The Illustrated Man
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4.2 • 160 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
You could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.
A peerless American storyteller, Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury— eighteen startling visions of humankind’s destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin. In this phantasmagoric sideshow, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Provocative and powerful, Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth—as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.
Customer Reviews
The first few
The first few stories were the best ones then it kind of drifted and blended into similar stories. A few stories about mars here and there, but all in all such a fantastic premise. I read this book and kept thinking of Hal from 2001 or Elton johns rocket man there are a few stories that I feel inspired many works.
Amazing Collection
I revisited this short story collection after many years, and found that all of the stories are, sadly, still relevant to our times. Bradbury has an immense talent for painting small pictures of a person’s life and all of their struggles. Martians? Wars? Death? Space travel? The downside of technological advances? All present, and all sadly relevant.
Some favs (SPOILERS): the Last Night of the World (the calm that comes before knowing you’re going to die and it’s out of your hands); Marionettes Inc (loved ones purposefully replaced with robots that have their own minds); The Exiles (Poe, Dickens, and others are on Mars, surviving memories until their final books are burnt and they vanish from all memory, and even Oz crumbles); Zero Hour (a Martian uses children to take over Earth, and children are none the wiser).
Great Book
I’m so glad I’ve finally read this book. I will read more from this author.