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7th out of 21 books
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98 voters
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The Golden Apples of the Sun
by
Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is a modern cultural treasure. His disarming simplicity of style underlies a towering body of work unmatched in metaphorical power by any other American storyteller. And here, presented in a new trade edition, are thirty-two of his most famous tales--prime examples of the poignant and mysterious poetry which Bradbury uniquely uncovers in the depths of the huma...more
Paperback, 352 pages
Published
November 1st 1997
by Harper Perennial
(first published 1953)
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How does one review a book of tiny short stories? Do I describe the stories individually? Or do I just mention a couple favorites, like the one about the last dinosaur and the lighthouse, or the pedestrian, or The Sound of Thunder, the time travel story that everyone knows even if they don't know the name of?
I'm one of the few people that didn't have to read Fahrenheit 451 in school so the only exposure I had to Ray Bradbury before this was issues of Tales from the Crypt where they...more
I'm one of the few people that didn't have to read Fahrenheit 451 in school so the only exposure I had to Ray Bradbury before this was issues of Tales from the Crypt where they...more
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Not all of the stories in this collection of Bradbury's short fiction are great, or even that memorable, but one or two of them will stick with me -- I particularly enjoyed 'Embroidery', which was well-structured and had a lovely final paragraph. Perfect, even, almost.
Even if a few of them didn't really get to me, it's worth noting that I received it in the mail just today, and I read it in two sittings. I've been rather wrapped up in video games lately (hey, I just got the news that I...more
Even if a few of them didn't really get to me, it's worth noting that I received it in the mail just today, and I read it in two sittings. I've been rather wrapped up in video games lately (hey, I just got the news that I...more
I enjoyed most of the stories in this book, particularly;[return][return]"The Murderer," which I found to be so appropriate to life today! This is one of few stories that hasn't got an initial publication date noted, but I guess it would be early 1950. Even though the technology that drives the main character to "murder" is not exactly as Bradbury imagined it would be, it is close enough to make me go "Wow!"[return][return]"Sun and Shadow," which made me f...more
This book has been sitting on the shelves with my other Bradbury books since 1971 which means it made the move from Minnesota to Pennsylvania and eventually New Jersey! Yes I was a librarian before I got my MLS. I organized most of my books by author and hard or paperback back in high school. My brother Michael use to think my books were his to read and would "borrow" (take with out asking). I do recall nailing him rather well when one book falled to find its way back. haha. But life h...more
I was, of course, familiar with Ray Bradbury's most known work "Fahrenheit 451" and appreciated him for his contribution to sci-fi, but then I read this collection of short stories and was blown way.
The title comes from a line of Yeats:
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
For that I have to thank Bradbury doubly, once for writing such a wonderful collection of short stories,...more
The title comes from a line of Yeats:
And pluck till time and times are done,
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.
For that I have to thank Bradbury doubly, once for writing such a wonderful collection of short stories,...more
I was really excited to read some Ray Bradbury after reading "The Crowd" in The Dark Descent. Also, I'd recently been reading about a little story called "A Sound of Thunder," which I gathered was supposed to be one of the original butterfly-effect stories. So I put in an order at the library, and here we are.
You may have noticed this book is on my "Abandoned" shelf, not my "Read" shelf. The problem is that a lot of the stories in this collect...more
You may have noticed this book is on my "Abandoned" shelf, not my "Read" shelf. The problem is that a lot of the stories in this collect...more
Loved it!
Bradbury got the title from last line of this poem...
THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS
by: W.B. Yeats
WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I ha...more
Bradbury got the title from last line of this poem...
THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS
by: W.B. Yeats
WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
When I ha...more
Warning: The following review contains public display of shameless fangirlery
These collected short stories confirmed something I have long suspected; Ray Bradbury is a living breathing writing celestial entity and to me R will always be for Rocket!
“The Murderer”, which was published in 1953, uncannily portrays the impact of information overload before there was Facebook or even the internet. Really spooky stuff. My favorite stories are “The Great Wide World Over There” and the a...more
These collected short stories confirmed something I have long suspected; Ray Bradbury is a living breathing writing celestial entity and to me R will always be for Rocket!
“The Murderer”, which was published in 1953, uncannily portrays the impact of information overload before there was Facebook or even the internet. Really spooky stuff. My favorite stories are “The Great Wide World Over There” and the a...more
Thoroughly enjoyable read. I've only read Martian Chronicles previously, and I love the way Bradbury's descriptions and cadence really flow naturally. That's one of the things Stephen King does so well also. All but maybe a couple of these stories are solid little tales. The quality is just so much higher than something like a Richard Matheson collection, which executes interesting ideas in a flat and tiresome manner. It also helps that this collection starts off with a very Lovecraftian story t...more
One of the best collections of American short stories, even if many of them are technically science-fiction. They still have a deeper sense of the struggles of humanity, regardless of setting - which, perhaps, is that makes them even more powerful and hammers the point even deeper.
Great science fiction. Great speculative fiction. Great American fiction, period. Bradbury wrote a slew of classic stories; this is the cream of the crop. GOLDEN APPLES is another reason I'm a writer today.
"That's life for you...someone always waiting for someone who never comes home. Always someone loving some thing more that that thing loves them. And after a while you want to destroy whatever that thing is, so it can't hurt you no more". Re: sea creature that destroys the lighthouse and the fog horn that mimics it's own lonesome cry.
"Silence happened next. God, it was beautiful...I just rode around feeling of the silence. It's a big bolt of the nicest, softest flannel e...more
"Silence happened next. God, it was beautiful...I just rode around feeling of the silence. It's a big bolt of the nicest, softest flannel e...more
This was a book of classic Ray Bradbury short stories. Bradbury has a way of illustrating his stories through wild, longwinded metaphors. In the story 'Embroidery', he embellishes on three old ladies who are knitting on their porch as they wait for a bomb to drop. The intensity of their knitting invites the reader into the knitters world of flashing needles and strings. The story ends when the bomb finally drops and the women dissipate as if pulled by a loose thread. Bradbury uses fantastic ...more
This is a collection of SF and non-genre short stories that Bradbury wrote in the 'forties and 'fifties, all with the general theme of characterisation, people and the desires of men and monsters. The tales are told with Bradbury's trademark flare and style, something that captivates me every time, even when the story itself fails to engage.
As well as containing classic Bradbury shorts like A Sound of Thunder, The Pedestrian, and The Fog Horn, non-SF stories such as The Flying Machin...more
As well as containing classic Bradbury shorts like A Sound of Thunder, The Pedestrian, and The Fog Horn, non-SF stories such as The Flying Machin...more
The collection of short stories. The point here - to read them slowly, not one by one, maybe one or to in a day, to enjoy every of them. To understand everyone. Earlier I didn't like short stories; however, now I can see the beauty of them.
This collection brings you both to the future and to the past, to China, to dinosaurs, to Sun - wherever you want. I am still surprised how precisely Bradbury guessed our present then, 50 years ago.
With some exceptions, each story made me...more
This collection brings you both to the future and to the past, to China, to dinosaurs, to Sun - wherever you want. I am still surprised how precisely Bradbury guessed our present then, 50 years ago.
With some exceptions, each story made me...more
Bradbury on the sea:
...more
"One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said "We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I'll make one. I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like the trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, col
I once said that Bradbury was "trash, but exquisite trash. Like the pizza boxes and soda cans of the gods". (Is it okay to quote one's self? I'm okay with it) I stand by the statement. He's good not great, although I think back to Something Wicked This Way Comes and some of the stories in The Illustrated Man and I want to argue with myself. He's got a great, flexible sort of an imagination, which is kind of humanist and romantic and childish all at once. That being said, this collectio...more
To my mind, there are two great stories here. They both provide insight and emotional resonance that have stayed with me since reading them, and rank with the best of Bradbury’s other, phenomenal, work. More on them later!
By way of contrast, “In The Meadow” features a watchman whose sentimentality for retired movie sets comes across as maudlin and embarrassingly overwrought, and his influence on the heart of a high profile, flimsily-written movie producer is unbelievable and silly....more
By way of contrast, “In The Meadow” features a watchman whose sentimentality for retired movie sets comes across as maudlin and embarrassingly overwrought, and his influence on the heart of a high profile, flimsily-written movie producer is unbelievable and silly....more
When I was 17 years old Ray Bradbury was my favourite writer and *The Golden Apples of the Sun* was my favourite book of his. Even then I knew that the very best Bradbury stories('Homecoming', 'The Scythe', 'Kaleidoscope', etc) could be found in his other collections, but *Apples* had a kind of magic that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Plus it had the best cover!
I've just re-read this volume -- almost 25 years after I first read it. It's not quite as brilliant as I remember. Yes,...more
I've just re-read this volume -- almost 25 years after I first read it. It's not quite as brilliant as I remember. Yes,...more
Because this book is a collection of short stories I have to rate this based on how many I liked and unfortunately there was only about four that I thought were good. Some left me scratching my head wondering if pages were missing. I like Bradbury but most of the short stories in this collection were pretty weak. I was trying to put myself in the 50's while reading this and I still don't think I would have liked some of them. I will say though that the short story "The Murderer" was aw...more
I love Ray Bradbury. This collection of some of his short stories includes a wide range of themes but all of them bear Bradbury's unique perspective on life & society. Perhaps hopefully dystopic, or dystopically hopeful? Not sure how to qualify his writing, but it's evocative and insightful. My personal favorite stories were The Pedestrian, Hail and Farewell, The Fog Horn, The Great Wide World Over There, Sun and Shadow, and, by far the best- The Murderer. A few of these 1953 stories are undou...more
Another collection of Ray Bradbury short stories makes it way onto my list, this is rather unsurprising given how much I like Bradbury's works. However, I feel that I read this when I was starting to lose interest in short stories. As a result, I think that I didn't read them very closely and think too much about them. Perhaps when my interest in short stories comes back I'll read it, but for now, all I can say is that I moderately liked it. Overall, I liked The Golden Apples of the Sun, but...more
22 short stories by Ray Bradbury. All very typical Bradbury stories with their dark, poetic beauty. The stories range from science fiction (like the title story) to fantasy to the simply bizarre. He gives us the vision of a killer who is intent on getting away with his crime to a discussion between a back-lot guard and the creator of the world he protects. Bradbury is one of those writers whom you either love or hate.
Dating to 1953, this is from Bradbury's prime and collects a few of his mainstream stories as well as some of his most famous: "A Sound of Thunder," "The Flying Machine" and "The Fog Horn." One of his best; of the 22, only "The Meadow" is a clunker.
Mixed set of stories it seems. Some were a little "eh", some were really fascinating, and some were so great you really wished they had their own novel. My favorite was about the lighthouse, I thought it was exquisitely done.
Seriously enjoyed this little collection of Bradbury's stories. There was such a nice variety of story - not all science fictiony, which I was afraid of. Loved the opening story about the sea monster and the lighthouse - how tragic! And "The Sound of Thunder." Wow. I just really, really enjoyed this book.
Read the first short (very short) story last night. It knocked my socks off. Legendary Bradbury from 1952, writing about 2052. When I read collections like this, I usually allow some time bewteen stories to let them "settle in."
Erik Graff
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Bradbury fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
sf
The most memorable story in this collection, read during high school, is "A Sound of Thunder". I had actually read it in Michigan years before, sitting in the living room at night on the wicker couch across from the fireplace. Although I can find no reference to its publication in such, I am pretty certain that it appeared in a science fiction pulp magazine and had an illustration accompanying it. The night in question may have been around 1964 because I associated the political ref...more
Estos cuentos cortos son una excelente lectura para un creativo. La imaginación de Bradbury lo transporta a mundos diferentes, historias sorprendentes. Un maestro de la ficción.
There were some short stories that I liked very much and others I think did not work so well. I must say there were some I did not like at all.
I enjoyed the book, but I think there was some fluctuation in quality from some short stories to the others.
I enjoyed the book, but I think there was some fluctuation in quality from some short stories to the others.
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Ray Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days a...more
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