This collection includes the short story "The Electric Grandmother", which is one of the most fasinating, heart-wrenching stories I have every read.
I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC!
Ray Bradbury's stories are songs of the strange, poems of a past that never was, whispers of a future that has yet to be.
"You never know what to expect," writes The New York Times.
"A windup grandma on a Pinocchio plan. A humanoid Abe Lincoln. A baby born in--gulp--the fifth dimension or something. The ghost of Ernest Hemingway...."
Listen. He's weaving his magic again in eighteen gleaming tales of dimensions beyond our own.
"There is no writer quite like RAY BRADBURY!"--The New York Times.
Ray Bradbury's stories are songs of the strange, poems of a past that never was, whispers of a future that has yet to be.
"You never know what to expect," writes The New York Times.
"A windup grandma on a Pinocchio plan. A humanoid Abe Lincoln. A baby born in--gulp--the fifth dimension or something. The ghost of Ernest Hemingway...."
Listen. He's weaving his magic again in eighteen gleaming tales of dimensions beyond our own.
"There is no writer quite like RAY BRADBURY!"--The New York Times.
This is vintage Bradbury: an eclectic compilation of his early stories. As ever, it is loaded with forced metaphorsmostly bad. Stacked with sketchy storylines and poor prose. The long short story, The Lost City of Mars is my favorite and, for this, it is worth perusing the book. You may find, as I did, that the title story is so far out there that it is hardly recognizable as literature. Take your own chances.
Another good collection of stories by Bradbury. These ranged from the mundane to the fantastic -- all with the special touch of Bradbury. I have been a fan of Bradbury for years after reading The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man when I was in the military back in the early 1970s. This collection was on a par with his best. It included a couple of stories set on Mars that I really enjoyed and could have been part of his Martian Chronicles:
"Night Call, Collect" was an eerie story about a man stranded on Mars who sits in an empty town, in an empty house. When a phone rings, and when he picks up he hears his own voice. He spent all his early years recording messages for his older self, years setting up the connections so that he might never feel alone. Now, years later, the calls all begin to come at once. At first they are comforting, but quickly become a maddening reminder of all that he has lost. His youthful self sits out of the reach of time, mocking him as he grows only older. Maddened, he sets off across the planet, attempting to destroy every vestige of his own voice. On his way, he gets a call from a passing ship; is he finally rescued, or is it simply another trick played on him by his own voice?
"The Lost City of Mars" is about a group of settlers on Mars who find a lost city that is too good to be true. It is very over-designed to appeal to most everyone including an actor who has a stage to himself filled with a robot audience, a mechanic who can work on an endless supply of machines, an actress who finds a house of mirrors that take years off her age, and an astronomer who sees new worlds inside a cathedral-like structure. But are these things for the betterment of the people or are they too much?
Then there is the titular "I Sing the Body Electric" about a robotic grandmother that takes the place of a mother recently deceased. But can the robot meet the needs of the family. Well not everyone is immediately pleased with the substitute. This was the only Bradbury story that was made into an episode of the Twilight Zone. After reading the story, I watched the TZ version on Netflix. It was pretty much true to the story with the exception of the ending which was not included in the TV version but better resolved the story.
I really enjoyed many of the other stories as well. Overall, I would always recommend Bradbury!
"Night Call, Collect" was an eerie story about a man stranded on Mars who sits in an empty town, in an empty house. When a phone rings, and when he picks up he hears his own voice. He spent all his early years recording messages for his older self, years setting up the connections so that he might never feel alone. Now, years later, the calls all begin to come at once. At first they are comforting, but quickly become a maddening reminder of all that he has lost. His youthful self sits out of the reach of time, mocking him as he grows only older. Maddened, he sets off across the planet, attempting to destroy every vestige of his own voice. On his way, he gets a call from a passing ship; is he finally rescued, or is it simply another trick played on him by his own voice?
"The Lost City of Mars" is about a group of settlers on Mars who find a lost city that is too good to be true. It is very over-designed to appeal to most everyone including an actor who has a stage to himself filled with a robot audience, a mechanic who can work on an endless supply of machines, an actress who finds a house of mirrors that take years off her age, and an astronomer who sees new worlds inside a cathedral-like structure. But are these things for the betterment of the people or are they too much?
Then there is the titular "I Sing the Body Electric" about a robotic grandmother that takes the place of a mother recently deceased. But can the robot meet the needs of the family. Well not everyone is immediately pleased with the substitute. This was the only Bradbury story that was made into an episode of the Twilight Zone. After reading the story, I watched the TZ version on Netflix. It was pretty much true to the story with the exception of the ending which was not included in the TV version but better resolved the story.
I really enjoyed many of the other stories as well. Overall, I would always recommend Bradbury!
