 |
| Cover art by Tom Canty |
Edited by William F. Nolan & Martin
H. Greenberg
Roc/New American Library, 1991
UK edition: Severn House, 1992
Paperback edition: Roc, 1992
Dedication: Naturally, for Ray
Table of Contents:
Introduction:
“A Half-Century of Creativity” by
William F. Nolan
“Ray: An Appreciation,” foreword by
Isaac Asimov
“The Troll” by Ray Bradbury
“The Awakening” by Cameron Nolan
“The Wind from Midnight” by Ed Gorman
“May 2000: The Tombstones” by James
Kisner
“One Life, in an Hourglass” by Charles
L. Grant
“Two O’Clock Session” by Richard
Matheson
“A Lake of Summer” by Chad Oliver
“The Obsession” by William Relling, Jr.
“Something in the Earth” by Charles
Beaumont
“The Muse” by Norman Corwin
“The Late Arrivals” by Roberta Lannes
“Hiding” by Richard Christian Matheson
“Salome” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
“The Inheritance” by Bruce Francis
“The Man with the Power Tie” by
Christopher Beaumont
“Centigrade 233” by Gregory Benford
“Filling Out Fannie” John Maclay
“Land of the Second Chance” by J.N.
Williamson
“The November Game” by F. Paul Wilson
“The Other Mars” by Robert Sheckley
“Feed the Baby of Love” by Orson Scott
Card
“The Dandelion Chronicles” by William F.
Nolan
Afterword:
“Fifty Years, Fifty Friends” by Ray
Bradbury
-If you are a reader of science fiction,
fantasy, horror, or mystery fiction, you are likely aware of the niche
publishing trend which is the author tribute anthology, an anthology of
original fiction written within an author’s fictional universe or under the
conscious influence of an author’s style or recurrent themes. Stories in these
volumes are often sequels or prequels to an author’s stories or novels. Authors
such as Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and
J.R.R. Tolkien have been the subjects of multiple tribute anthologies, though
the trend has expanded over the years to include a large number of writers such
as Robert Aickman, Robert W. Chambers, Jack Vance, George R.R. Martin, Isaac
Asimov, Robert Bloch, Robert Silverberg, Mike Mignola, and others too numerous to
list here. Twilight Zone writer
Richard Matheson has been the subject of a tribute anthology (He is Legend: An Anthology Celebrating
Richard Matheson, edited by Christopher Conlon, 2009) and multiple volumes
have been dedicated to Rod Serling’s The
Twilight Zone, including the young adult anthologies of Walter B. Gibson
and continuing with several volumes of original Twilight Zone fiction compiled by Serling’s widow, Carol.
 |
| Cover art by Tom Gauld |
-The
Bradbury Chronicles was the first of
two Ray Bradbury tribute anthologies. It was compiled to mark the
semicentennial of Bradbury’s first professionally published story, “The
Pendulum,” written with Henry Hasse and published in the November, 1941 issue
of Super Science Stories. A separate
volume, Shadow Show: All-New Stories in
Celebration of Ray Bradbury, edited by Sam Weller and Mort Castle, appeared
in 2012. An interesting aspect of these two tribute anthologies is that they
were compiled by the two leading Bradbury authorities at different times in
Bradbury’s career. William F. Nolan, eight years younger than Bradbury, is the
definitive chronicler of the prime years of Bradbury’s career. Nolan was the
first to publish a journal, Ray Bradbury
Review, dedicated to Bradbury’s fiction, and later published such volumes
as The Ray Bradbury Companion (1975)
and the retrospective volume Nolan on
Bradbury (2013). Sam Weller arrived late in Bradbury’s career but took up
the torch carried by Nolan and produced an authorized biography, incidentally
titled The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life
of Ray Bradbury (2005), as well as Listen
to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews (2010). The Bradbury Chronicles is a play on the title of perhaps
Bradbury’s most famous work, The Martian
Chronicles (1950). A final note concerning the title: A 7-volume graphic
novel series based on Bradbury’s fiction was released between 1992 and 1994 by
Bantam books under the title The Ray
Bradbury Chronicles. These volumes collected material originally published
in single-issue form as Ray Bradbury
Comics from Topps, as well as original work.
-The
Bradbury Chronicles contains fiction
from Twilight Zone writers Richard
Matheson and Charles Beaumont, as well as work from writers who were enjoying
success in the early 1990s, such as F. Paul Wilson, Orson Scott Card, Gregory
Benford, and Charles L. Grant. Rounding out the collection is a pleasing
combination of science fiction veterans (Chad Oliver, Robert Sheckley), reliable
horror and dark fantasy talents (Ed Gorman, J.N. Williamson, Chelsea Quinn
Yarbro, James Kisner), and relative newcomers such as Roberta Lannes and
Richard Christian Matheson. The collection also includes prose fiction from
Charles Beaumont’s son Christopher and William F. Nolan’s wife Cameron. There
is a foreword by Isaac Asimov and a story and afterword by Bradbury. William F.
Nolan provides an introduction to each story. So, let’s take a look at the
stories and see how the authors approach the task of paying tribute to Ray
Bradbury.
Introduction:
“A Half-Century of Creativity” by William F. Nolan
-Nolan’s
introduction serves to state the purpose of the volume. Nolan (b.1928), who has
kept bibliographic records of Bradbury’s fiction since that first story in 1941,
provides a brief overview of Bradbury’s sizable accomplishments in prose,
poetry, drama, radio, film, and television. He proceeds to briefly examine
Bradbury’s influence on the fields of science fiction and horror through
Bradbury’s early works such as The
Martian Chronicles, The October Country, and
Dandelion Wine. Nolan concludes his
introduction by giving a short preview of each story and its relation to
Bradbury’s fiction. This introduction is utility in nature.
“Ray:
An Appreciation” by Isaac Asimov
-This
is a very short but surprisingly moving piece by Asimov (1920-1992),
particularly when reading it now, after both men have passed on, knowing that
we are never going to see talents such as these two writers again. In it, Asimov
examines the ways in which Bradbury’s career and his own progressed alongside
one another, even though the two writers rarely met and their careers developed
in the different pulp arenas of weird fiction (Bradbury) and the pulps edited
by John W. Campbell (Asimov). Typical of Asimov’s perceptive nature, he
understood that although Bradbury was inaccurately (and unfairly) categorized
as a science fiction writer, and grouped alongside Asimov, Clarke, and
Heinlein, Bradbury was, in many ways, the public face of American SF and held
the position with honor and dignity. Asimov concludes by relating an amusing
anecdote concerning a luncheon in which he and Bradbury were invited to
Washington, D.C. by Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. Asimov and Bradbury
were invited by Gorbachev because they were the favorite writers of Gorbachev’s
daughter.
“The
Troll” by Ray Bradbury
-According
to Nolan’s preface, this story was written in 1950 and filed away by Bradbury
(1920-2012), who felt it should not be sent to market. Nolan found the story in
Bradbury’s files and, with Bradbury’s blessing, presented it in this anthology.
The tone is humorous and relates the tale of a big city psychiatrist who moves
to a small town and confronts the local legend of a troll who dwells beneath a nearby
bridge. The psychiatrist soon finds out that not all monsters live in the mind.
The tale was very likely revised and updated for its presentation here. The
story has been reprinted in New
Masterpieces of Horror, edited by John
Gregory Betancourt (1996), as well as in The Little Big Book of Chills
& Thrills, edited by Lena Tabori and
Natasha Tabori-Fried (2001).
“The Awakening” by Cameron Nolan
 |
| First paperback edition, artist unknown |
-Cameron
Nolan, wife of William F., presents a tale of the quiet sexual awakening of
Douglas Spaulding, the young protagonist of Bradbury’s novel Dandelion Wine (1957).
In the story, which serves as a sequel to Bradbury’s novel, Douglas, who lives
with his spinster aunts, finds himself aroused when he discovers provocative pictures
of his other aunt, Elmira, a beautiful woman who died young. While prowling
among Elmira’s secret things, kept in stasis in her old bedroom, Douglas finds
a kaleidoscope (a recurrent Bradbury motif) which precludes a ghostly but
reassuring appearance by Elmira herself. Cameron Nolan, according to William F.
Nolan’s preface, began to publish professionally at the age of 18 with a sale
to a comic book market. She continued to write prolifically for the juvenile
market, including as a staff writer for the teen magazine Tiger Beat. Her short fiction has also appeared in such
anthologies as Masques IV, edited by
J.N. Williamson (1991) and Voices of the Night, edited by John Maclay (1994). Both Williamson and Maclay also have
stories in The Bradbury Chronicles.
“The Wind from Midnight” by Ed Gorman
 |
| Illustration for "The Dwarf" by Joseph Mugnaini from The October Country (1955) |
-Gorman
(1941-2016) presents a direct sequel to Bradbury’s 1954 story “The Dwarf,”
which told of a dwarf who frequented a carnival to look into the funhouse
mirrors which distorted him into a tall man. When a cruel trick is played on
him by one of the carnival workers, the dwarf takes his own life. Gorman shows
us the dwarf’s sister, also a diminutive person, who journeys to the carnival
to find out what caused her brother to take his own life. The story is a
masterful character study written in Gorman’s spare yet evocative prose style. Gorman
perfectly captures the bleak and grimy world of the carnival without imitating
Bradbury’s style. “The Wind from Midnight” was reprinted in Gorman’s 1992
collection Prisoners and Other
Stories as well as his 1996 collection Moonchasers
and Other Stories. Gorman was a prolific
novelist, short story writer, and anthologist known for his mystery fiction,
including the Jack Dwyer and Sam
McCain series of mystery novels. Gorman
was a co-founder of Mystery Scene magazine.
Gorman also wrote novels of dark suspense and many short horror stories, the
best of which are collected in The Dark Fantastic (2000).
“May 2000: The Tombstones” by James Kisner
 |
| Illustration for "Mars Is Heaven!" by Herman Vestal Planet Stories (Fall, 1948) |
-Kisner
(1947-2008) produces an interesting riff on Bradbury’s 1948 short story “Mars
Is Heaven!” included in The Martian
Chronicles as “The Third Expedition.” In
Bradbury’s story a group of astronauts are deceived by murderous Martians into
believing that Mars houses an idyllic afterlife composed of their dead relatives
and sublime childhoods. Kisner’s twist on the tale is that one of the
astronauts, an African-American man, was in sick bay when the other astronauts
were wiped out by the Martians. This man did not have an idyllic childhood and
thus the illusion does not work on him. Kisner is best remembered as one of the
more interesting writers to emerge from the horror publishing boom of the
1980s, writing such novels as Zombie House, The Quagmire, and Night Blood under his name and under the pseudonyms Martin James and Eric Flanders.
Kisner also wrote a number of short horror stories for the genre publications
of the day. There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Kisner’s novels
in the wake of Grady Hendrix’s award-winning book Paperbacks from Hell (2017), which examines the horror publishing
boom of the 1980s.
 |
| First paperback edition artist unknown |
“One
Life, In an Hourglass” by Charles L. Grant
-Grant
(1942-2006) examines the lasting damage inflicted upon a young woman by Mr.
Dark, the antagonist of Bradbury’s 1962 dark fantasy novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. In the story, a young woman named Cora is edging toward middle age and still
waiting for the return of Mr. Dark many autumns after the evil entity was
defeated in Bradbury’s novel. This waiting is a lingering effect of an intimate
encounter with Mr. Dark and it has frozen Cora’s life in place and impaired her
ability to connect with other people, especially men. Grant, who excelled in
the sort of dark fantasy epitomized by Bradbury’s novel, manages to recapture
the intimately disturbing aspect of the novel while taking a fresh angle on the
events of Bradbury’s story. It serves as sequel of sorts to the novel but reads
better as a companion piece. Grant was revered during his lifetime for his
contributions to the horror genre as a novelist, short story writer, and
anthologist. A proponent of “quiet horror,” Grant preferred atmosphere to
excessive violence. He is known for his novels and stories centered around the
fictional town of Oxrun Station as well as for his anthologies, particularly
the Shadows series of original horror
fiction. “One Life, In an Hourglass” was selected for Best New Horror 3 (1992) and included in the career
retrospective Scream Quietly: The Best of Charles L. Grant (2012).
“Two
O’Clock Session” by Richard Matheson
-Matheson
(1926-2013) presents a spare story with an ingenious twist typical of his short
fiction output, including his teleplays for The Twilight Zone. In the story,
a psychiatrist is attempting a therapy session with a patient which maddeningly
dissolves before an essential breakthrough occurs. Matheson adds another layer
of surprise with a supernatural twist ending. “Two O’Clock Session” was
included in Matheson’s 2003 collection Off Beat: Uncollected Stories and reprinted in Stephen Jones’s anthology Haunts:
Reliquaries of the Dead (2011).
“A
Lake of Summer” by Chad Oliver
-Oliver
(1928-1993) perfectly captures the Bradburyesque quality of American boyhood
with this moving fantasy concerning a young boy (shades of Douglas Spaulding
from Dandelion Wine) who ventures out onto a lake during a
dangerous storm only to be rescued by Larson, the town hermit who died in a
house fire some time before. Though he never wrote for The Twilight Zone, Oliver was an early member of the Southern
California Group, which included Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Richard Matheson,
George Clayton Johnson, John Tomerlin, and William F. Nolan. Oliver moved away
from the Los Angeles area where the Group was centered to teach anthropology at
UT Austin in his home state of Texas. Oliver incorporated anthropology into
such highly regarded SF novels as Mists of Dawn (1952), The Winds of Time (1956),
and The Shores of Another Sea (1971).
“A Lake of Summer” was included in the 2003 collection of Oliver’s short
fiction, Far from this Earth and Other Stories.
“The
Obsession” by William Relling, Jr.
-Relling,
Jr.’s (1954-2004) tale features an adventure of Uncle Einar, a character from
the 1947 Bradbury story of the same title. Uncle Einar is a winged vampire,
part of Bradbury’s Elliot Family of friendly monsters (from such tales as “The
Homecoming,” “West of October,” and “The April Witch”), who is lured onto a
television talk show, alongside a descendant of Dr. Van Helsing from Dracula, with
unforeseen results. Relling also
slyly names the show producer Harker. The tone is humorous to the point of
spoof but nonetheless enjoyable. Relling, Jr. wrote three horror novels during
the late 1980s and early 1990s as well as a number of short stories for the
genre publications of the day, including stories and essays for Night Cry magazine. Relling also wrote an essay
series, “Adventures in the Scream Trade,” for Horrorstruck and 2 A.M. magazines.
“Something
in the Earth” by Charles Beaumont
 |
| Illustration by Joseph Mugnaini for Bradbury's "The Meadow" from The Golden Apples of the Sun (1953) |
-It
was a treat to find a “lost” Beaumont (1929-1967) story in this anthology. I
say lost because “Something in the Earth” was originally published in the
small-circulation magazine Gamma in 1963 and never reprinted in any anthology
or Beaumont collection until its appearance in The Bradbury Chronicles. It concerns an old man who attempts to
protect the last vestige of wilderness on his property by resisting the
inevitable onrush of urban development in a futuristic society. It is
thematically related to Bradbury’s 1953 story “The Meadow,” which concerns a
security guard’s efforts to protect a movie set from being destroyed.
“Something in the Earth” was reprinted in the Beaumont career retrospective Mass
for Mixed Voices (2013).
“The
Muse” by Norman Corwin
-Corwin’s
(1910-2011) short humorous tale stands as a tribute to Ray Bradbury more than a
tale which can stand alone. As the title indicates, it concerns Corwin’s run-in
with Bradbury’s fickle muse named Polyhymnia. Corwin, of course, is a legend as
a radio dramatist who has also written a number of screenplays and teleplays
over a long and highly productive career. Corwin was a friend of Bradbury’s as
well as noted influence on Twilight
Zone creator Rod Serling, who, like
Corwin, used broadcast media to tackle social issues. William F. Nolan included
Corwin’s prose work in his anthologies A Sea of Space (1970) and The Future Is Now (1970).
“The
Late Arrivals” by Roberta Lannes
 |
| Illustration by Alexander Leydenfrost Planet Stories (Summer, 1946) |
-Lannes
(b. 1948) presents a Martian
Chronicles story about a late-arriving family
to the new frontier of Mars. This family, however, is not a happy one. The
financially stressed parents are neglectful and frequently abusive of their two
children, who are hopelessly caught in a web of despair in an uncontrollable
situation. This remains so until a Martian family takes notice of the children
and offers to rescue them from their predicament. Lannes is highly regarded as
a writer of horror and dark fantasy short stories, many of which have found
their way into “best of the year” anthologies. Her stories have also appeared
in anthologies from leading genre editors such as Dennis Etchison, Ramsey Campbell,
Stephen Jones, and Ellen Datlow. A selection of Lannes’s stories were published
as The Mirror of Night (1997), with
an introduction by Harlan Ellison. Lannes continues to produce speculative
fiction with her most recent story, “Painting the Burning Fence,” appearing in Adam’s
Ladder: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction (2017).
“Hiding”
by Richard Christian Matheson
-Matheson
(b. 1953), son of Richard Matheson, presents an inimitable short fantasy about
a young married couple who experiences their first argument with unexpected
results. The husband hides away from the wife in their home but never comes out,
even after years have passed, only leaving little pieces of evidence that he
still moves around unseen. Richard Christian Matheson began his career as a
television writer (Amazing Stories,
Tales from the Crypt, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Masters of Horror) but also made his mark in prose fiction with
his concentrated, disturbing short-short stories, collected in Dystopia (2000). His only novel, Created By (1993), is a horror satire which takes on
the television industry.
“Salome”
by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
 |
| Illustration for "The Homecoming" by Lawrence Sterne Stevens Famous Fantastic Mysteries (Dec. 1952) |
-Yarbro
(b. 1942) gives us another story set in the world of Bradbury’s Elliott Family.
This time the odd young vampire Timothy is shown in his adult years attempting
to foster a romantic relationship with a co-worker only to find himself
battling the young woman’s overprotective cat Salome. Yarbro is known for her
long-running series of historical horror novels chronicling the lives of the
immortal vampire Count St. Germain, which began with Hotel Transylvania (1978).
Yarbro is hugely prolific, having produced numerous novels, short stories,
collections, and essays in and out of the SF genre. She has won Grand Master
awards from the World Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and International Horror Guild
conventions.
“The
Inheritance” by Bruce Francis
-Ray
Bradbury’s 1944 story “The Lake” is a ghost story which relates the drowning
death of a young girl through the perspective of a young boy who grows to manhood,
returns to the scene of the tragedy, and experiences a gentle encounter with
the young girl’s ghost. The missing portion of the story is the time
immediately after the young girl’s death, when the repercussions of the
incident reverberate through the community and through the life of the young
boy. Bruce Francis gives us a haunting portrait of these events told through
the harrowing lens of a family tragedy. The story is highly effective and one
of the most memorable of the anthology. Francis does not attempt a stylistic
imitation of Bradbury in order to display his own talent as a prose stylist. Francis
is described by William F. Nolan as having once owned “the largest Bradbury
collection on the West Coast.” Francis wrote one novel, Scenic Route (1990),
and a few short stories for such anthologies as Charles L. Grant’s Shadows
3 (1980).
“The
Man with the Power Tie” by Christopher Beaumont
-Beaumont
(b. 1950) presents a directly connected variation of Bradbury’s 1966 story “The
Man in the Rorschach Shirt” with this tale about a psychiatrist whose necktie
elicits an emotional response in those who see it. Beaumont is the oldest son
of Twilight Zone writer Charles Beaumont and first entered the entertainment industry as
a young actor in guest roles on television series such as Bonanza and The Brady Bunch. A technical job in the industry followed before Beaumont began selling
his scripts to television series such as Fame and Highway to Heaven. “The
Man with the Power Tie” was Beaumont’s first published prose story. Beaumont
has also provided prefatory essays for collections of his father’s work.
“Centigrade
233” by Gregory Benford
 |
| Cover art by Joseph Mugnaini |
-In
this clever variation of Bradbury’s 1953 novel Fahrenheit 451, Gregory
Benford (b. 1941) presents a future society which fosters a high-price
collector’s market for objects of the past but finds the only useful purpose
for books is burning them. The story is a conscious attempt to create an
alternate future from that presented in Bradbury’s novel but with the same
ultimate outcome. It is also a love letter to the Golden Age of science fiction
with its focus on the early pulp magazines. The story was reprinted in the
December, 1991 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, collected in Benford’s 1995 collection Matter’s
End, included in the 2011 anthology Future
Media (ed. Rick Wilber), and reprinted in
The Best of Gregory Benford (2015). Despite the admittedly interesting variation on Bradbury's dystopian theme, I
didn’t respond as positively to the story as the many reprints would suggest of
the story’s quality. Perhaps I’m simply suffering fatigue with variations of Fahrenheit
451. Benford is a longtime professor of
physics at UC Irvine as well as an important author of hard SF who has been
hugely prolific since the 1960s. Benford has won the Nebula Award twice as well
as the Ditmar, BSFA, and Phoenix Awards. I first became aware of Benford as a
commentator on the Canadian public television series Prisoners of Gravity, some episodes of which can be found online
and which come highly recommended.
“Filling
Out Fannie” by John Maclay
-This
very short story by Maclay (b. 1944) examines the inner life of the character
Fannie from Bradbury’s 1985 detective novel Death Is a Lonely Business. Fannie,
an obese woman, is murdered by a killer who preys upon the lonely. In Maclay’s
story, he displays Fannie’s outward loneliness as hiding her true nature, which
is that of a woman who possessed passionate goals, one of which was, absurdly
enough, to take her weight gain as far as she possibly could. Maclay’s tale is
little more than a character piece, one which examines a minor character in a
lesser-read Bradbury work. For these reasons the story does not entirely satisfy
as a narrative but will likely be of interest to readers who enjoy Bradbury’s
novel. Maclay is a prolific writer of SF and horror, having written many short
stories, poems, and essays in the genres. His short fiction has been collected
in such volumes as Mindwarps (1991)
and Night Tales (1998), and he has
also edited the anthologies Nukes (1986)
and Voices from the Night (1994).
“Land
of the Second Chance” by J.N. Williamson
-J.N.
Williamson (1932-2005) is one of the few writers in this anthology who makes a
conscious attempt to emulate Bradbury’s idiosyncratic prose style. As a result he ends up
immolating a multitude of the author’s creations in a confusing jumble which suggests that Bradbury’s characters are
given a double-edged chance at immortality by the villainous Ice Doctor, who
entraps the characters in a prison of their own memories. Later in the
anthology, William F. Nolan attempts something similar with his “The Dandelion
Chronicles” but is far more successful because Nolan understands that cramming
Bradbury references into a (necessarily) flimsy narrative is best achieved through parody. Unfortunately, Williamson is deadly
serious and his narrative falters under the weight of its convictions. Among readers
of horror fiction Williamson is known as a prolific novelist in a career which goes back to the mid-1960s. Williamson fully embraced the horror publishing boom of the 1980s by producing a slew of
horror novels for companies such as Leisure and Zebra which benefited from now-collectible cover illustrations. Williamson was equally successful as an editor overseeing the uniformly excellent Masques series
of horror anthologies, which ran five volumes from 1984 to 2006. Williamson
also edited a well-regarded how-to book for genre writers, How to Write
Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction (1987). Williamson was awarded a Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime
Achievement in 2002.
“The
November Game” by F. Paul Wilson
 |
| Illustration by Lee Brown Coye Weird Tales (March, 1948) |
-Wilson
(b. 1946) presents a direct sequel to Bradbury’s 1948 story “The October Game,”
a macabre masterpiece concerning a husband who takes revenge upon his wife one
Halloween night in a particularly grisly manner concerning their daughter.
Wilson’s tale follows the Father after his arrest and incarceration in a nasty
and absolutely enjoyable piece of short fiction which relates its horrid events
with gleeful aplomb. There is a surreal quality to Wilson’s story which is not
found in Bradbury’s original but works for the fact that Wilson does not
attempt to imitate Bradbury stylistically. Though Bradbury’s story has been
reprinted dozens of times since its original publication, it did not appear in
a Bradbury collection until 1980’s The
Stories of Ray Bradbury. One suspects
that, as time moved on and Bradbury diversified as a writer, the viciousness of
the story caused him some embarrassment though it is without doubt one of
Bradbury’s most popular horror stories and has been reprinted as recently as
2015 in October Dreams II: A Celebration of Halloween (ed. Richard Chizmar & Robert Morrish). F. Paul Wilson included
“The November Game” in his short fiction collection Aftershock &
Others: 19 Oddities (2009) and Paula
Guran included the tale in her 2011 themed anthology Halloween. Wilson became a fixture on the horror scene
with the publication of his 1981 novel The Keep. Since then he has published several additional novels, including the
popular Repairman Jack series, and
dozens of short stories in the premier genre markets. Wilson has won multiple
Bram Stoker and Prometheus Awards.
“The
Other Mars” by Robert Sheckley
 |
| Illustration by Vincent Napoli Thrilling Wonder Stories August, 1948 |
-Sheckley
(1928-2005) presents one of the more enjoyable tales in the anthology with this
story that examines the differences in Bradbury’s Mars and Mars as we really
know it to be. It tells of an astronaut who lands with a team on Mars and,
while exploring away from the ship, crosses a threshold into the pastoral world
of Bradbury’s Mars from The Martian
Chronicles. Doubting what he sees, the
astronaut keeps the experience a secret from the rest of the crew before being
forced to make a choice between staying in Bradbury’s heavenly Martian world and
returning to the world he knows. If you have been reading our series looking at
Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone Magazine then you’ve already encountered Sheckley’s short fiction, as he was a
fixture in the magazine during the early issues. Though he wrote several
novels, Sheckley was at his most effective in the short story form and among
his many collections are volumes such as Citizen in Space (1955), Shards of Space (1962), and The People Trap (1968). Sheckley’s long and impressive
career was crowned with a special Nebula Award in 2001.
“Feed
the Baby of Love” by Orson Scott Card
-By
far the longest story in the anthology, this novella from Card (b. 1951)
concerns a famous female musician who decides to ditch her real life to assume
a fake existence in a Bradburyesque small town. What she finds there is a group
of men who pass their lives away playing a strange game, the rules of which
only they know. When she is let in the game she discovers that the people of
this town live the life she thinks she’s always wanted to live. She is forced
to rethink this position when her advances upon a married man are rebuffed. Card’s
tale concerns fame, existence, contentment, and, most importantly, what becomes
of our dreams once we realize we are unlikely to attain them. I thought it was
a strange yet moving piece which possesses only a tenuous connection to
Bradbury beyond the broad thematic crossroads it shares with Bradbury’s
fiction. Card, of course, is the multiple Nebula Award-winning author of the
expansive Ender’s Game series of novels and stories, as well as Alvin
Maker saga and numerous short stories.
Card won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1978 and his hugely successful
career has certainly borne out that early bestowment. “Feed the Baby of Love”
was included in Card’s 2008 collection Keeper of Dreams.
“The
Dandelion Chronicles” by William F. Nolan
 |
| Illustration by Boris Dolgov Weird Tales (July, 1946) |
-This
selection from the editor is a previously published story which was revised for
inclusion in the anthology. “The Dandelion Chronicles” is a combination parody
and love letter to the fiction of Ray Bradbury as it consists entirely of
allusions to Bradbury’s stories, novels, characters, and settings, written in
an exaggeration of Bradbury’s prose style. Nolan states in his introduction
that he wrote the piece strictly from a love and abiding affection for the
fiction of Ray Bradbury. A fun game to play with this one is to see if you can
catch every Bradbury reference and match it to its corresponding work. The
story first saw publication as a limited edition pamphlet in 1984 and
subsequently appeared in the Summer, 1987 issue of Fantasy Tales magazine.
If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know of our high opinion of
William F. Nolan and his long career as a writer of some of the best horror,
suspense, and science fiction of the last several decades. For those who are
interested in learning more about Nolan, revisit our interview with him.
“Fifty
Years, Fifty Friends” by Ray Bradbury
-The
coda to the anthology is a nostalgia-tinged essay by Bradbury about his
formative years as a writer and the many people who helped and encouraged him
along the way. Though the essay is not an attempt at any sort of introspection,
it does give a wonderful view of the early days of science fiction fandom in
Los Angeles and the ways in which the line between fan and professional blurred
in a way it is never likely to do again. Bradbury relates a number of
fascinating anecdotes about growing up in the Los Angeles area and hobnobbing
with the famous, the soon-to-be-famous, and the dreamers. Among the creative
figures Bradbury speaks of in the essay are Jack Williamson, Forrest J.
Ackerman, Leigh Brackett, George Burns, Hannes Bok, Laraine Day, Ross
Rocklynne, Henry Kuttner, William F. Nolan, Sam Peckinpah, John Huston, Norman
Corwin, Federico Fellini, and many others. One aspect I expected Bradbury to
discuss was his mentoring of the Group, the Southern California writers who
came to dominate sf and fantasy in print, film, and television. Alas, it is not
a story told here but has been recounted elsewhere.
-Overall, The Bradbury Chronicles was a satisfying anthology on its own and a
fascinating view of Bradbury’s legacy through the lens of tribute from leading
SF writers of the day. If you are a Bradbury fan this is a must-have for your
collection and though it is clearly aimed at such fans I believe it can be
enjoyed on its own merits.
-If you have read this far, thanks for spending
some time with me looking over this somewhat neglected volume of Bradbury
tribute stories. The book went through only three printings in the early 1990s (U.S. hardcover, UK hardcover, U.S. paperback) and
has not been reprinted since. As of this writing, there is no e-book version available.
Hardcover copies of the book are still relatively affordable online as are
paperback copies. I plan to take a similar look at the Bram Stoker Award-winning
2012 Bradbury tribute anthology Shadow
Show sometime in the future. See you then!
-JP
