Originally reviewed here.

Anthologies are rather tricky things to review. Usually, what I do (in the two I've reviewed) is have a little awards ceremonies for the stories awarding 'Best of' various wacky categories. For this one, I don't feel like that would really get my point across. I'm also not sure what categories I would choose. A couple I do know, so I'll share those for your edification. Funniest story: Charles Yu (his story seems indebted as much to Douglas Adams as to Bradbury); Most forgettable story: Thomas F. Monteleone (I read his story twice, having gone back unable to recall just that one, and I still have no idea what happened); Best Twist: Julia Keller (she got me).

The stories in Shadow Show break down into two basic categories: science fiction stories with twists and stories about the endurance of love, life and language. While I liked all of the latter stories, my favorites were the former, as were my least favorites. The latter are more philosophical than anything else and were, for the most part, not as much fun to read, though I did like the thoughts behind them.

My favorite part of Shadow Show, though, was not the stories. That seems a rather dismissive and insulting thing to say, but I don't intend it to be. Following each story, each author wrote a brief note about their story, about its debt to Bradbury, and about their relationship with Ray (personal or literary). I loved these. Even for my least favorite story (also one of the longest stories unfortunately), I liked reading that bit.

What I found so incredibly moving was the incredibly love for Ray Bradbury and his work that welled out of these pages. The explanations made this so incredibly clear. The stories were on some level so incredibly personal, many based on personal experiences. Many others had been in the author's mind for ages, inspired by Bradbury not out of a duty to write a short story for this collection but because they WERE really inspired by Bradbury. That was so incredibly powerful.

While I'm mostly avoiding specific discussion of particular authors, I do have to speak to the most moving piece of writing (one of my personal favorites). Harlan Ellison nearly made me cry, though his account of his friendship with Ray Bradbury is largely light-hearted. His writing style, his wit and the clear friendship between the two is simply beautiful. What made this so incredibly poignant was Ellison's clear knowledge that this would likely be his last published work and that both he and Bradbury would soon die, and, certainly, he was proved correct about Bradbury who passed away in early June. Before reading this, I didn't have any plans to read Ellison, but now I definitely will be.

Shadow Show bursts with love for both Bradbury and writing. For those who love Bradbury, you definitely need to procure a copy of this to read. For those that don't, you still should consider it.