Books : Science Fiction & Fantasy : Authors, A-Z : B : Bradbury, Ray

Shop Categories

...B

Fahrenheit 451 (Flamingo modern classics)

Ray Bradbury

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury's classic, frightening vision of the future, firemen don't put out fires--they start them in order to burn books. Bradbury's vividly painted society holds up the appearance of happiness as the highest goal--a place where trivial information is good, and knowledge and ideas are bad. Fire Captain Beatty explains it this way, "Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs.... Don't give them slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy."
Guy Montag is a book-burning fireman undergoing a crisis of faith. His wife spends all day with her television "family", imploring Montag to work harder so that they can afford a fourth TV wall. Their dull, empty life sharply contrasts with that of his next-door neighbour Clarisse, a young girl thrilled by the ideas in books, and more interested in what she can see in the world around her than in the mindless chatter of the tube. When Clarisse disappears mysteriously, Montag is moved to make some changes, and starts hiding books in his home. Eventually, his wife turns him in, and he must answer the call to burn his secret cache of books. After fleeing to avoid arrest, Montag winds up joining an outlaw band of scholars who keep the contents of books in their heads, waiting for the time society will once again need the wisdom of literature.
Bradbury--the author of more than 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems--including The Martian Chroniclesand The Illustrated Man--is the winner of many awards, including the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America. Readers aged 13 to 93 will be swept up in the harrowing suspense of Fahrenheit 451, and no doubt will join the hordes of Bradbury fans worldwide. --Neil Roseman
The Martian Chronicles (Flamingo modern classics)

Ray Bradbury
The Illustrated Man (Flamingo modern classics)

Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury
Halloween Tree

Ray Bradbury

Somewhere inside Ray Bradbury's head is a place where it's always golden autumn, in 1920s midwest America, and every night is Halloween. He has a gift for evoking childhood thrills where joy and terror come heart-stoppingly close. Here eight kids dressed as horrors for Halloween go hunting darkness and find it:
... one hundred million tons of night all crammed in that huge dark pit, that dank cellar, that deliciously frightening ravine.
Awaiting them is the comic-sinister trickster Moundshroud, who whirls the boys on a tour through time that shows them the roots of Halloween--cavemen trembling from the dark, Egyptians whose lives revolved around death, Druids appeasing their terrible gods, and so on to the grim carnival of Mexico's Day of the Dead. It's full of poetic flashes, as when "all the old beasts, all the old tales, all the old nightmares, all the unused demons-put- by" are summoned from every corner of Europe to become gargoyles in the newly-built Notre Dame Cathedral.
Bradbury's theme of celebrating life by celebrating death is underlined by fleeting appearances of the gang's missing ninth boy, the one we soon realise is gravely ill and may not last the night. But Moundshroud, who is more than he seems, offers a deal ... The Halloween Tree is written as though for children, with lashings of exclamation marks--but, just as in a fairground, adults too can let their hair down and enjoy the wild roller- coaster ride. --David Langford
The Halloween Tree

Ray Bradbury

Somewhere inside Ray Bradbury's head is a place where it's always golden autumn, in 1920s midwest America, and every night is Halloween. He has a gift for evoking childhood thrills where joy and terror come heart-stoppingly close. Here eight kids dressed as horrors for Halloween go hunting darkness and find it:
... one hundred million tons of night all crammed in that huge dark pit, that dank cellar, that deliciously frightening ravine.
Awaiting them is the comic-sinister trickster Moundshroud, who whirls the boys on a tour through time that shows them the roots of Halloween--cavemen trembling from the dark, Egyptians whose lives revolved around death, Druids appeasing their terrible gods, and so on to the grim carnival of Mexico's Day of the Dead. It's full of poetic flashes, as when "all the old beasts, all the old tales, all the old nightmares, all the unused demons-put- by" are summoned from every corner of Europe to become gargoyles in the newly-built Notre Dame Cathedral.
Bradbury's theme of celebrating life by celebrating death is underlined by fleeting appearances of the gang's missing ninth boy, the one we soon realise is gravely ill and may not last the night. But Moundshroud, who is more than he seems, offers a deal ... The Halloween Tree is written as though for children, with lashings of exclamation marks--but, just as in a fairground, adults too can let their hair down and enjoy the wild roller- coaster ride. --David Langford
Now and Forever

Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Fantasy Masterworks)

Ray Bradbury
A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories

Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles (The Grand Master Editions)

Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine (Grand Master Editions)

Ray Bradbury
The Golden Apples of the Sun" and Other Stories

Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury
Something Wicked This Way Comes

Ray Bradbury
The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury
Death Is a Lonely Business

Ray Bradbury
The October Country

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury's seminal work, The October Country, is one of the most important collections of horror stories of the 20th century. Published in 1955 and composed of 19 stories written for pulp magazines at the very start of his career, these unforgettable, timeless stories have influenced a generation of contemporary writers of fear. This classic collection is actually a revamped version of the author's very first book, Dark Carnival (a much sought-after collector's item--Bradbury withdrew several stories from the original 1947 collection that even he thought too grisly). October Country contains such haunting tales as "The Lake", in which a boy faces death for the first time after losing a playmate who has drowned, and "The Small Assassin", in which a man realizes his baby is literally a born killer. "The Crowd" chillingly explains why the same people always seem to gather at automobile accidents. Although he went on to build a worldwide reputation as a master of fantasy and science fiction, if Bradbury had continued to write weird tales like this, he might instead have become one of the world's greatest horror writers. --Stanley Wiater
Driving Blind

Ray Bradbury

Ray Bradbury made his name with tales of whimsical horror-fantasy. As his fame grew, so did the stories' powerful elements of sentiment and nostalgia. Again and again he looks back to a magical 1920s/1930s America of perfect soda fountains, card sharps on trains, women adjusting seamed stockings, Hallowe'en with no commercial hype, and the tatty glory of small-time travelling circuses--all seen through starry, childlike eyes. In this vein, surprisingly, Bradbury can often touch the hearts of non-Americans: it's a curiously portable, exportable nostalgia. The 21 stories in Driving Blind offer much successful whimsy and yearning along these lines. It seems strange, though, that they're marketed as fantasy. Only three tales fit that label, featuring a bewildered revenant, a trapped shapeshifter and--discovered on a spaceship, hoping to conquer new worlds--Death himself. A couple more are ambiguous; one is comic (though not supernatural) horror in the cheekiest vein of Bradbury's early grotesque nasties. Driving blind on these mystery tours can lead to surprises and fun, but also to disappointment if you believe the packaging and hope for a whole book of fantasies. Bradbury's many devotees know what to expect. --David Langford
The Halloween Tree

Ray Bradbury

Somewhere inside Ray Bradbury's head is a place where it's always golden autumn, in 1920s midwest America, and every night is Halloween. He has a gift for evoking childhood thrills where joy and terror come heart-stoppingly close. Here eight kids dressed as horrors for Halloween go hunting darkness and find it:
... one hundred million tons of night all crammed in that huge dark pit, that dank cellar, that deliciously frightening ravine.
Awaiting them is the comic-sinister trickster Moundshroud, who whirls the boys on a tour through time that shows them the roots of Halloween--cavemen trembling from the dark, Egyptians whose lives revolved around death, Druids appeasing their terrible gods, and so on to the grim carnival of Mexico's Day of the Dead. It's full of poetic flashes, as when "all the old beasts, all the old tales, all the old nightmares, all the unused demons-put- by" are summoned from every corner of Europe to become gargoyles in the newly-built Notre Dame Cathedral.
Bradbury's theme of celebrating life by celebrating death is underlined by fleeting appearances of the gang's missing ninth boy, the one we soon realise is gravely ill and may not last the night. But Moundshroud, who is more than he seems, offers a deal ... The Halloween Tree is written as though for children, with lashings of exclamation marks--but, just as in a fairground, adults too can let their hair down and enjoy the wild roller- coaster ride. --David Langford