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Ray Bradbury
Contains:
The veldt
Let's play poison
Fever dream
Zero hour
The Foghorn
A sound of thunder
The wind
The scythe
Marionettes Inc
The other foot
The pedestrian
The trolley
The smile
The gift
The last night of the world
The veldt
Let's play poison
Fever dream
Zero hour
The Foghorn
A sound of thunder
The wind
The scythe
Marionettes Inc
The other foot
The pedestrian
The trolley
The smile
The gift
The last night of the world
- GenresScience FictionFiction
188 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1965
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,565 books25.6k followersRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 9, 2025
I really enjoyed this mixed bag of Ray Bradbury short stories. From malicious, sentient weather to time-travel gone wrong, murderous children and scary beasts, with a good dose of dystopian futures thrown in.
His stories are very easy to read (much more accessible than Poe - don’t shoot the messenger!) and I was in awe at the vivid, poetic pictures he could draw with just a few sentences.
My favourites were The fog horn, The wind and The trolley.
“…if they did not see our light, then there was always our Voice, the great deep cry of our Fog Horn shuddering through the rags of mist to startle the gulls away like decks of scattered cards and make the waves turn high and foam.”
His stories examine human nature, relationships and the impact of the human race as a whole (and I wonder if he found children a little scary!) At times spooky, at others melancholy or thought provoking, these stories are all very different and kept my interest piqued.
Well deserved 5 stars, and I will definitely read it again in the future.
Quick rundown of the stories included in this collection;
Veldt - a spooky futuristic tale asking what happens if children are given free rein with their vindictive, immature, emotions and a house full of tech.
Let’s play poison - drips with paranoia and childhood revenge
Fever dream - a child’s metamorphosis nightmare (very short)
Zero hour - again children are the instigators of scary stuff
The fog horn - beautifully descriptive melancholy monster tale
A sound of thunder - a time travel cautionary story
The wind - a supernatural story that’s delightfully different
The scythe - a spooky supernatural take on Death
Marionettes inc - fairly predictable but superbly written all the same
The other foot - a story challenging apartheid
The pedestrian - a bleak futuristic world where TV is king
The trolley - a poetic, beautiful 5 pages on an unusual subject
The smile - finding hope in a dystopian future
The gift - a three page simple story that will make you smile
The last night of the world - a melancholy end of the world thought provoker
His stories are very easy to read (much more accessible than Poe - don’t shoot the messenger!) and I was in awe at the vivid, poetic pictures he could draw with just a few sentences.
My favourites were The fog horn, The wind and The trolley.
“…if they did not see our light, then there was always our Voice, the great deep cry of our Fog Horn shuddering through the rags of mist to startle the gulls away like decks of scattered cards and make the waves turn high and foam.”
His stories examine human nature, relationships and the impact of the human race as a whole (and I wonder if he found children a little scary!) At times spooky, at others melancholy or thought provoking, these stories are all very different and kept my interest piqued.
Well deserved 5 stars, and I will definitely read it again in the future.
Quick rundown of the stories included in this collection;
Veldt - a spooky futuristic tale asking what happens if children are given free rein with their vindictive, immature, emotions and a house full of tech.
Let’s play poison - drips with paranoia and childhood revenge
Fever dream - a child’s metamorphosis nightmare (very short)
Zero hour - again children are the instigators of scary stuff
The fog horn - beautifully descriptive melancholy monster tale
A sound of thunder - a time travel cautionary story
The wind - a supernatural story that’s delightfully different
The scythe - a spooky supernatural take on Death
Marionettes inc - fairly predictable but superbly written all the same
The other foot - a story challenging apartheid
The pedestrian - a bleak futuristic world where TV is king
The trolley - a poetic, beautiful 5 pages on an unusual subject
The smile - finding hope in a dystopian future
The gift - a three page simple story that will make you smile
The last night of the world - a melancholy end of the world thought provoker
September 21, 2017
The Fog Horn, The Scythe, The Trolley, The Veldt and The Last Night of the World are really memorable short stories. The first three maybe more so as they're not really Bradbury's normal sci-fi fayre. I especially liked The Fog Horn, which is truly haunting and up there with the wonderful The Long Rain (from The Illustrated Man).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews