Ray Bradbury

[Gassoon]

Ray Bradbury has died. He was an excellent SF writer of humanistic, sometimes whimsical, science-fiction at a time when most (North American) science-fiction focussed on science to the detriment of character in stories.
Way back when, at school, I had to read a short-story collection of his (inc. The Fog Horn, and The Golden Apples of the Sun) and had never read anything like them, they had a big impact on me...

RIP Ray

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18345350

(Thanks for your forbearance, forumites, I just this evening read of his demise).

[snickp]

Fahrenheit 451 one of the great classics,  a sad loss to the world of literature. He will be missed. :-(

[greywolf]

Ray Bradbury was born less than a one hour ride from where I live now. His stuff wasn't the hard science based SF I like the most but some of his work affected me deeply. He'll be missed. Heck. I still miss Arthur Clarke.

[shedchief]

"I don't believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don't have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn't go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”
? Ray Bradbury

[Brockett]

In the sixties "The Martian Chronicles" -  blew my mind without drugs
"I Robot" - not like the film
"Caves of Steel"
"The Illustrated Man"
"Something wicked (this way comes)"
Many of his stories are social fiction and through these I learned that Americans are real people too and not just cardboard cutouts from refrigerator adverts.

There is no need to miss him, just go out and buy his books.
Dave

[Gassoon]

'I, Robot' and 'Caves of Steel' were written by Isaac Asimov, Dave (also a good writer, also deceased), but it's easy to get mixe up with the Golden Age stuff - I had to look up Bradburys bibliography to be clear meself!
And your right, I'm going to re-read some of his stuff (and James Blish,Ted Sturgeon, Heinlein [- hutchie off here gave me a copy of 'Friday' to read a while ago]) it's a fitting way to acknowledge departed writers...

[Steve33]

Sad news but 91 isn't a terrible age at which to check out. Very important writer, and not just within the confines of SciFi. I remember Fahrenheit 451 as one of the few good books we got to study at school in our English GCSE (the book definitely aged better than the Truffaut film )

Gassoon: be wary of Heinlein books (and that one in particular). A lot of his characters end up having far too much amazing sex for their own good. I've been shocked by every book of his I've read, and shocked again each time I've re-read them   .

[Gassoon]

Steve33 -     Pah! Heinleins stuff holds no fears for one who has read all of Philip Jose Farmers novels!..that lad brought literary porn into SF (only in a few of his books mind, I'm not a perv!) see here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_of_the_Beast_(novel)

Someday his 'Riverworld' or 'World of Tiers' books will be made into movies...Mark my words

[Brockett]

Gassoon, I stand corrected. That I morphed Asimov and Bradbury when the books are withing feet of each other can only be explained by a mixture of old age and Dihydrocodeine. Whilst the later will be finished at the end of the month the former will only get worse. I went to the bike shop today for coffee and a wander round the shiny bikes. Hopfully my hand will continue to recover and a new bike in mid July. To avoid suffocation I need respiration and aspiration.
best regards to all
Dave

[Steve33]

Haven't read any PJF - but on that recommendation I'm off to find some  

[Gassoon]

Heh! The two dorty ones are 'Image of the Beast' and 'Blown' (I think). His other novels and series are better, though, I think. The 'Riverworld' series posits a place where persons who have died are resurrected along the banks of  a gigantic, snaking, river and follows the travails and adventures of various personages from Samuel Clemens (ie Mark Twain), Sir Richard Francis Burton (no, not the welsh actor bloke, the other one - the Victorian explorer of Africa, polyglot, and translator of The Perfumed Garden), Ghengis Khan amongst others. )
The World of Tiers is a superior version of (and pre-dates) the 'Stargate' universe of movie/TV fame...

PJF wrote some great stuff in the 'heroic fantasy' and rip-roaring adventure mold...adding to the Tarzan canon, (and to 'Conan', too, though I'm not sure I'm recalling that correctly, I'll look it up in a minute!)

Brockett - hope your hand heals well...keep taking the tablets