me!' And other nursery gibberish like that. With beds that rock you to sleep and shake you awake. A house that barely tolerates humans, I tell you. A front door that barks: 'You've mud on your feet, sir!' And an electronic vacuum hound that snuffles around after you from room to room, inhaling every fingernail or ash you drop. Jesus God, I say, Jesus God!"

The Big Black and White Game, as well, could have been written last week, and is in vocal support of Black Lives Matter.

In general, the first of the two books, The Golden Apples of the Sun, I thought was stronger than the second, R is for Rocket.

I loved this quote, from The End of the Beginning:

"All I know is it's really the end of the beginning. The Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age; from now all we'll lump all those together under one big name for when we walked on Earth and heard the birds at morning and cried with envy. Maybe we'll call it the Earth Age, or maybe the Age of Gravity. Millions of years we fought gravity. When we were amoebas and fish we struggled to get out of the sea without gravity crushing us. Once safe on the shore we fought to stand upright without gravity breaking our new invention, the spine, tried to walk without stumbling, run without falling. A billion years Gravity kept us home, mocked us with wind and clouds, cabbage moths and locusts. That's what's so really big about tonight...it's the end of old man Gravity and the age we'll remember him by, for once and all. I don't know where they'll divide the ages, at the Persians, who dreamt of flying carpets, or the Chinese, who all unknowing celebrated birthdays and New Years with strung ladyfingers and high skyrockets, or some minute, some incredible second in the next hour. But we're in at the end of a billion years trying, the end of something long and to us humans, anyway, honorable."

This book contains two short story collections by Ray Bradbury. I am reading The Golden Apples of the Sun section in 2020 and R is for Rocket in 2021.

n  The Golden Apples of the Sunn

Overall, I felt this collection was the weakest of Bradbury’s that I’ve read so far. Too many of the short stories are too short (some just a few pages) to really get a feel for. Most got 2 stars, but these were the best: The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl, The Murderer, The Great Wide World Over There, and The Garbage Collector.

I did like several of the lines in these stories, so this collection was still enjoyable, just not as much as it could have been.


Individual Ratings and Reviews:


The Fog Horn—3 stars. Setting is wonderfully described. Sad story about a lonely creature who answers the call of a fog horn.

The April Witch—3 stars. A witch desperate to fall in love takes over the body of a human girl to live the experience through her. I thought the push and pull between the witch and girl was really good and liked the nod to Green Town, where other Bradbury short stories and books take place.

The Wilderness—2 stars. Interesting look at how men are the ones to typically venture forward with women and children arriving later on. The descriptions are beautiful but it was just an OK story to me. I did love this line, though: “Now, with the message sent, the words said, she wanted to call them back, to censor, to rearrange them, to make a prettier sentence, a fairer explanation of her soul.”

The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl—3.5 stars. This felt similar to Edgar Allan Poe’s “A Tell Tale Heart.” The story itself is simple but the anxiousness and madness that the storyteller feels is well described and made me feel fairly anxious for the man as well.

The Flying Machine—2.5. stars. As usual, Bradbury does a great job with imagery but the story itself is very grim. It was really too short for me to get too much of a feel for.

The Murderer—3.5 stars. Was a little boring at first but once it got going, it became very entertaining. This story describes a future in which we are constantly bombarded by technological noise and about a man who rebels against. Some of the lines made me chuckle.

I liked these: Then, of course, the telephone’s such a convenient thing; it just sits there and demands you call someone who doesn’t want to be called.

“Was there any special reason for selecting French chocolate ice cream to spoon into the broadcasting unit?”
Brock thought about it and smiled. “It’s my favorite flavor.”
“Oh,” said the doctor.
“I figured, hell, what’s good enough for me is good enough for the radio transmitter.”
“What made you think of spooning ice cream into the radio?”
“It was a hot day.”

The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind—2 stars. Interesting concept but the story was really too short for me. I liked the moral of the story, though.

I See You Never—2 stars. I feel this would have made more of an impact had it been longer. It was just too short.

Embroidery—2 stars. Was a bit confused on what was happening. Needed to be longer and explained a little better.

The Big Black and White Game—1.5 stars. Uses slurs from the past toward black people but the story itself wasn’t written offensively. This mostly describes a baseball game, which honestly bored me, but I liked the insights concerning prejudices in this one.

The Great Wide World Over There—4 stars. LeVar Burton reads this one on his podcast, LeVar Burton Reads, so I decided to listen to it. He did a great job narrating so I highly recommend listening. The story itself was good, though sad. It had some deep insights about people concerning pride and the thirst of knowledge. I really liked how Cora decided to help her neighbor in the end.

Powerhouse—2 stars. This one was confusing, but did have two lines I liked, one quite a lot:

“Hers was simply not a pew shaped spine.”

“Whenever a light blinked out, life threw another switch; rooms were illumined afresh.”

I was able to connect pretty well to the main character’s views concerning religion, but the story was too short for my liking and I didn’t completely understand what was happening due to that length.

En La Noche—2 stars. Very strange concept involving a grieving noisy neighbor. I did like this part, though: “Let us go into her room and strangle her,” said one of the men. “No, that would not be right,” said a woman. “Let us throw her from the window.” Everyone laughed tiredly.

Sun and Shadow—2.5 stars. A man not wanting the outside of his home photographed goes to drastic measures. I was bored by this one until Ricardo did something to ruin the photoshoot—then it got somewhat amusing. Still, the story, like so many of these, is much too short to really appreciate.

The Meadow—2.5 stars. An interesting take on nostalgia and also about teamwork. Feels similar to stories from The Martian Chronicles almost.

The Garbage Collector—3.5 stars. A garbage man who enjoys his work has to come to a decision about whether or not to continue with it when his job duties become more sinister. Had some gross maggot descriptions but overall creepy. I wish it had been longer, as it feels unfinished at the end.

The Great Fire—2.5 stars. Interesting concept, but a little hard to tell at times if things were being taken literal or not.

The Golden Apples of the Sun—2 stars. Didn’t get much out of this one.

Overall, 3 stars for the collection.


n  R is For Rocketn

I liked this collection much better than the other. The ones I liked the least tended to be the ones too short to get much of a feel for.

The ones I liked best were: Frost and Fire, The Long Rain, A Sound of Thunder, Here There Be Tygers, and The Rocket Man.


Individual Ratings and Reviews:


R is for Rocket—3 stars. I liked this well enough. A teenaged boy who has been yearning for space his entire life gets the opportunity of his dreams. I enjoyed his relationship with Ralph the most.

The End of the Beginning—2.5 stars. A very short story in which a couple consider the value of space travel as their son goes into orbit. I liked the sentiment behind it but it was too short to get a good feel for.

The Rocket—3.5 stars. Started off on the dull side but got more interesting. A man wants very badly to go to Mars but only has one ticket and learns about sacrifice and creativity when it comes to his family. Thought the outcome was sweet.

The Rocket Man—4 stars. Told from the perspective of a boy who's father is a Rocket Man and how it affects the life of him and his mother when he's away. I really liked this futuristic slice of life and it had a good message about sacrifice and hard decisions.

A Sound of Thunder—4.5 stars! A deliciously dark story concerning the consequences of time travel.

The Long Rain—5 stars! Wow. OK. Now this is the kind of story I've been waiting for! Tense, atmospheric, and dark. Feel the urge to re-read after that ending.

The Exiles—3 stars. Interesting concept involving book censorship, burning books, and how that could affect the authors in a Sci-Fi type of twist. Would have liked to see it explored even further than it was. Was cool seeing authors like Poe and Dickens make an appearance.

Here There Be Tygers—4 stars. Lovely short about the exploration of a “perfect” planet so long as you respect it.

The Strawberry Window—3 stars. a sentimental short about living on a new planet while still mourning the things on your home planet. 3 stars.

"I've got no fingernails from holding on now!"

The Dragon—2 stars. an extremely short story about two knights battling against a dragon. Was too short for me to really get much of a feel for.

Frost and Fire—5 stars! An intriguing story in which people only live for eight days on a planet with a cruel atmosphere until one boy finally decides to risk everything to attempt to live a longer life. Interesting concept, enjoyable characters, and a story that had me glued to every word. Excellent tension.

Uncle Einar—3.5 stars. Sweet little story about finding freedoms to similar to what you used to have, only with your family. Has an interesting fantasy twist.

The Time Machine—2 stars. A group of kids encounter a time machine, but it’s not quite what you’re thinking it is. Interesting concept, but mostly just reflecting on past events, which doesn’t interest me too much.

The Sound of Summer Running—3 stars. A nostalgic short that would fit in perfectly with Dandelion Wine.

Overall, 4 stars for the collection.