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The October Country

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 5,115 ratings · 273 reviews

Ray Bradbury's second short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published September 7th 1999 by William Morrow (first published 1955)

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Feb 26, 2012 Shan Jago rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“It was one of those things they keep in a jar in the tent of a sideshow
on the outskirts of a little, drowsy town.”

The October Country is a rare, shadow dusted blossom with multicolored petals, each tale a tiny wonder or terror intoxicating the reader with mysterious pollens. There is everything you’d expect from a collection of weird tales, yet Bradbury has that magic touch that transforms even common myths and fears into something completely his own.
From the backwoods night terrors of The J...more

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Oct 18, 2009 Shawn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-horror-and-supernatural

One of the first books I ever read, and one of the reasons I still read. I found some of the other reviews dismaying (poor dialogue?, silly concepts?, antique writing style? - has the world and the people in it really changed that much? Have people lost their hearts? Perhaps, they've just never read "The Smile" by Bradbury, not included in this collection).

Granted, Bradbury's style does take some getting used to - the man is emotionally honest and as people everywhere become more emotionally gua...more

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Jun 18, 2012 Apatt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my first time reviewing an anthology so please bear with me. How do you go about reviewing these things any way? Story by story? Sounds like a chore. I'll just muddle through as usual then!

The October Country is a collection of Ray Bradbury's macabre stories, I hesitate to label them as "horror stories" because they are not particularly horrifying, but they are mostly odd and unsettling, almost "new weird" but disqualified on the "new" part! I will just run through them quickly:

"Dwarf" -...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: shortstory-shortstories-novellas, boo-scary, fantasy, autumn-2012

Withdrawn from Multnomah County Library (and just where is that, she wonders rhetorically)

Frontspiece: Fifteen of the stories included in this collection were written before my twenty-sixth birthday and published in August Derleth's Arkham House edition of my first book DARK CARNIVAL.

What I really enjoy about Bradbury, aside from the exquisite prose, is the size of his heart. In a modern world full of deceit and backstabbing, dissimulation and partisanship, it is possible that we are already liv...more

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May 27, 2008 Werner rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of macabre, scary, or just plain unusual stories

Shelves: general-fiction, science-fiction, supernatural-fiction

I'd started reading this book several years ago, in the library at another college, while I was attending a library convention, and I've just now gotten around to finishing it. At his best, Bradbury is a master of short fiction; his output in that form ranges across the genres, from the speculative realms of science and supernatural fiction to the everyday world of descriptive fiction. But the unifying thread in all of it is a flamboyant imagination, by turns whimsical or chilling, that can tran...more I'd started reading this book several years ago, in the library at another college, while I was attending a library convention, and I've just now gotten around to finishing it. At his best, Bradbury is a master of short fiction; his output in that form ranges across the genres, from the speculative realms of science and supernatural fiction to the everyday world of descriptive fiction. But the unifying thread in all of it is a flamboyant imagination, by turns whimsical or chilling, that can transform the ordinary into a strange and alien landscape. And the whole is presented in a uniquely lyrical and evocative prose style, rich with metaphors and similes, and appealing to all of the reader's senses to a degree that few writers have ever equaled. The 19 early stories here (several of them reprinted from his earlier collection, Dark Carnival) well illustrate these characteristics, with an emphasis on the scarier side of his work.

Of course, given the sheer volume of Bradbury's output, and the speed with which he produced it in his early years, some of his stories inevitably miss the mark. Here, the science fiction stories generally share the common theme of making some harmless feature of ordinary life somehow lethally menacing --one's own skeleton, the wind, a newborn baby who wants to kill his parents in "The Small Assassin." Bradbury doesn't succeed in making any of these premises credible, or in carrying the reader along despite the incredulity; these works illustrate the dictum of one critic that the author's besetting fault is "silliness." But most of the stories here succeed very well in being what they're designed to be. The ghost stories are very effective, and "The Homecoming" is a supernatural genre masterpiece. Much of the descriptive fiction is a powerful evocation of the real horror in this world: death, madness, murder, suicide, and the major and minor cruelties we inflict on each other. "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse" is exaggerated social satire that derives its bite precisely from its deadpan exaggeration; and "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone" is a serious meditation on life's priorities, of special interest to those of us who are writers.(less)

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Sep 06, 2007 Peggy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Bradbury gets to me like no other author. I honestly couldn't tell you if it was the stories themselves or my frame of mind when I first read them, but somehow Bradbury is able to slip right through most of my critical faculties and hit me right in the heart.

This first collection is fabulous, showcasing Bradbury's sentimental side as well as facility with darker emotions, especially loneliness. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I read about that sea monster calling back to the foghorn or...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

This collection of early short stories is startlingly different from anything else I've read by Bradbury, though some of the stories share a bit of the small town sentimentality of Dandelion Wine. None of these tales are truly classics, but the sensibility and the subtle horror that Bradbury brings to each of the many stories here, shows that even from a young age (for a writer) Bradbury's imagination was quite fertile and capable of quite elegant leaps. Many of the conceits in these horror tale...more

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Sep 28, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A brilliant collection of stories centered around what Bradbury called his "autumn people." Of course, anything by Ray Bradbury is going to be high caliber, but these stories speak to me at the heart. Much like "Something Wicked" the stories focus on worlds very similar to ours, but always a little off.

Bradbury is at his best in short stories and every one in this collection doesn't disappoint. If you like the man at his most eerie, weird, disaffected and dark, this is essential reading.

Worlds...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Al rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Welcome to a land Ray Bradbury calls "the Undiscovered Country" of his imagination--that vast territory of ideas, concepts, notions and conceits where the stories you now hold were born. America's premier living author of short fiction, Bradbury has spent many lifetimes in this remarkable place--strolling through empty, shadow-washed fields at midnight; exploring long-forgotten rooms gathering dust behind doors bolted years ago to keep strangers locked out.. and secrets locked in. The nights ar

...more

The October Country is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man's most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. The October Country's inhabitants live, dream, work, die--and sometimes live again--discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship. Here a glass jar can hold memories and nightmares; a woman's newborn child can plot murder; and a man's skeleton can war against him. Here there is no escaping the dark stranger who lives upstairs...or the reaper who wields the world. Each of these stories is a wonder, imagined by an acclaimed tale-teller writing from a place shadows. But there is astonishing beauty in these shadows, born from a prose that enchants and enthralls. Ray Bradbury's The October Country is a land of metaphors that can chill like a long-after-midnight wind...as they lift the reader high above a sleeping Earth on the strange wings of Uncle Einar.

Amazon.com Review

Ray Bradbury's first short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!?

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Jul 19, 2012 Katsumi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ghosts-creepy-monsters

Ray Bradbury's name is synonymous with imagination and in this collection of short stories he proves that beyond a reasonable doubt. I know, I used to cringe at his name. That is before I learned that he didn't just write science fiction. These stories range from a bizarre account of one couple's visit to a Mexican town and the mummies that reside there (The Next In Line), a loyal dog that brings its young bed-ridden owner things from out in the world, even things from cemeteries (The Emissary),...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Punit Soni rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: anthologies, horror

Usually a compendium of short stories is easy to read. One does not require a huge attention span and it is possible to stop and pick the thread up at will. However, The October Country was definitely no easy read. Ray Brabury, author of the pathbreaking Farenheit 451 comes up with another gem of a book. This one almost entirely removed in genre and handling from his previous effort. If Farenheit 451 was a dark science fiction in the league of "1984", this one is classic Edgar Allen Poe only wei...more

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Feb 15, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Despite a couple predictable endings (The Small Assassin and The Wind) and a few instances of overly obvious, needlessly italicized prose, this is a great collection of short stories that really demonstrates the breadth of Bradbury's skill and the varied nuances of his perspective. This collection has it all: from dark truths about human nature (The Dwarf, The Next in Line, The Crowd) to more humorous explorations of life and society (The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse, Touched With Fire, The...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Chy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Right, so, Bradbury's the man, man. It doesn't matter when you know just how a story is going to end; he wants you to know so you can stop worrying about it and feel the journey in all the senses.

There are two "Family" stories in here and I must go find more. At some point.

And just...not a bad story in here, or even a mediocre one. Because they're all Bradbury. And the details are just...mmm. So good I have to let the taste linger and come back for the next taste. (That is to say, it took me a w...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Colin Leslie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Happy Halloween or Samhain if you prefer. T'is the season when the dark things are loose. The crackle of the log on the fire sends sparks spinning into the air, casting long shadows but shadows of what?

So, to mark the passing of the summer season into winter, here is Ray Bradbury's The October Country, his "netherworld of the soul", stories from the heart of one of the greatest writers alive today. As Bradbury says, despite his renown for Science Fiction and Fantasy he is "for better or worse th...more Happy Halloween or Samhain if you prefer. T'is the season when the dark things are loose. The crackle of the log on the fire sends sparks spinning into the air, casting long shadows but shadows of what?

So, to mark the passing of the summer season into winter, here is Ray Bradbury's The October Country, his "netherworld of the soul", stories from the heart of one of the greatest writers alive today. As Bradbury says, despite his renown for Science Fiction and Fantasy he is "for better or worse the illegitimate son of the Opera Phantom, Dracula and the Bat". Don't come to this work expecting traditional ghosts, gore and monsters however, approach these pages carefully and seriously. These are stories of passing, of childhood passing, time passing, life passing, perfect for this season when change is in the air and darkness wins the battle against light.

This collection of nineteen weird tales contains some of Bradbury's best known work, some of his most obscure pieces and an undercurrent of dazzling prose that lifts these stories wholesale from the page and breathes life into them and by doing so, injects just a little bit of life back into the reader.

The classics are pieces like The Scythe, a story that has lived with me since childhood but one that never fails to touch me. Here a family are escaping the tragedy of dustbowl America during the great depression eventually rolling up in front of a farm. The farmer has died but tragedy soon turns to joy when they realise the farm is theirs but with it comes a terrible commitment. It's this unfailing swing from sorrow to joy then tragically, relentlessly, inevitably back to sorrow that makes the piece so emotive.

The Jar has provided a template for the likes of Stephen King who has made a career from the kind of characterisation Bradbury displays here. It's a stylistic tour de force as he places everyman characters in extraordinary circumstances.

We get shocking originality from The Small Assassin, where a baby turns on it's parents. Chilling mortality from The Crowd with it's ambulance chasing central characters. We also get fantastic leaps of the imagination from the likes of Uncle Einar and it's tragic successor Homecoming. More traditional tales like The Wind or The Cistern sit alongside these dark fantasies concentrating more on plot than setting whilst others like The Emissary are all about the characters.

There are some that don't quite work for me, Jack-In-The-Box is written in a flowery, not to say dense prose, making it fairly impenetrable. The Next In Line has a brilliant premise but outstays it's welcome but these are exceptions, the majority of this collection is quite simple splendid.

Composed as the author tells us as a tribute to "that country whose people are Autumn people, thinking only Autumn thoughts" this collection is a perfect accompaniment to stormy dark evenings or lonely walks through golden leaved woods. It smells of woodsmoke, it's colours are dazzling autumn colours and it's characters are you and I.(less)

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Aug 29, 2009 Apzmarshl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Apzmarshl by: James Peczuh

Rating 3.5 Some great stories mixed with some less great. I have a hard time ending one story and entering right into another one. Maybe I should be putting the book down between stories.

OCTOBER COUNTRY ...that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal bins, closets, attics, and pantries fa...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Traci rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

May I Die Before My Voices: Not a story within this collection actually. It's the introduction by the author, and quite simply one of the best I've read. The title refers to those voices an author, and a reader too I believe, hear when the characters have taken on a life of their own. 5/5.

The Dwarf: A good start. Reminded me of Something Wicked This Way Comes, which I read earlier this month. Questions the power of illusion, and how it affects how we can see ourselves. Okay, but there are better...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Jessica Phillip rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror, anthology

Welcome to a land Ray Bradbury calls "the Undiscovered Country" of his imagination - that vast territories of ideas, concepts, notions, and conceits where the stories in this book were born. America's premier living author of short fiction, Bradbury has spent many lifetimes in this remarkable place - strolling through empty, shadow-washed fields at midnight; exploring long-forgotten rooms gathering dust behind doors bolted years ago to keep strangers locked out. . . and secrets locked in. The ni...more

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Nov 18, 2012 Frank Looney rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is only the second book I've ever read by Ray Bradbury, the first being The Martian Chronicles a few months ago. Both are great, but The October Country hit me harder, being as I am more of a "shadows and cobwebs" than a "rocket ships and little green men" kind of guy. This is the best collection of short horror(-ish?) fiction I've read in some time. Special mention goes to "The Next in Line," which reaches Shirley Jackson levels of gut-wrenching discomfort. Other notable stories are "The E...more

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Feb 04, 2012 Isidore rated it 4 of 5 stars

From the author's note: "For my later readers, THE OCTOBER COUNTRY will present a side of my writing that is probably unfamiliar to them, and a type of story that I have rarely done since 1946."

DARK CARNIVAL, Bradbury's first book, came out in April, 1947. It was published by Arkham House, best known for preserving the work of H.P. Lovecraft. Most of the stories in it first appeared in "Weird Tales", the pulp horror magazine for which Lovecraft wrote. In other words, the Ray Bradbury of DARK CAR...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Jori Richardson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-owned, darkly-hauntingly-gothic

After reading just a few pages into this powerful book of short stories, I was completely blown away. They all seemed to grow better and better as I read.
Bradbury's true talent is short fiction, as demonstrated by all of the 19 short stories here. I don't think a single one was badly written, or anything remotely close to it.
The author writes his tales in a genius blend of irony, horror, science fiction, and wit. Each story touches briefly into the unnatural, the eerie, the ethereal.
Also, Bradbu...more

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Jun 19, 2012 D.M. rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: horror

As a fan of Bradbury, particularly for his novels, I wanted to read one of his titles to commemorate his recent passing. The October Country is a collection of short stories written between the years of 1943 and 1955. The theme in these tales is that of an expose of human nature with twist of depravity and horror. The stories vary from some very nasty people doing some really despicable things, to an alter-universe where human love and justice fail to keep away some truly horrible occurances. Pl...more

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Jul 24, 2009 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, not-my-thing

Bradbury is unquestionably one of our greatest early Sci-Fi writers, who helped to define the genre for other greats follow. Maybe each of these stories didn't hit their intended mark, but he does a damned good job in trying. Here's a brief description of some of my favorite shorts in here:

The Next In Line - The longest of the shorts, but well worth the read. In typical Bradbury fashion, a woman questions her mortality after a close encounter with mummies in Mexico. Like any good story, you find...more Bradbury is unquestionably one of our greatest early Sci-Fi writers, who helped to define the genre for other greats follow. Maybe each of these stories didn't hit their intended mark, but he does a damned good job in trying. Here's a brief description of some of my favorite shorts in here:

The Next In Line - The longest of the shorts, but well worth the read. In typical Bradbury fashion, a woman questions her mortality after a close encounter with mummies in Mexico. Like any good story, you find yourself empathizing with the character's fixation on death and her struggle to leave Mexico. One of the best endings ever

The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Mattisse - A story about a man who goes to desperate lengths to become less of a bore and impress his avant-garde friends. A little self-mutilation goes a long way

The Lake - Some could argue it's been overdone, the idea of someone losing a part of his childhood innocence, only to return 15 years later and experience the bittersweet nostalgia once again. But Ray's well known for these sort of reflective stories, and it's written very well

The Small Assassin - Not especially good, but I decided to add it because every one else seems to like it. Basically, it's about this rouge baby that's out to kill his mother. I guess that's what were supposed to believe, but in the end I thought the only sane one was the baby. Obviously decide for yourself

The Crowd - After recovering from his accident and noticing a group of aggressive on lookers, a man does some research to uncover that the SAME group of people have been going to these accidents for years. Even the idea is eerie, and Bradbury for the most part does it justice

Jack in the Box - I still don't get what happened in this one. If someone reads this, could you please let me know? It's reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, but leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Which was probably the point, but it bugs me

The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone - Not the literal death of our beloved Dudley Stone mind you, just figurative. But even figurative can be rather damaging. After writing best selling books for years, his former best friend and literary rival, threatens to kill Mr. Stone unless he stops writing for good. Which he does. This humbling memoir- esque story is one of my favorites, if only because it is so completely different and not at all supernatural

Overall really good themes and ideas running through the book, the execution may be a little weak but it's forgivable because Bradbury only gets better. After you read a handful of stories, you realize that many of the characters sound the same, and your not even paying attention to the story because you felt like you already read it. Almost all the women characters here are hardly an endorsement for feminism, most have dinner ready for the husbands by 5, and everything is "yes darling" "I love you dear" etc. These stories were published around the early 50's it makes sense, but it's still painful to read some of the dialogue. If you can get past that though, it's a good read.(less)

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Jun 14, 2012 Danah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have only just been introduced to Bradbury, having read Fahrenheit 451 and more recently, The Illustrated Man, which is truly a work of art.

I really enjoyed this book. All of Bradbury's stories are unique in style and story, and I always enjoy his strange yet incredibly accurate description and am compelled by the characters. However, this book has a lot to stand up to when compared to the books I have already read, and I'm not sure this quite stands up. While each story is beautifully writte...more

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May 19, 2012 John rated it 4 of 5 stars

I should have come to expect it by now, but the consistency of Ray Bradbury's work always surprises me. I'm still waiting to run across a bad book by him. The consistent quality of Bradbury's writing is well illustrated by this collection which, among its 19 stories, includes very few weak spots. As is always the case, Bradbury is a poet at heart, but the concise forms he works in preclude any meandering, thus broadening his appeal. The loose themes around which most of these stories revolve are...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Wolfpabiru rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, preferiti-2012

Bradbury ha la capacità di riportarti indietro nel tempo facendoti provare sensazioni che da adulto sono più rare.

Non tutti i racconti sono allo stesso livello.
Alcuni sono perfetti per la vecchia serie "Ai confini della realtà" e a dire il vero esisteva anche "The Ray Bradbury Theater" e probabilmente alcuni li hanno girati ma io purtroppo non li ho mai visti.

Il barattolo Ha sapore di Erskine Caldwell. ****
L'emissario Tim Burton ne farebbe una spledida versione animata. *****
Il sacro fuoco ****
L...more

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Oct 18, 2009 Logan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: library_book, not-owned, short_stories, scifi-fantasy

It is no secret that science fiction tickles my fancy like nothing else. I've penned dozens of reviews by now declaiming the same thing. Yet for all of my heartfelt ardor for the genre as a whole, I have never been a big fan of Golden Age science fiction. By Golden Age I mean those authors writing either before or during the initial space race, authors whose imaginations were set racing by the vision of Sputnik orbiting overhead and whose Eisenhower minds drew long gleaming phallus-looking rocke...more It is no secret that science fiction tickles my fancy like nothing else. I've penned dozens of reviews by now declaiming the same thing. Yet for all of my heartfelt ardor for the genre as a whole, I have never been a big fan of Golden Age science fiction. By Golden Age I mean those authors writing either before or during the initial space race, authors whose imaginations were set racing by the vision of Sputnik orbiting overhead and whose Eisenhower minds drew long gleaming phallus-looking rockets flown by Aryan supermen set to spread the ethos of Manifest Destiny to the stars. There’s just something too clean about these visions of the future- nothing worn or battered, nothing broken down. It’s all just a little too neat and tidy, as though these futures had swept the problem of civil rights, women’s lib, or upstart youth collectively under the rug and forgotten about them.

All of which brings me to Ray Bradbury. While he only rarely set his stories among the stars, Bradbury has always seemed to embody much of what I dislike about scifi of that era. I remember well the torment of forcing myself through the slow tedium of Dandelion Wine as a pre-teen, not to mention the enormous disappointment of The Martian Chronicles (that’s a review for another day). His style has always struck me as just a tad too simplistic, events occur that are far too coincidental, everything gets wrapped up nice and pat. What I’m saying, in my typically convoluted manner, is that I was predisposed to dislike The October Country from the beginning.

A compendium of short stories originally published in various trade magazines, The October Country shows Bradbury flexing a little bit of his gothic might with tales both ominous and, occasionally, humorous. There are a lot of sideshows and carnivals, wide-eyed young boys straight from the pages of Boy’s Life investigating mysterious new tenants in cheap boarding houses, buxom wives with nary a thought in their heads, mad shut-ins, and even the stray mummy or two. While some of these tales are enjoyable- "Playing With Fire," "The Scythe" and "The Jar" are all a lot of fun- for the most part they come off as dated and cliched- never more evident than in "Next in Line" or "Uncle Einar."

Of course the very reason that they are cliched is because Bradbury's writing formed the background for generations of writers that have come since then. I can't hold it against him for being inspirational, but at the same time it slows my enjoyment of his works when I see where these tropes have evolved since him.

One final note on this book- the illustrations really add to the overall ambiance of dread that Bradbury tries to conjure with this collection. The pen and ink drawing of the old Victorian clapboard house that opens "Playing With Fire" was especially striking, but I found that any story that began with one of illustrator Joe Mugnaini's drawings was inevitably one that I enjoyed more than the stand-alone stories. Kudos for that, Mr. Mugnaini.(less)

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Nov 09, 2011 Matt R. rated it 5 of 5 stars

It's been YEARS since I last read this, and I forgotten how much I loved it... nobody can weave words like Ray Bradbury, and this book of short stories is no different. What I love about so much of Mr. Bradbury's work is that -- first and foremost -- his stories are about PEOPLE we can know, understand, and relate to, so when he throws in the fantastic elements, it feels so much more "real."

And his fantastical elements -- they're like something out of a dream, and Mr. Bradbury knows exactly whic...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Jay T. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-100, fan-of-author, 5-star, all-time-top-10

The October Country by Ray Bradbury

Bravo for the October Country and praise to Ray Bradbury for this amazing collection of short stories. The best collection of stories I have read to date by any author, both because of content and emotional investment I have in the stories. Having something that allows me to reread over and over and remember the first time I ever picked up a Bradbury book. What fond memories flow back into my brain.
The collection contains 19 stories ranging from the bizarre, th...more The October Country by Ray Bradbury

Bravo for the October Country and praise to Ray Bradbury for this amazing collection of short stories. The best collection of stories I have read to date by any author, both because of content and emotional investment I have in the stories. Having something that allows me to reread over and over and remember the first time I ever picked up a Bradbury book. What fond memories flow back into my brain.
The collection contains 19 stories ranging from the bizarre, through supernatural, making a turn at psychological, only to include those of a dark nature and of course death, mixing in so much more like a perfect recipe for an amazing read. The title puts me into a mood of anticipation for great October stories, being all the stories take place during autumn, just sets an amazing scene in my brain before I even start a story. With amazing illustrations adding to the complete package.
My favorite stories being as follows: The Scythe, The Jar, The Small Assassin, The Wind, Skeleton, The Emissary, The Crowd, The man upstairs, and Cistern. All having their own unique style and flow making for an amazing annual read for myself for many years now. With a chilling forward by Ray Bradbury himself, I can only hope that now in the wake of him passing his wish was granted. May your voices have not stopped before you died. To add to all this there is a perfect little tale called The Grim Reaper to start the collection off, I have posted below.

The Grim Reaper

Sobbing wildly, he rose above the grain and hewed to left and right over and over and over! He sliced out huge scars in green wheat and ripe wheat, with no selection and no care, cursing, swearing, the blade swinging up in the sun and falling with a singing whistle!
Bombs shattered London, Moscow, and Tokyo. The kilns of Berlin and Buchenwald took fire.
The blade sang, crimson wet.
Mushrooms vomited out blind suns at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The grain wept in a green rain, falling.
Korea, Indo-China, Egypt, India trembled; Asia Stirred, Africa woke in the night.
And the blade went on rising, crashing, severing, with the fury and rage of a man who has lost and lost so much that he no longer cares what he does to the world.
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Oct 26, 2012 Lyn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The October Country is a collection of short stories by the Grandmaster writer Ray Bradbury. Eschewing any connection to science fiction, this group of purely fantasy tales resounds with Bradbury’s fascination with and brilliant creativity in the realms of the occult, macabre and the dark. Bradbury begins the book with this explanation: “The October Country … that country where it is always turning ate in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where nooons go qui...more

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Sep 09, 2007 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars

My favorite of all the Bradbury short story collections. It is a beautiful combination of eerie and touching. Whenever I think of this collection, I get the image of a man on an empty road, furiously scything wheat...

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About 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 at the typewriter. He bec...more 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 at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.

His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.

Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.

Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.

Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.

On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."(less)

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Quotes from The October Country

“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.” — 169 people liked it

“Ah, art! Ah, life! The pendulum swinging back and forth, from complex to simple, again to complex. From romantic to realistic, back to romantic. ” — 29 people liked it

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