The Illustrated Man is the story of a man who is almost completely covered in tatoos. Durring the day, he can be seen as an ordinary man, but at night his illustrations come to life and tell thier own stories.

In Bradbury's fifth book, he once again proves that he can take the mind where it has never gone before. Through elaborate detail Bradbury makes you feel as if you were in the stories. The wild, yet interesting 20 stories vary from the love and inspiration on Mars, to the madness of Venus' eternal rains, to a lonely death in space between worlds.

I would highly recomend this book to all ages, for it is a fascinating book which leads the mind to wander and question. From adults to children this book can be greatly appreciated by all.

This was the first Bradbury I've ever read, and was much better than that horrible show on cable. Essentially, this is an anthology loosely linked by a wrap-around story involving the titular "Illustrated Man". A carnival worker laid up by a broken limb, he decided to get fully tatooed in order to get another job. Unfortunately, the artist who turns our hero into a walking canvas is something of a witch. It's peak season for carnivals when, on a later summer afternoon, he meets our narrator.

..... and there doesn't seem to be a carnival in America that will hire him. His tattoos become living stories when stared at by customers. With spaceships, monsters and other oddities covering every inch of his body, he has become an unwitting page on which Bradbury writes his awesome stories. (None of the fictitious carnival-goers care for the stories since, we're told by the Illustrated Man himself, they all end with the viewer's horrible death). As night falls, the illustrations come alive, and the narrator comes to see tales of:

- astronauts forced to confront their doom as they drift in space after their spaceship suddenly explodes (years later, this would be parodied in the movie "DarkStar".)

- a living city built by a race of aliens annihilated by Earthlings and unwittingly discovered by exploring humans;

- Human explorers seeking their outpost on Venus where it never stops raining (this was a strangely prophetic take on Vietnam, right down to references to congressional funding for additional outposts)

- A mother and son driven to desperation by the occupational hazards of the husband's/father's job as a rocket pilot;

- A community of African Americans driven to colonize Mars in an effort to escape earthbound prosecutions now confronts survivors of Earth's last great war;

- Tourists who are really refugees from an oppressive future and will do anything to keep from having to back (or forth I guess);

- A family in a future age in which artificial intelligence and virtual reality affect almost every aspect of their daily existence ("The Veldt"; this cautionary and visionary tale of AI and VR run amok seems to have provided the basis for far too many episodes of ST:TNG, none of which have come close to matching its subversive quality.)

And other tales of exotic aliens, distant planets, rocket ships and the end of the world. This is what science fiction sounds like when your characters can't mask what's going on with meaningless techno-babble.

I have just finished this book, I think it is the most fabulously written book I have ever read. I am a 17 year old high school student and read this book for my Reading class, I couldn't put the book down, I was pulled into every story. The stories in this book are so twisted and thought provoking. In the story "The Fox and the Forest", this couple decidedthey wanted to travel back in time for a vacation in 1933 Mexico. The way the author wrote that scene was amazing, I could vividly see what he was thinking. This book definetly left me with this indescribable feeling in my stomach. I have been recommending this book to everyone I know. I am now encouraged to go out and buy more Ray Bradbury books.

A series of short stories strung together into a novel might sound like a disastrous idea. But the illustrious Ray Bradbury manages to pull it off in "From the Dust Returned." You thought your family was weird? Just wait until you see the Family reuniting at the House.

The House is a dusty gothic place somewhere in the Midwest, and its inhabitants are far from ordinary. There is the mummified Granmere in the attic, the undead parents, an intelligent spider, the beautiful Cecy who sleeps and dreams -- and can "yank your soul like an aching tooth and shoot it into clouds to cool your spirit," and Timothy, the only mortal, truly human member of the Family.

And now others in the Family are coming to the House: ghosts and winged men, werewolves and vampires. Old stories are told: Of Angelina Marguerite, who ages in reverse so that she can be reborn. Of Uncle Einar, whose life is changed by his challenge of the skies. Of Cecy, who longs to fall in love and uses another woman's body to do so. Of four adolescent boys who end up bodiless. And ultimately, the story of Timothy, the House, and the ever-changing world.

Ray Bradbury manages to create a darker, more mystical version of the Addams Family (funnily enough, Charles Addams illustrated this novel's cover). The Family is a true motley crew, funny and sad and poignant and sometimes even a little naughty. Cecy's pursuit of love stands in stark contrast to Uncle Einar helping his wife with the laundry. The most lighthearted of the stories is about four adolescent boys running wild in their grandfather's memory. However, there is also a saddening undertone; lead character Timothy is the only person there who will age and die, and he feels somehow inferior to the rest of the Family. But Bradbury never makes him seem inferior; instead, his life as an ordinary human is a blessing.

The Family itself is full of the weird and wonderful. Though these people are not human and are endowed with superhuman powers, their emotions and responses are just like those of ordinary relatives. But near the finale, we are reminded that they lack some of the best things about humans, and that belief and cynicism have a great impact upon them. It's a moving and thought-provoking passage.

The writing is unusually poetic and dreamy, and dialogue ranges from mediocre romance-novel to prose equal to Patricia McKillip's. There is a slightly disjointed feel to the middle of this novel. As it was originally interconnected short stories, this isn't surprising. It may also be a little bit of a jolt for readers to go from a sad story to a funny one so quickly, within the same storyline. And Cecy seems to have some major shifts in personality between stories.

Flaws aside, this is a wonderful fantasy/horror novel, with a great cast of characters, a likeable hero and a enjoyable loose-knit storyline. A must-read, even if you're not a fan of Bradbury or dark fantasy in general. Whoever said the Midwest was boring?

If I could blame one author for my life-long obsession with the printed word, Ray Bradbury would be a likely scapegoat. His strange and sad stories are so braided with my own memories, it's sometimes hard to sort them out. After years of studying and teaching literature, I still maintain that Bradbury is a visionary. Yes, in my studies I've encountered plenty of cynics who would mock him as a sappy crackpot, but my love for his skewed tales has survived. That said, I strongly believe "From The Dust Returned" is his strongest work. A novel even the most screw-faced doubter must grudgingly admit is brilliant. I'm not trying to be grim when I say this, but it strikes me at once as the sort of book which could only be written by a great man near the end of his life. It has a sweeping, elegiac quality and easily meets all the expectations one might have for a novel 50 years in the womb. Of course, it is full of the fantastic, the sad, the phantasmagoric-- all crystalized in the amber of Bradbury's inimitable prose. It is a book of rememberances, through the vivid lense of childhood. It is a novel about everything-- love, death, faith. Above all, it is a novel about imagination and memory, and how through those concepts, it may be possible to, in a small way, cheat fate. I've read it twice already, and repeated readings are not only needed by infinitely pleasing. The writing is at once sparse and simple, but full of infinite secrets.

If you are a lover of Bradbury, you don't need my recomendation. If you are jaded soldier of the literary battle fields, come home to this wonder-full book and rediscover why you started reading books in the first place.

Very few authors can write as deliciously as Bradbury. A long time fan of his, I couldn't wait to begin this read.

Bradbury's command of the English language and his exquisite talent for prose are completely edible. There is such a physical reaction to reading this book, you can hear, taste, smell, and feel what is happening in the story. Similar to Dandelion Wine in that respect, you feel you are in the story.

This is the story of a special Family, a family of undead relatives, and the young, mortal, boy who lives with them. In a way, it is a collection of stories, woven together as a complete novel.

We read of the Homecoming, which takes place on Halloween, when all the relatives come together. We read about Nef, Nefertiti's mother, Grandmere 1000 times over. Cecy, who leaves her body to experience life through other people. Uncle Einar, who is 9 feet tall and has wings. Finally, we read of the crisis that takes place when people no longer believe.

Gorgeous prose, unique characters, and a captivating story make this one of Bradbury's finest.

Bradbury's novel Death is a Lonely business, a thriller packed with eye boggling mystery and mayhem, is the most bizarrly interesting mystery novel I have ever encountered. The story takes place in 1950's Venice, California where the protagonist, a struggling young author, teams up with a sly detective and a reclusive actress to solve a series of horrific murders that have haunted the usually surreal communtiy. The reason I chose to give this novel a mediocre rating is its procrastinated plot development, making the story very boring at times.

I bought two of his newest books, one of which is the aforementioned _Death is a Lonely Business_. I began reading it late last night and just finished it a little more than an hour ago. Technically, it's not a fantasy or science fiction, but it is such a great book, in my opinion, that I had to put a review of it somewhere.

_Death is a Lonely Business_ is Ray Bradbury's tribute to Hammet, Chandler, Cain and Ross McDonald. It is a very engrossing noir detective story, with the young Bradbury as the main character. More or less. The main character is a struggling, starving writer living in Venice, CA with a girlfriend studying in Mexico. Strange deaths begin occuring around him, seemingly triggered by a mysterious encounter with a man he calls at one point "Death's friend".

With the aid of a detective and a reclusive, yet very much alive actress, he attempts to unravel the mystery before the people he most cares about come to harm.

Bradbury's writing style, though for some perhaps a bit wordy and "purple", pulls the reader into the story, making him feel and see the world through the eyes of the main character. Once I began reading it, I found it very difficult to stop and go to school; I wanted to keep reading until the end.

The story itself, through the deliberate use of death and loss, affirms life and demands that the reader seize the moment and pursue life, happiness, and even pain. For by avoiding pain, we die a slow, lonely death.

In short, it is a book that I would highly recommend to anyone, even those dyed-in-the-wool single genre people. This has strong fantasy elements in it, and plenty of references to other books and stories by Bradbury.

What a pleasant and welcome way to rediscover a favorite author.

In my mind, this is Bradburys best novel. It's a wonderful love letter to death, sadness, loneliness and decay dressed in a Raymond Chandler trenchcoat. It manages to subtly evoke a long dead world without slipping into the sort of unnecessarily complex writing style he used in 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. The section where the author searches the first "victims" room is a perfect example. Without fail, every time I read about what was scratched on the wall, the hairs on the back of my neck start to rise.

This is a charming, amusing, often poignant glimpse into the mind of the bibliophile, and I, for one, was reassured that I am certainly not alone in my addiction to books (even the smell of them!). I have far more books than I can ever read in one lifetime, unless I am held prisoner in my home for the next 50 years and have nothing else to occupy my time (come to think of it, that doesn't sound half bad), but I must keep buying them, because I not only love to read, but I love the heft, the texture, the smell, the look of a book, and have ever since I can remember. I was heartbroken when I had to give back my first textbook (which I thought was a gift to me!), a reader called "Spot," and perhaps that childhood trauma is still with me! So I surround myself with MY books, and my husband does the same, and we read as much as we can, and it gives us great pleasure. This book has essays, stories, lists (I felt guilty when I hadn't read enough of the books, or, horrors! hadn't heard of some of them!, and even the gentle angst of the guilty book thief or two. Each writer has his own perspective on his addiction to books. Anyone who doesn not care to read has a gaping hole in his soul, I think, and will not care for this book. The rest of us can take consolation in reading the well-chosen words of those who can articulate what this gentle madness feels like and how life-enriching it truly is.

I could not put this book down, I treasure the stories and content. The way I got to look into others live that also love books made me feel a part of a family that had this special content to contend with. I recommend it as light reading, bedside, to children, to read front to back non-stop or any other possible way. Any way it is read does not matter cause its there to be read and that is what makes it all that much more wonderful. It fuel my passion to read more that ever. I am a happier person for having this in my collection, for having read it and for having giving it to others to read.

This book is an absolute necessity for book lovers. The editors have put together a wonderful collection of essays, stories, lists, and cartoons all about books. Every aspect of books is covered: collecting, reading, borrowing, lending, caring for, the history of, and much more. If you are the type of person who can spend hours in a bookstore, if you feel as if you are losing an arm or leg when you lend out a book, or if you don't understand why nobody else around you shares your love for print, this book is for you. Enjoy.

I'm a huge Ray Bradbury fan. All of his sci-fi short stories, his "Ray Bradbury Theater" tv shows, stories made into movies, etc, are favorites of mine. Whenever I take a trip, I usually try and grab a couple of his short story collections to enjoy (even when I've already heard them). I picked this up fully expecting to be entertained as I had been for years (despite a few slow-moving collections released in recent years). Unfortunately, that was not the case. It's not that I was expecting "The Illustrated Man" (ok, maybe I was HOPING that would be the case), but there were literally only a COUPLE of stories in the whole book worth reading! "The Enemy in the Wheat" to me was the best story, and it's just a short story with a cute twist and not a sci-fi one (there is one in the collection, by the way). It's obvious that Ray Bradbury is dealing with his own mortality in this collection, with more than one story revolving around a character dealing with people from his distant past, or ghosts of the past, or decisions made about friendships in the past and such. It's as if the muse he had drawn upon so much in the early years of his career had left and sent it's grandfather to keep him company. Mr. Bradbury seems to be glaring over the twilight of his life and speaking of the regrets he has in certain areas. All in all, this is a strange collection of unrelated tales, and if it were released by any other author it would have been ignored altogether. But thank you, Mr. Bradbury, for continuing to write well past the age others are retired and playing golf. I hope your writing room is still full of those wonderful toys you kept there, and I hope that you let your younger self out to play a little more in the next collection.

Ray Bradbury has enjoyed a long lifetime (83 years and counting) of telling great and unexpected stories. The tales in this latest collection are as fresh as a smooth sip of dandelion wine, zipping you away to the far reaches of your very human imagination, making you leap upward and remain strangely grounded at the same time. Taste this book. You'll become addicted to an author who has out-mastered them all.

--Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS HIDDEN COMFORTS UNEXPECTED JOYS. Learn more about Jim and Ray Bradbury: jimreedbooks.com

This collection, a treasure trove of new fiction for old and new Bradbury readers alike, is yet one more accomplishment in a roughly year-long period that has seen (and will continue to see) a truly prodigious output from Mr. Bradbury. With a new novel out last October ('From the Dust Returned'), another ('Let's All Kill Constance!') coming out in January, and his collected poems hitting shelves just last month, Ray Bradbury is clearly still living every day to the fullest, and thank God for that. 'One More for the Road,' fit snugly in between these publications, stands tall as one of Bradbury's best collections.

"The Nineteenth" recounts a moving father and son reunion with a supernatural twist. Anyone who has lost an elder loved one will doubtless remember this one to re-read again and again. "First Day" addresses the issues of boyhood friendship and the vicissitudes of time, while "With Smiles as Wide as Summer" takes us back to "Dandelion Wine" country. The subjects of the remaining stories also run the gamut, impressive in their sheer variety and subtlety.

Truly, this collection demands our attention and respect. Bravo!

I bought this book expecting stories on par with those found in The Illustrated Man, and R is for Rocket, boy was I wrong! Now don't misunderstand me these stories weren't that bad its just that after reading some of Bradbury's best stories, these just don't quite leave the same impression on me as The Long Rain, and the Outsiders. Still this was a good book to help fill my Bradbury collection. And so, here's my recommendation to Mr and Mrs. John Q. Taxpayer, buy this book if you love Bradbury, if not look elsewhere, and buy The Illustrated Man instead! Peace.

To my knowledge this veteran author of SF and Fantasy classics has written three books of true poetry, although many of his stories have a lyrical quality that comes to poetry. His first collection; WHEN ELEPHANTS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOMED I haven't been able to find, but this collection, and his third book of poetry,THE HAUNTED COMPUTER AND THE ANDROID POPE. This exploration in verse by Bradbury is fascinating and enjoyable, especially for those who are Bradbury fans to begin with.

I will not claim Bradbury to be the most brilliant poet, but there are many gems among these pages. "Byzantium I Come Not From" is a wonderful example of the richness of memory and boyhood summers. His subject matter ranges from childhood memories to popular movies. From heartbreak to The Nefertiti-Tut Express. From ghosts to rocketships and robots. The author brings his lyrical skills, love of sound and word to these themes and more. Anyone who has read Bradbury's books will recognize his themes from books expanded in verse.

For anyone who is a wonderer, with a fascination in the what if? the macabre, the fantastic worlds of paranormal side by side scientific and the melding of all these elements, if you can discover a copy of this, read and enjoy. There's nothing quite like them I've found anywhere else.

This is a book of short stories written by Ray Bradbury. I picked it because I have read some of his other work such as Farheinhiet 451 and the Martian Chronicles. I enjoyed these thoroughly, and when i picked up this book I was expecting stories like these, science fiction. The problem is that they weren't science fiction I think their was either 2 or 3; normally I would tell you an exact number but on 2 of them I couldn't tell what genre they were and they just confused me.
The 1st story, "Night Train to Babylon" is about 3 card monte and this former boy magician. Then they through the boy magician out of the train for some reason. I think this was science fiction but I'm not sure and the middle makes no sense. The 2nd story also makes no sense and i can't even report on it. The 3rd one is of a ghost who is upset that his wife has stopped mourning. It was one of the better stories. The 4th one is a horrible story. It is of incest and underage cousins making out while their uncle is dying. A later story is of an adult that looks through yearbooks from many different years and different places and finds out that people are being reused. People have exactly identical twins from different places and years. Great beginning worst ending in the book. Last story I will review was called, "Mr. Pale" great story. It is in the style of the Martian Chronicles. It is of how the humans have colonized Mars and for some reason the death total on Mars is 0%, and the reason why is that death, a.k.a. Mr Pale, can only be in one place at a time. Great story and it doesn't let up in the ending.

Ray Bradbury is like your favorite uncle. He is full of wonderous stories that as a kid, you never get tired of hearing. Once again he puts together a wonderfull set of stories. I have rated this book 4 stars although it is actually 4 1/2 stars. Not a miss among the entire group. My only gripe with the book is that he has only one science fiction story and calling that one is a stretch. He writes about a small circus who the ticket taker is also the star and chief cook and bottle washer and how the picked on kid in school grows up to be important. My two favorite stories are "Driving Blind" about a mysterious man wearing a sack over his head and "Night Train to Babylon" about men on a train intent on losing their money on a rigged game of three card montey. It is amazing that he can turn out the quality of work he has after more than fifty years. This set of stories is less somber than some of his other short story collections and can actually be compared to "Dandelion Wine" in its feeling. Bradbury is still celebrating life and I hope he does for another fifty years. This book is fun and well worth the reading.

As with most short story collections the quality varies here a little bit but the great thing is that it doesn't vary all that much. Most of the stories here are prime Bradbury, part nostalgia, part fantastic but possessing a charm that nobody else can really quite emulate. Science fiction fans won't find much here to please them if that's all they're looking for but everyone else should be able to find something to satisify them. The stories ran the gamut from funny to senimental to slightly creepy to serious to just downright weird, all of them told in his by now fairly unique style. Most of the stories read very quickly and some come off as slight because of that, like they're sketches for an idea that might have been expanded into a short story later but even the slimmest tales have something to recommend them. For a man who should be years past his peak, this isn't bad at all and borders on excellent, many of these stories are tales you'll remember long after you've closed the book and set it aside. A fine addition to his canon and the best example that the truly great writers never stop producing fine stuff.

This has got to be the wierdest book I have ever read in my entire life. It has the numbest little stories with utterly ridiculous themes that make no sense to me whatsoever. Never have I been so disapionted in a book that was recomended to me. I hated this, so called "novel." Ray Bradbury has definitly had a lot better books than this junk.

Too many books, so little time...I finally picked up this collection of Bradbury classics and loved nearly every story. These stories cover the gamut from time travel, to monsters, to the wonder of a child getting a new pair of sneakers for the summer. I found that many of the stories had children of child like themes. _The Sound of Summer Running_ definately hit home for me. _The Long Rain_ reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft's story about man being stranded on Venus. And _A Sound of Thunder_ is a classic story of the consequences of theoretical time travel...at the expense of a single butterfly. This is NOT a novel, it is a collection of short stories. Many of them fantastical...few based in science, since at the time little was known about Mars, or Venus, or space travel. Definately Golden Age sci-fi here.

I am quite baffled by the previous review of this book. Our reviewer from Maine insists that Mr. Bradbury has produced much better material than this "junk" and that this "novel" was a weird, disappointing read. R is For Rocket is an anthology, not a novel, and does not (nor is it intended to) provide any semblance of a sequential story line. Furthermore, R is For Rocket is largely a collection of previously released material, containing some of Bradbury's most popular and acclaimed works from earlier anthologies (such as The Golden Apples of the Sun), and includes such landmark works as "A Sound of Thunder", easily among Bradbury's Top 10 Short Fiction Works. Every story in this anthology is not a masterwork, but there are enough masterworks present to make up for the occasional misstep. Anyone who has ever had childhood fantasies of becoming an astronaut cannot help but be moved by the title story. And mainstream fiction stories like "The Sound of Summer Running" should tweak the heartstrings of anyone who has ever taken pleasure in being a child, even if one has never harbored a burning desire for space flight or distant worlds. Bradbury's timeless prose evokes nostalgia for a time that never was, a future that never occurred, but oh, it should have. Most of these stories have been rendered obsolete by technology, but the style and mythic quality present in them will ensure their continued presence long after many of Ray Bradbury's contemporaries are forgotten. Weird, perhaps. Junk, most definitely not. If flowery flights of fantasy and fond remembrances of childhood don't float your boat, then perhaps you should try Thomas Disch.