Bradbury Stories: 100 of His Most Celebrated Tales

A masterful collection from one of the truly great fiction writers, no matter the genre

I've read some Bradbury stories and novels over the years, but the chance to read 100 of Bradbury's stories in a single collection - to say nothing of the fact that they were chosen by Bradbury himself - seemed too good to pass up. And as you might expect, the resulting collection is a wonderful read, giving you both a sense of Bradbury's wide range - with stories both optimistic and chilling, both realistic and futuristic, both whimsical and horrifying - and his fixations and tropes, whether that be stories about a small pub in Ireland, men named Douglas, great authors of the fantastic, or his stand-in for a prototypical American town, here named Green Town. More than that, reading this anthology of stories, which doesn't hew to a time period like one of his published collections normally would, allows you to see Bradbury's prose as it developed and changed over time. I've made the comment in the past that Bradbury was a fairly simple writer, and while that's true in some ways, there's little denying that he's capable of much more, something that especially shines in his tales of Dublin life and the playful prose that he brings to bear on these passages. Moreover, look at the impact he can bring out in a single sentence - look, for instance, at the final sentence of "The Whole Town's Sleeping", which ends the story on a perfectly chilling note without going very far at all. Or look at the wonder that Bradbury subtly weaves into "And the Moon Be Still as Bright", the tale of a man horrified by the boorish behavior of the men with whom he finds himself exploring the utterly alien world of Mars. Sometimes, he can be hilarious, like his satirical look at trendsetters, "The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse"; other times, as with "Zero Hour", he slowly undermines his usual small-town optimism to unnerving effect. But most often, as with the surprisingly moving "Toynbee Convector", Bradbury inspires, battling against his own grim worries for humanity and the present t...