Favourite Ray Bradbury story?

[jchris]

Do you have a favorite Ray Bradbury story? I like the Illustrated Man stuff. I thought that was a very clever way of putting the short stories together. I like the story about the kids who were addicted to the virtual nursery. The Veldt. Very insightful.

I don't remember the name of it, and maybe it's not my favorite, but a haunting story that sticks with me is from the Martian Chronicles about how the colonist children were playing in some abandoned Martian home. They thought they were diving in piles of leaves, but really they were playing in the dried up corpses of old Martians. Crazy kids...

 

[D_Davis]

I love just about everything in October Country.

My favorites are probably "The Emissary," "The Small Assassin," and "Skeleton."

 

[D_Davis]

I don't remember the name of it, and maybe it's not my favorite, but a haunting story that sticks with me is from the Martian Chronicles about how the colonist children were playing in some abandoned Martian home. They thought they were diving in piles of leaves, but really they were playing in the dried up corpses of old Martians. Crazy kids...

Martian Chronicles contains a number of very disturbing stories. Bradbury has a way of really getting under my skin, and he does so with a subtle and elegant style.

 

[slack]

I also love the way The Illustrated Man is arranged. Kaleidoscope, in particular, struck me as a very insightful, tragic tale. The Rocket Man is also very good.

I just recently bought the hardcover collection of his short stories. I like it has like 100 of his best. I just finished reading The Crowd recently, which was also interesting.

 

[jchris]

I also love the way The Illustrated Man is arranged. Kaleidoscope, in particular, struck me as a very insightful, tragic tale. The Rocket Man is also very good.

Yeah, I like the shifts he makes from one point of view to another. Very clever, and very effective.

Have you read the Dragon? From one point of view, it's a knight stalking a dragon, then it shifts to the engineer driving a train... I thought that was cool.

Oh crap. That's a spoiler, isn't it?

 

[Extollager]

"All Summer in a Day."

 

[Nesacat]

If we are talking story as in short story then my favourite is The Fog Horn. I have an odd relationship with this story. I first read it in the Reader's Digest when I was in my teens. While the contents of the story stayed with me I forgot both the writer and the title. But I was never able to get the images out of my mind and since I come from an island, the ocean was never far away. Many years later, in a remainder bookstore I found a book with a montage on the cover. Part of the image was a fog horn and a dinosaur. And yes it was that story. It sent me along to read more from Bradbury.

If we are talking longer pieces then it's a tie between Halloween Tree, Illustrated Man and From the Dust Returned.

I don't think I could choose between them. They are all so different from each other and I dearly love them all.

 

[Rodders]

I don't know much Bradbury and have only really read Farenheit 451. There's a Waterstones near me that has one or two of the Collected works of Bradbury books that i keep meaning to pick up, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. As a child, the Martian Chronicles had quite a big impact on me, so i guess that's my favourite story so far.

 

[Fried Egg]

My favourite story by Bradbury is a tale called "Frost and Fire" which is an excellent story about a rocket ship that lands on Mercury but the colonists get stuck there in a harsh and brutal cycle of life and lose their memory of where they came from because the radiation speeds up their life spans to about seven days.

He's written so many great stories though.

 

[Connavar]

I have only read October Country collection so far and haven't got other books,collections yet.

My fav story so far "The Scythe" that was so wonderfully weird. Many of the other stories in that collection was so good too.

 

[dask]

"A Sound Of Thunder" and "There Will Come Soft Rains" for me.

 

[GOLLUM]

HMM.. I'm a little surprised no one had mentioned Something Wicked This Way Comes or Fahrenheit 451. They are to of my favourites.

Then again they are longer works and you did request stories...so perhaps that is why?...

 

[Connavar]

Yeah stories makes you think of short stories.

I have an excuse unlike you others of having read only collection and "discovering" his writing last year

 

[Fried Egg]

HMM.. I'm a little surprised no one had mentioned Something Wicked This Way Comes or Fahrenheit 451. They are to of my favourites.

Then again they are longer works and you did request stories...so perhaps that is why?...

Personally, I think Bradbury most excels when it comes to short stories rather than novels.

 

[GOLLUM]

Personally, I think Bradbury most excels when it comes to short stories rather than novels.

You're probably right. I have read very few of Bradbury's short stories but after having previously received a lovely two volume mega collection of his short stories from the Cat Lady I will be placing this on the TBR pile before the end of 2011.

 

[Pedro Del Mar]

Something Wicked This Way Comes by an absolute country mile! The way he captured the sinister atmosphere, the mystery, and time period were amazing.
Fahrenheit 451 is another favourite but not as high up my list as Something Wicked. Recently re-watched the Fahrenheit 451 movie that was made in the 70's or 80's and enjoyed it.
What surprised me was how much I felt let down by The Martian Chronicles. Had to force myself to finish it in the end.

 

[antiloquax]

I haven't read much of Bradbury - just "Fahrenheit 451" and a few stories. I vote for "The Man Upstairs". Really creepy.

a

 

[GOLLUM]

I haven't read much of Bradbury - just "Fahrenheit 451" and a few stories. I vote for "The Man Upstairs". Really creepy.

a

Most of what I have read so far by Bradbury is first class. I have the 2 volume short story collection to read along with a number of his novels and novellas I also own.

Crooksy is right, Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of my favourite longer works by Bradbury and is 'magical' in every sense of the word, reminiscent in fact of Boy's Life by Robert McCammon that we've been discussing on a nearby thread.

I better not say any more on these authors as I fear I'm only adding to your ever increasing pile of new books...

 

[Randy M.]

Sorry to keep pulling up old threads, but this one appeals to me too much to let it go.

As I mentioned in a short story thread, I would gladly nominate "Homecoming" as contender for the greatest 20th century American fantasy short story. Timothy is excited about his family reunion and we soon learn he has an interesting, even creepy family. But for all he loves them and for all they love him, there is something about Timothy that estranges him from them. This consideration of love and family is so heart-breaking and hopeful and beautifully written, that I've reread it frequently since first reading it in the 1970s.


Randy M.

 

[Kris_01]

What was the short story called where a man gets off a train in a small town and is followed by a stranger who wants to kill him? I like how it gets turned around at the end! That's my favorite story.