tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19747344.post3827384552264775927..comments2023-09-29T04:37:34.125-07:00Comments on Linda Without Borders: Literary Supplement: A Month of Short Stories and Their Authors continues July 3rd: Ray Bradburylindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01550290075640463707noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19747344.post-8573642597527127342014-07-03T12:00:48.004-07:002014-07-03T12:00:48.004-07:00[Also posted on Facebook.]
Bradbury is an addictio...[Also posted on Facebook.]<br />Bradbury is an addiction. He's never as sharp as Mathison, but I remember him longer. The first of his books I read was The Golden Apples of the Sun, and I was hooked. There are several stories written over his early years, beginning I think with "The Emissary," about a family of, well, undead I suppose comes closest to it, including Cecy and Uncle Einar, that each deliver a quiet wallop. <br /><br />Bradbury himself didn't call most of what he wrote science fiction. He preferred fantasy, in the sense that Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) Magazine used the word, not as heroic fiction or magical realms like Middle Earth but as those odd what-if's you mentioned for Kafka and Atwood. Some of the early stories are little more than mood or emotion pieces or even prose poems. <br /><br />Favorite stories? Several from Dark Carnival, the best of which RB harvested into The October Country. Titles that come to mind are The October Game (oddly enough not in The October Country), Zero Hour, the aforementioned The Emissary, April Witch, The Dwarf, Skeleton. For me his best novel is Something Wicked This Way Comes. I think the latter half of his oeuvre is not as strong as the early stuff, but he never lost his ability to dream up new ideas. The more I read of his stories the more I wanted to read.Gene B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14526757085571558682noreply@blogger.com