It’s January 1999 and heat from the rocket flames blazes through an Ohio winter as pioneers leave Earth for Mars. But, while Bradbury might avoid blood and gore and the stock monsters of supernatural fiction, I defy you to pick up The October Country on a dark and stormy night and not feel a shiver run down your spine. It’s the horror of a world where the winds are gathering to plot your ruin. It’s the horror of realising that something inside you - an unborn baby, or a collection of bones - is out to get you. The horror in Bradbury’s stories is not shocking or sensational. Eight years later, he cut, revised, and added to this collection to make up his definitive tome of the macabre and fantastic - The October Country.Īmong its beautiful nuggets of autumnal confectionery are such favorites as The Small Assassin, Skeleton, and The Wind, in which Bradbury upends the familiar, creating a world where the everyday is alien and disturbing. His first book was a collection of grotesque and moody stories published in 1947 under the title Dark Carnival. But with so much choice, where’s a new reader to start? How about here: with our list of the ten best Ray Bradbury books, starting with the novel-turned-movie that made him a household name.ĭespite his renown for his book-burning dystopian novel, Bradbury was, above all else, a short-story writer. He wrote every day for over 70 years, using his fecund storytelling talents to spin tales that have captivated legions of readers and inspired a host of imitators.
Later that day, Mr Electrico touched Ray with an electrified sword and, in a whisper, exhorted him to “Live forever.”īradbury took these words to heart. He was twelve years old when he met Mr Electrico at a carnival and was shown around a tent of misfits that would later stalk the pages of his most macabre stories. You could say Bradbury became a genre unto himself: a peculiar mix of the futuristic, the supernatural, the bizarre, and the nostalgic.īradbury’s writing journey began in such a fantastical way, it’s hard to believe it’s not a scene from one of his stories. He claimed that he was not a writer of science fiction, fantasy, or magical realism rather, he saw himself as a word magician whose books wrote him. To open the pages of a Ray Bradbury novel is to dive into an imagination that journeyed beyond the confines of our rocky planet and deep into the most marvelous and troubling chambers of human existence.īest known for his works Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, Bradbury had a prolific career as one of America’s most successful novelists, short story writers, playwrights, and screenwriters. 10 Best Ray Bradbury Books Everyone Should Read
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