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Title: The Illustrated Man
ISBN: 0380973847
Author:
Ray Bradbury
Publicate Date: 1997-06-01
Publish: 1997-06-01
List Price: $15.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $8.45
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $11.65
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Great stories.....
"The Illustrated Man" is one book that I have been wanting to read for quite awhile. If you've ever heard anyone talk about Ray Bradbury's books like their "amazing", don't judge it, until you have read his stuff. The guy IS "amazing"!
The fact that all these stories were written before 1952 is really "amazing"!
Ray Bradbury's obession with space, astronauts, Mars, peoples overall greed, laziness & reliance on computers/technology in the future were rampant throughout all the stories, but he makes it work well, as usual.
Personally I'm not a big fan of science fiction or space stories, but these stories draw in you easily.
The book has 18 individual stories, the prologue, the very last story in the book, which is titled "The Illustrated Man" and the epilogue are only three times the (illustrated man) is mentioned.
The stories are all individuals, they don't run together to make one final story or anything.
A few of the stories are so, so, but there were several that after reading them, I was left thinking, WOW!, they are:
Kaleidoscope
The Other Foot (5 star quality)
The Man (5 star quality)
The Long Rain
The Fox and the Forest
Marionettes, Inc.
The City (5 star quality)
Zero Hour
I really don't know how Ray Bradbury slept peacefully with all these stories and all the other stuff he wrote swirling around in his mind.
The only other Bradbury book I have read is "Fahrenheit 451", which was also really thought provoking and good.
Looking forward to reading more of Ray Bradbury's novels when I get the chance......
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2: Clever and creative
Very interesting book. Never gets dull, as it is really a series of very short stories almost all of them concerning the nature of God.
Bradbury comes out strongly against both religious people who are inflexible in their definition of God AND atheists. As an agnostic, I was actually a little irritated with parts of it, but you know, it would be hypocritical of me to expect Christians to take it, but not accept a little bit of criticism myself. So, just read it with a very open mind and a lot of curiosity about the world, and you'll love it.
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3: The Illustrated Man is a MUST READ
I first read this when i was in the 7th grade and saw the movie as part of a lesson in middle school. I was so impressed by this book that I have read it over and over and over again since. Now im 28 and I finally ordered my own copy and I love it. Everyone should read Bradbury and The Illustrated Man is a must read.
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4: Classic collection by the legendary Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is always a delight. While I'm a huge fan of his (sparse few) novels, it's impossible to deny that where he really shines is in his copious short works. He is, in my opinion, one of the 20th Century's great short story writers.
The Illustrated Man plucks a character from Something Wicked This Way Comes and uses him as a set of bookends for this collection of 18 short stories. Like any such collection, there are high points and low points. The low points - the story about famous authors dying as their books are burned, for instance - are still fairly solid, though far from classics, while the high points - the rains on Venus, the father who is always away in his rocket, the astronauts floating to their deaths in space, the poor man and his fake rocket, the telepathic man among the sick exiles, the alien invasion via children - are high points indeed. Very, VERY high points.
Bradbury never fails to impress. This is an excellent collection full of rich ideas, wonderful languages and stories you'll never forget.
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5: Dark Magic
A strange man's magical tattooes weave stories while he sleeps, stories that amaze, excite, and horrify. And when the moon is risen and the tales are told, the dark marks may tell the most horrifying story of all.
Bradbury isn't for everyone, and several of his stories aren't for the squeamish. This collection of short stories is mostly tame, and as uneven in quality as most short-story collections. "The Veldt" and "Zero Hour" are brilliantly-stirred blends of sci-fi and gothic horror, while "The Man" and "The Fire Balloons" are dull and meandering improvisations on religious themes. Among Bradbury's most intriguing stories are the psychological dramas of "Kaleidoscope" and "The Last Night of the World," balanced by the tedious moralizing of "The Other Foot" (a story which probably had much greater punch in the years before desegregation).
"The Illustrated Man" is a product of its time, and is streaked through with the dialogue, assumptions, fears, and expectations of the mid-20th century. Some of the themes Bradbury explores still resonate, but he never rises to the timeless transcendence of a Dickens, a Hugo, or an Austen. However, as one of the most popular and devilishly clever American novelists of the 20th century, his short stories here collected deserve a look. But don't look too closely...the picture may begin to move, and you may see yourself...
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