Requiescat in pace, Ray Bradbury

It's a sad day in the field at the loss of such a great visionary...

So, what's his best book after The Martian Chronicles?

I think that's a hard question to answer, since he wrote so many short stories. A lot of his works are collections. But his novel Something Wicked This Way Comes is pretty highly regarded.

Who will forget "A Sound of Thunder"?

Can be read Here

Dark Carnival has always been a favorite of mine. I think that that collection, The Martian Chronicles and Something Wicked This Way Comes will last for a long time to come.

Bradbury will always be one of my favorites and his Martian Chronicles, that I read at age 11 cemented my lifelong love of Science Fiction.

I loved hearing him talk and he had endless good humor for the long lines of fans wanting to have their books signed. I once brought a very old Martian Chronicles paperback and asked him to sign it, apologizing for it being so old (when others had newly bought copies). He just replied he was old too and smiled.

In fact, the latest book I'd entered into my library was The Stories of Ray Bradbury. I'd found it used and added it May 17, 2012.

So many of his books have had an indelible impression on me. He will be missed.

I like this quote about his life with facts I was not aware of: "He attributed his success as a writer to never having gone to college--instead, he read and wrote voraciously. "When I graduated from high school in 1938, I began going to the library three nights a week," he said in an interview with The Paris Review. "I did this every week for almost ten years and finally, in 1947, around the time I got married, I figured I was done. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-seven. I discovered that the library is the real school."

Link to quote: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/science-fiction-author-ray-bradbury-dies-144...

So long Ray, you stretched my brain when I was a youth.

R is for Rocket is likely my favorite collection of Bradbury stories. It not only has A Sound of Thunder and The Fog Horn, but what is likely my favorite short story by him, Frost and Fire.

Not all of Bradbury's stuff was wonderful. But an awful lot of it was.

I always love to read the beginning of Rocket Summer.

"One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing every roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets.

And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. The windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer's ancient green lawns.

Rocket summer. The words passed among the people in the open, airing houses. Rocket summer. The warm desert air changing the frost patterns on the windows, erasing the art work. The skis and sleds suddenly useless. The snow, falling from the cold sky upon the town, turned to a hot rain before it touched the ground.

Rocket summer. People leaned from their dripping porches and watched the reddening sky.

The rocket lay on the launching field, blowing out pink clouds of fire and oven heat. The rocket stood in the cold winter morning, making summer with every breath of its mighty exhausts. The rocket made climates, and summer lay for a brief moment upon the land.... "

I loved his advice about writing heard in a televised lecture: Write a story every week for 52 weeks and you're bound to do something good. He also advised dropping "friends" who don't believe in your future as a writer. My favorite of all his stories is The Veldt, and I also love The Martian Chronicles. I haven't read Small Assassin in a very long time, but I remember it as a horror masterpiece written long before murderous children became commonplace.

>10 RBeffa:

Oh, yeah. That's beautiful stuff.

Is there really anyone among us that doesn't have a soft spot in his or her heart for Fahrenheit 451?

There is going to be a group read of Dandelion Wine in memoriam this weekend--thread is here:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/138116

Everyone would be welcome.

I remember reading his short story 'The Veldt' when i was kid, it was one of those stories that turned me on to SF

I first discovered Bradbury when I was about 8, through reprints of the classic EC comics, specifically the short story "I, Rocket". I still love that story in both it's text and comic versions. RIP Mr. Bradbury, we'll see you on Mars!

There's a nice little bit on Bradbury by Greg Benford here: http://www.tor.com/Gregory%20Benford#filter

I pulled out "The Illustrated Man" for a re-read. That's the one with "The Veldt". My wife said "That's my favorite book of all time". All time? "My favorite Bradbury", she explained.

Just wanted to add this little-seen bit of writing from Ray Bradbury for his fans that I ran across while working on research for an upcoming book. It's one of his early treatments for the Spaceship Earth attraction at EPCOT Center.

http://craphound.com/RAY_BRADBURY_ManAndHisSpaceshipEarth1977.pdf

Enjoy.