Tag Archives: Ray Bradbury

Retro Hugos: Final Thoughts on the Short Stories

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So just to recap, here is the shortlist in the short story category for the Retro Hugos:

  • “The Wedge”, Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction 10/44)
  • “I, Rocket”, Ray Bradbury (Amazing Stories 5/44)
  • “And the Gods Laughed”, Fredric Brown (Planet Stories Spring ’44)
  • “Desertion”, Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction 11/44)
  • “Huddling Place”, Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction 7/44)
  • “Far Centaurus”, A.E. van Vogt (Astounding Science Fiction 1/44)

Links are to the posts of the individual stories. While I enjoyed all of these stories and will probably reread them at some future date, I didn’t find them all equally good. This is simply my not so humble opinion; your mileage may vary.

“The Wedge” was the weakest of the stories here. In part, I think, that’s because it’s part of a bigger story arc. I suspect it’s on the final ballot in part due to the reputation of the Foundation series and the author. Ditto for the Bradbury minus the series angle. I could say the same about the two Simak stories as the Asimov except that these are in my mind the two strongest tales on the list.

As for the Brown and Van Vogt entries, they are both examples of their author’s best work at this length. I tend to favor the Brown a bit over the Van Vogt, but that might be because it was one of only two stories (the other being “I, Rocket”) that I hadn’t read before and was therefore fresher.

As for which which of the Simak I think was the strongest, that’s a tough call. I would probably go with “Huddling Place”, although I can easily convince myself that “Desertion” is the better of the two. Some I’m going to compromise and declare a tie.

And just a sidenote of possible interest.  DAW books began publishing a series of anthologies in somewhere around 1980 (I’m too lazy to look it up) entitled Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories. Each volume collected what Asimov , with the assistance of Martin H. Greenberg, considered the best stories of the year.  The first volume covered 1939, and the series ran for 24 volumes, with a 25th published by NESFA Press and edited by Robert Silverberg after Asimov’s death. The sixth volume covers 1944, the year of the current Retro Hugos.

That volume contains 13 stories, Eight of them are on the Retro Hugo ballot. One which isn’t is Leigh Brackett’s “The Veil of Astellar”, which should be on the novelette ballot. Don’t get me started. After the Retro Hugos have been awarded, I will probably reread the rest of the stories. I read this book in high school, and I don’t remember some of the stories.

I’ll start on the novellas I haven’t already covered in the next post. The story will be “Killdozer!” by Theodore Sturgeon. That story was revised for book publication, so I’m reading it in, you guessed it, The Great SF Stories 6,

Retro Hugos: “I, Rocket” by Ray Bradbury

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“I, Rocket” first appeared in the May 1944 issue of Amazing Stories.  It is available in a replica edition.

The early 1940s were a productive time for Bradbury. He had a number of stories published in the science fiction pulps and in Weird Tales. Not all of these stories were reprinted in Bradbury’s collections during his lifetime. If you are interested in these stories, the Kent State University Press is slowly (and I mean slowly) publishing what is supposed to be an eight volume set of The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition.  I came across a remaindered copy of the first volume at a Half Price Books a few years ago for a little under twenty bucks.  For Father’s Day this year, I bought myself the second and third volumes. The difference in price was nontrivial.

“I, Rocket” is in the first volume, although I read it in the collection Forever and the Earth, which was published by PS Publishing about 15 years ago. This year is the centennial of Bradbury’s birth, and I’ll be looking at some of these stories closer to his birthday.

But I digress. Let’s talk about “I, Rocket”. Continue reading →

Christmas Ghosts: “The Wish” by Ray Bradbury

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This Christmas ghosts post is going to be a little different. I’ve been traveling most of the day and don’t feel like writing much.  Fortunately, I don’t have to.

Sue Granquist, AKA Goth Chick at Black Gate, has done the heavy lifting for me.  You need to read her post. It contains a link to a PDF of this story. Ms. Granquist has written a powerful and moving account of what this story means to her. I can’t top it. I read this story back  in high school when I read Bradbury’s collection Long After Midnight. In the years since, I had forgotten the story entirely. It simply didn’t have a huge impact on me when I was fourteen (give or take a year). Now that my impending geezerdom is on the horizon, I can relate to it much better. Fortunately not yet as much as I probably will some day.

Go read it.  You can thank me later.

A New Series of Posts in Honor of Ray Bradbury

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Ray Bradbury was born on this date, August 22, in 1920.  We lost him in 2012.  Bradbury was one of the first science fiction and fantasy writers I read.  A friend of our reading teacher came to class one day and read “The Screaming Woman” to us from the collection S is for Space.  I was hooked.

The public library in Wichita Falls had a number of Bradbury paperbacks in the children’s section, mostly the editions that had a drawing of Bradbury on the cover.  I’d seen them but didn’t really know what they were about.  After the man read the story, I checked out every one of them.  And when I read all of those, I tracked down the rest over the next few years.  I was fortunate because not only were they all in print at the time, but new editions were being published.  Those were the days.

A few weeks ago, something came across my twitter feed about the influence Henry Kuttner and Leigh Brackett had on Bradbury.  They both mentored  him, and Bradbury had written about his friendship with the two writers.

So I decided I could do a series of posts on those.  They’ll start sometime in the next month.  I’ve already got the first one planned.  I just need to reread the stories I’ll discuss in it and then write the post.  That will be after classes start next week.

 

Remembering Ray and an Update

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We lost Ray Bradbury seven years ago today (June 5, 2012).  It’s hard to believe he’s been gone that long.  If you get a chance, read something of his today and raise a glass in his memory.

I’ve been busy and burned out the last couple of months, but things should start picking up around here starting this weekend or early next week.

Howard Days is this weekend.  I’m going down a day or so early for some of the informal stuff that may go on.  Also, just to get the heck outta Dodge for a few days.  Things should settle into a routine next week, meaning I’ll be getting some writing done.

Ray Bradbury at 98

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On this date in 1920, August 22, Ray Bradbury was born.  He was one of the greatest writers of the fantastic of the last 100 years.

I came to Bradbury early.  He was one of the first adult writers I read.  When I was in 5th grade, we had a guest in my reading class one day.  The man was there to read us a Bradbury story.  He described Bradbury as a science fiction writer but  then went on to tell us that what he was going to read wasn’t science fiction.  He read “The Screaming Woman” to us.  Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Ray Bradbury

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Bradbury as a young man

Douglas Ray Bradbury was born on this date, August 22, in the year 1920. He passed away on June 5, 2102. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years already.

Bradbury was one of the first science fiction and fantasy writers I ever read, back when I was in grade school. It was a life changing experience.

I’ve always preferred his fiction from the 1940s and early 1950s, the stuff published in Weird Tales and Thrilling Wonder Stories, to his later works, However, it’s been a few years since I read some of his later fiction. It’s about time I returned to it. I’m older now and my tastes have changed.

I’ve got a little bit of time free this evening, and I can’t think of a better way to spend it than with a few Bradbury short stories.

Rather than say anymore about him, I’ll leave you with this quote:

 

Happy Birthday, Charles Beaumont

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beaumontCharles Beaumont was born this day in 1929.  He passed away in 1967.  Beaumont was a protege of Ray Bradbury and a central figure in what’s come to be called the California School.  Other members were Richard Matheson, William F. Nolan, Chad Oliver, and the late George Clayton Johnson.  Johnson’s story “Your Three Minutes Are Up” is a tribute to his friend.

Beaumont is best remembered today for penning a number of scripts for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.  He also wrote the novel The Intruder which was filmed by Roger Corman and starred William Shatner.

Beaumont’s strengths lay in short stories.  I came across a slim volume when I was a sophomore in high school; I bought it on the strength of Ray Bradbury’s introduction and read it during a move across the state.  Not all of the stories worked for me.  Some of them were aimed for a more mature reader.  I don’t mean “mature” in terms of sexual content (although that was part of it) but that the themes weren’t something a young teen could relate to.

On the other hand, the stories that did resonate with me blew me away.  I was hooked and spent years haunting used book stores trying to find all of his collections.  In addition to being the epitome of a professional working writer, Beaumont was an avid race fan.  He and Nolan often raced.

charles_beaumontBeaumont’s death is usually attributed to some type of early-onset Alzheimer’s.  He began to age swifty at the age of 34.  His loss was deeply felt.

Centipede Press recently published The Intruder, crime thriller Run From the Hunter (written collaboratively with John Tomerlin), and a massive collection of short fiction, Mass for Mixed Voices (which sold out almost immediately, and no, I won’t loan you my copy.)  This past year penguin published Perchance to Dream:  Selected Stories.  Also available is the collection A Touch of the Creature, which contains all the stories in the limited edition published by Subterranean Press (2000) along with three more.  These stories weren’t collected during Beaumont’s lifetime.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going reread some Beaumont short stories.  Please turn out the light when you leave…on second thought, better not.

Happy 100th Birthday, Leigh Brackett

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Leigh BrackettSo today is the centennial of Leigh Brackett’s birth.  If you’ve paid any attention to this blog in the last few weeks, you know that I’ve been making a big deal of that and will continue to do so.

Some of you good people might be wondering:  So just who was this Leigh Brackett person and why was she so important?

I’m glad you asked. Continue reading →

Brackett and Bradbury: “Lorelei of the Red Mist”

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Planet Stories - Lorelei of the Red MistThis is a unique item.  The only collaboration between two great science fiction authors, Leigh Brackett and Ray Bradbury.  Here’s how it came about:

Both authors were living in the Los Angeles area in the 1940s, and both had been working hard to develop their craft as writers.  Both were regulars in Planet Stories at the time.  They were friends who had both been mentored by Henry Kuttner.  They used to meet once a week to read and critique each other’s work.

no good from a corpseBrackett had sold some detective short stories as well as one novel, No Good From a Corpse.  The novel caught the attention of movie producer Howard Hawks, who decided he wanted Brackett to work on the screenplay for his next project.  She was approximately halfway through a novellette she was writing for Planet Stories that was set on Venus (More about Brackett’s Venus in a bit.) when she got a call from Hawks, or more probably his secretary.  Which is how Brackett launched her screenwriting career by coauthoring with William Faulkner the script for Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  How freakin’ cool is that? Continue reading →