Classic Stories 1

Only the most serious of Ray Bradbury fans will enjoy Classic Stories 1. There are some good stories in it that I enjoyed very much, but there weren't enough to make the entire collection worthwhile. This isn't a "Best of" collection and it shows.

For those who aren't familiar with Bradbury, he doesn't limit his writing to science fiction. He writes science fiction, fantasy, horror, and just plain stories about people. I believe it was Isaac Asimov who described Bradbury as a writer of "social fiction", meaning that Bradbury's stories focused less on the science or the fantasy but more on the people involved. For those who object to the relative unimportance of people and characterization in early science fiction, Bradbury may be just the cure for you. But although there are several excellent stories in this collection, I suggest you look elsewhere for a collection of Bradbury's best stories. I suggest reading The Martian Chronicles, a nice collection of Bradbury's stories about Mars.