The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
Subterranean, 247pp. Collection. Publication date: February 2008.
Limited edition (300 signed hardcover copies): $50.00
Lettered edition (26 signed, traycased copies): $750.
It’s Ray Bradbury. He’s at his best with short stories. What more need be said?
Well, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure (and I envy you the chance to savor these stories for the first time), this is the classic collection of his stories. He’s a master not only at telling you what happened, but putting you in the scene, making you feel the environment, in a very few words. In “The Pedestrian,” you feel the emptiness of a city with no one on the sidewalks. In “Powerhouse,” you hear the thunder and the rain. I’ll always cherish the concept of the poor crewman freezing to death in the Sun’s photosphere in “The Golden Apples of the Sun.” And who can forget “The Sound of Thunder,” which may have originated chaos theory.
The impressive table of contents is:
“The Pedestrian”
“The Wilderness”
“The April Witch”
“The Big Black and White Game”
“Embroidery”
“The Golden Apples of the Sun”
“The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind”
“The Great Fire”
“Hail and Farewell”
“Invisible Boy”
“The Murderer”
“Powerhouse”
“A Sound of Thunder”
“The Flying Machine”
“I See You Never”
“The Meadow”
“The Garbage Collector”
“The Fog Horn”
“Sun and Shadow”
“The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl”
“En La Noche”
“The Great Wide World Over There”
“The Fog Horn” (play)
“En La Noche” (play)
The two plays at the end of the book are facsimiles of Bradbury’s original typescripts for these one-act plays; a special bonus not included in the original 1953 edition of this collection.
I feel a review needs to be longer, and yet, like Bradbury, why add more words when fewer will do. The few are: this is a classic collection by a master (and SFWA Grand Master). And Subterranean’s special limited editions sound like an even better way to own a copy.