historias que acaban sin darte cuenta pero en tu mente continúan. Personajes que con solo unas cuantas paginas de historia tienen mas profundidad que protagonistas de sagas sin fin. relatos de terror que no cuentan nada, la simple insinuación te hiela la sangre. Grande, primer libro del año que comienzo a leer y unas cuantas horas después ya lo he terminado.

Nadie es perfecto. Entre mis imperfecciones literarias hay una que chirría bastante, y es que no soy un gran fanático de este Gran Maestro de los buenos géneros; ni siquiera su obra más consagrada me parece superior a otras de otros autores que a mí me parecen sublimes. Cuestión de gustos, supongo, o de aplicación de las teorías de Goebbels.

Esta colección de cuentos, por ejemplo, me ha resultado una auténtica montaña rusa de interés: hay algunos que bien merecerían puestos de honor en las mejores antologías, pero hay otros que han subido desde mis fascículos ópticos hasta el cerebro para almacenarse en la sección del mismo en la que guardo todo lo que parece que no voy a volver a usar nunca. Es un conjunto irregular, sin una línea clara más allá que la que se lee por ahí y dice que son para leer cuando dice el título y que Bradbury tardó más de 7 años en escribirlos todos. Yo creo dos cosas diferentes sobre esto: que si tuviera que leerlos siempre a esa hora tardaría varios siglos porque no mantienen bien la tensión en su mayoría, y que no es tanto que Bradbury tardara un tiempo largo en escribirlos, sino que fue escribiendo durante todo ese tiempo y, al final, alguien decidió juntar todos los relatos en una misma publicación. Pero nunca te bañas dos veces en el mismo río y el autor de una época es muy distinto de otra, sería interesante saber cuál fue la cronología real de escritura de estos cuentos para ver si correlaciona con lo que digo.

Para leer poco a poco, a ser posible alternándolo con algo más intenso; para algunos será la leche pero, para mí, necesita café.

Ray Bradbury is an exceptional mind when it comes to science fiction and fantasy. Degrees away from the modern human condition, he brings it home to us. The same cannot be said for when he addresses the human condition directly, especially when tackling romantic relationships and (oh god) women. In stories like the Long After Midnight, he truly shows himself to be a man of the 70s yearning for the 50s. Why did a girl kill herself? Obviously she got mad at her boyfriend. Why is a marriage wearing on husband and wife? Because the wife is nagging. It's things like this that made this collection of short stories almost unreadable. The latter came up multiple times and Bradbury showed this pattern: Woman brings up an annoying lowkey criticism. Man brings up extreme and unfair criticism. Woman is understandably upset. Man is mad and says "Why are you so upset?". And this whole story is told from the point of view of the man (third person limited), and so tacitly portrays the interaction as balanced. I'm just so over this book and practically all fiction from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

I give this book two rather than one star, because not every story is about romantic love. Some are even science fiction. These are where Bradbury shines. For example, there's an absolutely heartbreaking story about a boy wanting to keep his sick mother from dying. There's a crazy story about bringing an author to the future to get a novel take on space travel. But we can't get away from the fact that his view of love, marriage, and women is so painfully outdated. Seeing that this book's 22 short stories focus primarily on these three topics, the book hurts my eyes.

During elementary school a couple of authors so impressed me that I resolved to read everything they had ever written. One was Mark Twain, another H.G. Wells, a third was Ray Bradbury. Ignorant, I thought that covering the paperback book racks at the drugstore and the selections in the local library did the job. It didn't; not by a long shot.

Since those exciting days of ignorance I've found innumerable volumes by all three authors which I'd never heard of before. To make things better, Bradbury was still producing and might be producing still. Thus, I come back, and back again to old loves. I may have been ignorant, but I wasn't entirely stupid. I like all of them still.

I can't decide whether this was an exceptionally weak collection of Ray Bradbury stories, or whether the author just doesn't speak to me like he did when I was younger. Either way, I really didn't care for this collection. "A Piece of Wood" and "Punishment Without Crime" were somewhat interesting thought experiments, but everything else in the book was a real drag to get through.

This book is what made me love Ray Bradbury. The Blue Bottle is one of the most brilliant stories ever written. The 2 geniuses of the century...Rod Serling and Ray Bradbury.

Bradbury is to writing as fine dining is to food. It's an experience. Give it a try.

The most important thing I can write about this book is that the narrator is terrible. He sounds like an old man with a gravely voice that gets phlegmatic at times, and he has a minor speech impediment. Most of these stories are told from the point of view of a young man or a teenager. Why the producer picked this narrator is inexplicable and indefensible. The production is also terrible. One story ends, and with barely a pause the title of the next story is announced. There's not tone, no 3-second pause, nothing. It's like listening to how children read their own work...no pauses.

The stories are very good. They are not Bradbury's best, but they are still at a pinnacle that most writers will never approach.

Ray Bradbury is een briljant korte verhalen schrijver, maar het label 'Science-Fiction' op de voorzijde geen recht aan hem gezien er naast horror en misdaad verhalen, ook literaire verhalen de revue passeren. 'In een keer innemen', 'Het geschenk van de vriendschap' en 'Tussen de aarde en de eeuwigheid' vond ik onverwachte pareltjes in deze bundel. Dit smaakt naar meer Ray Bradbury.

This book definitely contained some of Bradbury’s darker work, but it is beautiful nonetheless

It has been WAY too long since I've read any Ray Bradbury and MAN could he write a good short story! As with any collection, there were a few in the mix that I could take or leave but for the most part, it was outstanding! The problem his works inevitably run into (and the reason he's not as remembered as fondly these days is the science part of his science fiction. Put plainly: Bradbury guessed big and for the most part wrong on the science of space travel, etc. But this is not a problem for me because the stories aren't about the science or even the location. It's that humanity is humanity even if it's on Mars or a spaceship or your neighbors backyard. His prediction that he got right was that we'll continue to make the same mistakes as long as there are people around to make them.

I found this collection very uneven, with some stories that left me totally uninterested and others that were better, but it ended with a story that is one of my all time favourites, ever, by any author, and so I must rate it the more highly for that. I would pick this up again, anytime, just knowing that I get to enjoy Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You! at the end.