Thursday, August 22, 2013

Celebrating the Birth . . . Ray Bradbury

Ray Douglas Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012)
      Ray Bradbury was, first and foremost, a great storyteller. Whether writing Science Fiction, Horror, or Dark Fantasy, his stories were always very accessible.  Among the many awards he has received are World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in horror fiction, and being named a  SFWA Grand Master.  While he probably best known for Fahrenheit 451 which has been required reading in many schools, it is my humble opinion that his best works are his short stories, including those in The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.  And although Bradbury was extremely diligent about copyright renewals, a few of his works are legally available.




Free fiction after fold

Special note: The old time radio section will have more entries and more details added today - if possible.


Fanzines (Edited by Bradbury)
At Project Gutenberg:
Futuria Fantasia - Summer 1939.
     Includes "Don't Get Technatal" under the pen name Ron Reynolds - "Bella Stern laid her knitting aside and walked to the balcony, looked meditatively down into the yawning canyon of the New York street fifty stories below. She turned back to Sam with a reminiscent smile.

Futuria Fantasia - Fall 1939.
     Includes "The Pendulum" - "How long it had continued this way Layeville didn't know. It might have been millions of years he'd spent sitting here in the massive glass pendulum watching the world tip one way and another, up and down, dizzily before his eyes until they ached."

Futuria Fantasia  - Winter 1940.
     Includes "The Fight of the Good Ship Clarissa"  - "The space rocket Clarissa was nine days out from Venus. The members of the crew were also out for nine days. They were hunters, fearless expeditionists who bagged game in Venusian jungles."

Futuria Fantasia - Spring 1940.
     Includes "The Piper" as Ron Reynolds - "The Martian boy at the feet of the old man stirred his thin reddish feet in the soil and affixed his large green eyes upon the burial hill where the Piper stood. "Why does he do that?" asked the boy." Also available in audio form at LibriVox.

Fiction
• At Cosmos: "There Will Come Soft Rains" Post-Apocalyptic. [via Free Speculative Fiction Online]
     "'Ten o’clock'. The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles."

Old Time Radio

No comments: