Book Review: Stories Volume 1 by Ray Bradbury

If anyone knows how to effectively review a book containing 100 short stories, please hit me up. I’ve just been sitting with this caption open for about 5 minutes, blankly staring at it...

“I was in love, then, with monsters and skeletons and circuses and carnivals and dinosaurs and, at last, the red planet, Mars.”

Where to begin! I will say that the range of genres covered by Bradbury is incredibly broad. You’ve got science fiction, fantasy, horror, and those stories that I just adore where Bradbury delivers little slices of American life. Those are my personal favourites.

But I’ll highlight a few that stood out for me:
- The October Game was an incredibly dark story centred on a game being played on Halloween night. I was almost taken aback at how dark it was...
-  The Fog Horn. I had read this before but it is still one of the best short stories I’ve ever read. Just go into this one knowing nothing!
- The Black Ferris was clearly Bradbury’s inspiration for Something Wicked This Way Comes. A Ferris wheel capable of turning back the years, or moving them forward...
- The Emissary was another one that I was happy to revisit - a sweet little tale about a sick young boy and his dog that turns quite dark...
- There Will Come Soft Rains is considered to be one of the best sci-fi stories and I can see why. A house is completely controlled and managed by machines whilst it’s inhabitants have perished.

It was extremely difficult to even whittle down the 100 stories to pick out a few highlights. Ray Bradbury was a genius, his imagination blows my mind and I find his writing to be some of the most beautiful I’ve ever read.

This collection has solidified Bradbury as one of my top 3 favourite authors. I’d highly recommend this to ANY reader - the perfect collection to dip in and out of! 5 stars.

Johann
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