5 ms·
Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite authors when I was in High School. What novel(s) by him would you recommend now that I'm in my 30s?
by yboris 5y ago
Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite authors when I was in High School. What novel(s) by him would you recommend now that I'm in my 30s?
- ineptech 5y agoHe has a lot of greatest hits (Dandelion Wine, Fahrenheit 451, Martian Chronicles) but if you're looking for something different, I really enjoyed his murder mystery trilogy (Death Is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics, Let's All Kill Constance). They are all kind of loosely based on (and playfully parodying) the noir detective style, and a lot of fun.
- unkeptbarista 5y agoMy personal favorite was "Something Wicked This Way Comes".
- mcguire 5y agoSomething Wicked This Way Comes. Perhaps Dandelion Wine.
- Konohamaru 5y agoSWTWC was the scariest book I ever read.
- mcguire 5y agoWhich part? The meditations on growing up and losing your childhood and growing older and the resulting loss of agency? Or the scary circus?
- handrous 5y agoDandelion Wine is one I bounced off of during my initial Bradbury infatuation around age 11 or 12, but in my 30s have found to be excellent. It is, in part, about experiencing the world as a child, but is probably not something most (to put it mildly) children can appreciate, if that makes sense. I did have a fair bit of exposure to small midwestern town & country life as a kid, and a lot more second-hand via my parents, and I can't discern how much of my appreciation of the story is due to that. To someone with—for example—only urban, coastal experience, would it hit anywhere near as hard as it does for me? Will the next group of people turning 30, who've never seen a house in the US with actual you-have-to-go-work-a-pump-by-hand-to-get-water well water, with a wood burning stove in the kitchen that sees daily use, et c., be able to relate to it as I do, which relation may itself be far weaker than people who grew up like that full-time? I'm not sure. His short stories are great. There were two thick hardback volumes published, each collecting 100(!) stories, that'll give you plenty to chew on. Widely available used, pretty cheap. Unless you dove really deep on Bradbury in high school, odds are much of it will be new to you. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stories_of_Ray_Bradbury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stories_of_Ray_Bradbury https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Stories:_100_of_His_Most_Celebrated_Tales https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Stories:_100_of_His_M... No repeats between the two volumes. 200 total stories. Does include most or all of The Martian Chronicles, which I prefer to read on its own, personally, though these might be useful for filling in gaps since IIRC they contain a couple stories that weren't in every printing of The Martian Chronicles.
- PaulHoule 5y agoThere is this TV series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ray_Bradbury_Theater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ray_Bradbury_Theater which is a unique SF show in that it is not based on characters and settings the way 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘬 or 𝘎𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘮 or even 𝘘𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘮 𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘱 are. They are free to tear down the world each time and take the imagination far and they did most of it when Bradbury was still alive. Characters of all ages from young children to old men and women are represented. There is artistic input from the writer but also the director, actors, casting, music, etc. I can't think of another anthology SF series that is this successful.
- duskwuff 5y agoOT: You can get real italics on HN by surrounding words in asterisks. No need for Unicode chicanery like the "Mathematical Sans-Serif Italic" characters you're using.