By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Ray Bradbury’s classic short story ‘The Veldt’ (1952) is about a nursery in an automated home in which a simulation of the African veldt is conjured by some children. In a grim development, the lions which appear in the nursery start to feel rather more real than merely ‘simulated’ – and the story ends with a touch of horror.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Ray Bradbury’s classic short story ‘The Veldt’ (1952) is about a nursery in an automated home in which a simulation of the African veldt is conjured by some children, who have only to ‘think’ the landscape into being for it to appear around them. The lions which appear in the nursery start to feel rather more real than merely ‘simulated’ – and the story ends on a chilling note.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Locusts’ is a short chapter or tale within The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury’s 1950 science fiction novel which describes human exploration of, and settlement on, the planet Mars at the turn of the century after Earth becomes uninhabitable in the wake of nuclear war.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The Last Night of the World’ is a short story by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), published in Esquire magazine in February 1951 before being reprinted in his 1952 collection The Illustrated Man. In this story of just a few pages, a husband tells his wife that the world will end later that night.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) is widely recognised as one of the greatest – and most lyrical – science-fiction writers of the twentieth century, although he preferred to describe himself as a ‘fantasy writer’ or simply as a ‘writer’.
Although he is known for novels such as the dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 and the horror novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, much of Ray Bradbury’s best work was in the short-story form. But where should the beginner start? Below, we select and introduce our pick of ten of Bradbury’s best short stories. If these whet your appetite for more, we thoroughly recommend The Stories of Ray Bradbury.