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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
امتیاز دادن یا حتی نظر دادن در مورد مجموعه داستان ها خیلی سخته مخصوصا وقتی چندتا رو خیلی دوست داشته باشی و چندتا رو اصلا. اولین نکته اینکه داستانها موضوعات جذابی دارن. ترتیب داستانها طوری که توی این کتاب هست به نظرم با ترتیب جذاب بودن و روان بودن داستانها نسبت مستقیم داره. نکته آخر اینکه سطح ترجمه کتاب ار سطح نویسنده خیلی پایین تره. اما در نهایت با فکر و ذهن آرام این کتاب رو بخونید
The best part of this short story collection was the opening epigraph:
"... that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain…."
This collection was certainly creative, but it was missing something of Ray Bradbury's classic style. As one of the first of his publications, it's not quite the work of a seasoned writer. Many of the stories struggled to hold my focus, and their endings often fell flat. Even with a reader's suspended disbelief, most of the stories were actually borderline ridiculous ("Skeleton" and "The Small Assassin" are the first that come to mind) and therefore failed to pack the powerful punch that every single story in The Martian Chronicles did with gusto.
Still, it's difficult to dislike anything that Bradbury composes. This collection is just as atmospheric as his previous works, minus the impact.
My favourite stories: "Jack-in-the-Box", and "Scythe".
"... that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain…."
This collection was certainly creative, but it was missing something of Ray Bradbury's classic style. As one of the first of his publications, it's not quite the work of a seasoned writer. Many of the stories struggled to hold my focus, and their endings often fell flat. Even with a reader's suspended disbelief, most of the stories were actually borderline ridiculous ("Skeleton" and "The Small Assassin" are the first that come to mind) and therefore failed to pack the powerful punch that every single story in The Martian Chronicles did with gusto.
Still, it's difficult to dislike anything that Bradbury composes. This collection is just as atmospheric as his previous works, minus the impact.
My favourite stories: "Jack-in-the-Box", and "Scythe".
True story, it's Stephen King's fault I had to pick this up. The main character of [b:The Long Walk|9014|The Long Walk|Stephen King|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309212400s/9014.jpg|522169] brought up the story "The Crowd" during his travel, and it piqued my curiosity enough for me to hunt it down. And somehow, I even decided to just buy it. I'm glad I did. It's a wonderful collection of quirky weird. Favourite stories? The two with Uncle Einar, because he's a lovely character and it was neat to see him twice in the anthology. (I also now see that there's another anthology that features the entire family - will have to hunt that down.) I also quite enjoyed "The Next in Line". It was an odd one when I first read it, but it's actually stuck with me pretty hard. All in all, a great introduction to the author for me.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall score of the book 3.5
As with every collection, some great stories some okay and some I didn’t like at all. In my opinion, the highlights of this book are:
- The Next in Line
- Skeleton
- The Lake
- The Emissary
- Small Assassin
- The Scythe
- The Wind
- The Man Upstairs
- Homecoming
- The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone
As with every collection, some great stories some okay and some I didn’t like at all. In my opinion, the highlights of this book are:
- The Next in Line
- Skeleton
- The Lake
- The Emissary
- Small Assassin
- The Scythe
- The Wind
- The Man Upstairs
- Homecoming
- The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone
No suelo darle cinco estrellas a los libros de relatos porque siempre suele haber alguno que otro que no da la talla, pero aquí los buenos son tan buenos y maravillosos que se te olvida que hay un par flojillos.
Interestingly, Ray Bradbury is a bit dismissive of this collection at the same time that he describes being grateful for its being assembled. Apparently, a lot of the stories had been published elsewhere and were out of print - and his publisher felt that it was worthwhile to have it collected and kept in circulation. RB refers to the work as "this sort of thing" that he wrote "when he was younger" and didn't write much of any more. The next published book was Something Wicked This Way Comes... so, it's confusing why he would categorize these horror-leaning stories as something he was no longer interested in writing, and as the product of a less mature mind.
Whatever the case - there are a few classics in here that stand among the best short horror stories ever written. The Crowd, in particular, may be my all-time favorite - and nothing quite matches it for its fear and anxiety about other people, pain, suffering, and death. There are two stories about The Family in the mix - his Charles Addams inspired monster family that spans the globe. Bradbury fans would open every new anthology with the hopes that a new Family story would be included -- then they were eventually collected (with imperfect bridging material) in the volume From Dust Returned.
Douglas Spaulding gets his start (unless I'm mistaken, and he appears somewhere else - earlier) as the 11 year old protagonist in an oddball little vampire story that ends in fairly shocking vivisection - - a strange start for the 12 year old main character of Dandelion Wine, and the stories therein which have no relation to butchering your upstairs neighbor. Maybe he spent the intervening year in electro shock therapy.
The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse, and The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone were unexpected favorites, living in RB's interesting middle-world of fantasy (along with works like The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit) that suited adults, and an interesting view into adulthood for RB's younger readers. tWPCoHM would be 100x more apt as commentary on social media today - and it's amazing that its concerns existed to this degree when October Country was published.
Jack-in-the-Box, despite the name and janky inclusion of the toy itself, was quite good - and has strong Shirley Jackson agoraphobic vibes, and some painful experience of parenting that I never would have understood as a younger reader.
The Cistern was another surprise. This is among the most creepy, grisly and beautiful ideas I've ever seen on paper. We've all seen the waltzing ghosts in the Haunted Manor at Disney - - why would waltzing waterlogged corpses be so much more traumatic? They sure are, though.
At a time when longer form reading has been giving me trouble - because my anxiety is through the roof regarding the unchecked plague, the attempt to end democracy, my parents going to pieces, and my children's uncertain future - Ray Bradbury was a very welcome old friend to visit with. He's sort of sick in the head, too.
Whatever the case - there are a few classics in here that stand among the best short horror stories ever written. The Crowd, in particular, may be my all-time favorite - and nothing quite matches it for its fear and anxiety about other people, pain, suffering, and death. There are two stories about The Family in the mix - his Charles Addams inspired monster family that spans the globe. Bradbury fans would open every new anthology with the hopes that a new Family story would be included -- then they were eventually collected (with imperfect bridging material) in the volume From Dust Returned.
Douglas Spaulding gets his start (unless I'm mistaken, and he appears somewhere else - earlier) as the 11 year old protagonist in an oddball little vampire story that ends in fairly shocking vivisection - - a strange start for the 12 year old main character of Dandelion Wine, and the stories therein which have no relation to butchering your upstairs neighbor. Maybe he spent the intervening year in electro shock therapy.
The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse, and The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone were unexpected favorites, living in RB's interesting middle-world of fantasy (along with works like The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit) that suited adults, and an interesting view into adulthood for RB's younger readers. tWPCoHM would be 100x more apt as commentary on social media today - and it's amazing that its concerns existed to this degree when October Country was published.
Jack-in-the-Box, despite the name and janky inclusion of the toy itself, was quite good - and has strong Shirley Jackson agoraphobic vibes, and some painful experience of parenting that I never would have understood as a younger reader.
The Cistern was another surprise. This is among the most creepy, grisly and beautiful ideas I've ever seen on paper. We've all seen the waltzing ghosts in the Haunted Manor at Disney - - why would waltzing waterlogged corpses be so much more traumatic? They sure are, though.
At a time when longer form reading has been giving me trouble - because my anxiety is through the roof regarding the unchecked plague, the attempt to end democracy, my parents going to pieces, and my children's uncertain future - Ray Bradbury was a very welcome old friend to visit with. He's sort of sick in the head, too.
Wonderful, wonderful stories. Very fun and creative. This is why you read books.
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A collection of shorts stories from various genres, but mostly suspense and horror. So if you like that kind of stories this Is for you. I'm not a big fan of horror, so this wasn't for me. Although they're well written, for the subject I only really liked about 3 of them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Classism
3,3. I don't think I like Ray Bradbury's short stories that much. Most of the time I had problems with how he ended the stories. But there were some good stories in here too, like The Scythe and The Next in Line which were my favorite stories from this collection.