"The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury; 7/10

Read by Paul Hecht

So I'll admit it, I don't love Ray Bradbury. I often really like him, but there are things that he does that inevitably bother me.

He does have a fairly creative writing style, but it often seems to me that this style is a list of adjectives and I just want him to get to the noun.  I'm sure that many people love it, but I generally find it forced. Secondly, I think that while the basic ideas of his stories, concepts and setups, are pretty much 10/10 level quality without exception(!), the endings range from 4/10 to 10/10. There is a lot of inconsistency, and often a lot of predictability. Lastly he loves to write antagonists and/or flat characters who simply seem to have unreasonable, unrealistic, or just plain silly motivation. Partially I guess I burned myself out by reading three of his books in a short period of time, but I think I was already rolling my eyes every so often in this first one.

All of that being said, this is a great collection, and it featured some of the best short stories ever written.  The Illustrated Man is a frame story, and the frame is actually kind of a cool one, though I won't spoil it.  He has themes running through the work attacking prejudice, violence, and ignorance, and those still read very well to me 60 years later.  He was very much ahead of his time intellectually. 

Just FYI, if anyone wonders, I read the version that had the "Martian Chronicles" material removed and the "Usher," "Playground," and "Illustrated Man" stories put in their place.  Paul Hecht's reading is, I would say, of the second rank-- he isn't adding to the overall experience, but he is solid and competent. Good but not great reader.

There are some real standout stories here.  "The Veldt" is in many a middle school English text book as an example of a great short story, and it is a classic.  "The Other Foot" is an interesting racial commentary, and "The Rain" is a great plot driven psychological twister.  My personal favorite by far was "Kaleidoscope," and I'd hold it up against just about any short story I've ever read. It is just so freaking great.

On the other hand, there are stories like "The City" or "Marionettes, Inc." that feel forced (as in he had a good idea but forced it into a situation or presentation that didn't really work for me), predictable, and silly.  I think that there just isn't enough consistency to this package to give it top marks, bona fide classic though it is held to be. 

The original collection had the story "Rocket Man" and the story "Zero Hour." Ring any bells? Yeah, that song.  This collection is worth reading, but I'd spread em out. A story at a time doesn't hurt anybody.