Name: The Golden Apples of the Sun
Rating: 4.05 (10581 reviews)
Author: Ray Bradbury

The Illustrated Man

★ 4.13

Ray Bradbury

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater

Contents:

· Prologue: The Illustrated Man · ss *
· The Veldt [“The World the Children Made”] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Sep 23 ’50
· Kaleidoscope · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct ’49
· The Other Foot · ss New Story Magazine Mar ’51
· The Highway [as by Leonard Spalding] · ss Copy Spr ’50
· The Man · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Feb ’49
· The Long Rain [“Death-by-Rain”] · ss Planet Stories Sum ’50
· The Rocket Man · ss Maclean’s Mar 1 ’51
· The Fire Balloons [“‘In This Sign...’”] · ss Imagination Apr ’51
· The Last Night of the World · ss Esquire Feb ’51
· The Exiles [“The Mad Wizards of Mars”] · ss Maclean’s Sep 15 ’49; F&SF Win ’50
· No Particular Night or Morning · ss *
· The Fox and the Forest [“To the Future”] · ss Colliers May 13 ’50
· The Visitor · ss Startling Stories Nov ’48
· The Concrete Mixer · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Apr ’49
· Marionettes, Inc. [Marionettes, Inc.] · ss Startling Stories Mar ’49
· The City [“Purpose”] · ss Startling Stories Jul ’50
· Zero Hour · ss Planet Stories Fll ’47
· The Rocket [“Outcast of the Stars”] · ss Super Science Stories Mar ’50
· Epilogue · aw *

I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories

★ 4.04

Ray Bradbury

The mind of Ray Bradbury is a wonder-filled carnival of delight and terror that stretches from the verdant Irish countryside to the coldest reaches of outer space. Yet all his work is united by one common thread: a vivid and profound understanding of the vast set of emotions that bring strength and mythic resonance to our frail species. Ray Bradbury characters may find themselves anywhere and anywhen. A horrified mother may give birth to a strange blue pyramid. A man may take Abraham Lincoln out of the grave—and meet another who puts him back. An amazing Electrical Grandmother may come to live with a grieving family. An old parrot may have learned over long evenings to imitate the voice of Ernest Hemingway, and became the last link to the great man. A priest on Mars may confront his fondest dream: to meet the Messiah. Each of these magnificent creations has something to tell us about our humanity—and all of their fates await you in this new trade edition of twenty-eight classic Bradbury stories and one luscious poem. Travel on an unpredictable and unforgettable literary journey—safe in the hands of one of the century's great men of imagination.

The Martian Chronicles

★ 4.16

Ray Bradbury

The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fist. They felt they had never been born. Those few that survived found no welcome on Mars. The shape-changing Martians thought they were native lunatics and duly locked them up.

But more rockets arrived from Earth, and more, piercing the hallucinations projected by the Martians. People brought their old prejudices with them – and their desires and fantasies, tainted dreams. These were soon inhabited by the strange native beings, with their caged flowers and birds of flame.

Contents:
Rocket Summer
Ylla
The Summer Night
The Earth Men
The Taxpayer
The Third Expedition
-And the Moon Be Still As Bright
The Settlers
The Green Morning
The Locusts
Night Meeting
The Shore
Interim
The Musicians
Way in the Middle of the Air
The Naming of Names
Usher II
The Old Ones
The Martian
The Luggage Store
The Off Season
The Watchers
The Silent Towns
The Long Years
There Will Come Soft Rains
The Million Year Picnic

The Nine Billion Names of God

★ 4.05

Arthur C. Clarke

ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S FAVORITE STORIES

THE NINE BILLION NAMES OF GOD -- A short-term course for computer the way to God.

TROUBLE WITH TIME -- Martian time proves that crimes doesn't pay!

NO MORNING AFTER -- Drink, drink and be merry, for tomorrow there will be no morning after...

THE POSSESSED -- Or, why the lemmings drowned.

ENCOUNTER AT DAWN -- The day the gods came to Earth.

THE SENTINEL -- The story which inspired 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY; when man sets off the galactic burglar alarm, who will answer the call?

Nightfall

★ 4.06

Isaac Asimov

In 1941, Astounding Science Fiction magazine published a short story by a little-known writer named Isaac Asimov. The story was called "Nightfall", and many years later it has long been recognized as a classic, its author a legend. Now, the Grand Master of Science Fiction teams with Robert Silverberg, one of the field's top award-winning authors, to explore and expand an apocalyptic tale that is more spellbinding today than ever before -- Nightfall: The Novel.

Imagine living on a planet with six suns that never experiences darkness. Imagine never having seen the stars. Then, one by one the suns start to set, gradually leading into darkness for the first time ever. Kalgash is a world on the edge of chaos, torn between the madness of religious fanaticism and the unyielding rationalism of scientists. Lurking beneath it all is a collective, instinctual fear of the Darkness. For Kalgash knows only the perpetual light of day; to its inhabitants, a gathering twilight portends unspeakable horror. And only a handful of people on the planet are prepared to face the truth, their six suns are setting all at once for the first time in over two thousand years, signaling the end of civilization as it explodes in the awesome splendor of Nightfall.

Encompassing the psychology of disaster, the tenacity of the human spirit, and, ultimately, the regenerative power of hope, Nightfall is a tale rich in character and suspense that only the unique collaboration of Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg could create.

City

★ 4.08

Clifford D. Simak

Librarian's Note: Alternate cover edition available here.

Simak's City is a series of connected stories, a series of legends, myths, and campfire stories told by Dogs about the end of human civilization, centering on the Webster family, who, among their other accomplishments, designed the ships that took Men to the stars and gave Dogs the gift of speech and robots to be their hands.

Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

★ 4.19

H.P. Lovecraft

“H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the 20th century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.”―Stephen King The most important tales of the godfather of the modern horror genre―a master who influenced the works of a generation of writers including Stephen King and Anne Rice―are gathered in one volume by National Book Award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates. Combining the 19th-century gothic sensibility of Edgar Allan Poe with a daring internal vision, Lovecraft’s tales foretold a psychically troubled world to come. Set in a meticulously wrought, historically grounded New England landscape, his harrowing stories explore the collapse of sanity beneath the weight of chaotic events. Lovecraft’s universe is a frightening shadow world were reality and nightmare intertwine, and redemption can come only from below. For aficionados and a new generation of 21st-century readers , Tales of H. P. Lovecraft is a classic not to be missed.

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

★ 4.02

Orson Scott Card

Maps in a Mirror brings together nearly all of Orson Scott Card's short fiction written between 1977 and 1990. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the many who are newly come to Card, here is chance to experience the wonder of a writer so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by the Ender books is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In this enormous volume are forty-six stories, plus ten long, intensely personal essays, unique to this volume. In them the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing, with a good deal of autobiography into the bargain.
Contents:
Introduction (Book 1: The Hanged Man, Tales of Dread) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Eumenides in the Fourth Floor Lavatory (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Quietus (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Deep Breathing Exercises (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Fat Farm (1980) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Closing the Timelid (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Freeway Games (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
A Sepulchre of Songs (1981) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Prior Restraint (1986) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Changed Man and the King of Words (1982) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Memories of My Head (1990) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Lost Boys (1989) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 1: The Hanged Man, Tales of Dread) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 2: Flux, Tales of Human Futures) • essay by Orson Scott Card
A Thousand Deaths [Tales of Capitol] (1978) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Clap Hands and Sing (1982) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Dogwalker (1989) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
But We Try Not to Act Like It (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
I Put My Blue Genes On (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
In the Doghouse (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card and Jay A. Parry
The Originist [Foundation] (1989) / novella by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 2: Flux, Tales of Human Futures) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 3: Maps in a Mirror, Fables and Fantasies) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Unaccompanied Sonata (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
The Porcelain Salamander (1981) • short story by Orson Scott Card
Middle Woman (1981) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Bully and the Beast (1979) / novella by Orson Scott Card
The Princess and the Bear (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Sandmagic [Mither Mages] (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
The Best Day (1984) / short story by Orson Scott Card
A Plague of Butterflies (1981) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Monkeys Thought 'Twas All in Fun (1979) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 3: Maps in a Mirror, Fables and Fantasies) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 4: Cruel Miracles, Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Mortal Gods (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Saving Grace (1987) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Eye for Eye (1987) / novella by Orson Scott Card
St. Amy's Tale (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Kingsmeat (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Holy (1980) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 4: Cruel Miracles, Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Introduction (Book 5: Lost Songs, The Hidden Stories) • essay by Orson Scott Card
Ender's Game [Ender Wiggin] (1977) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Mikal's Songbird (1978) / novelette by Orson Scott Card
Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow [The Alvin Maker Saga] (1989) • poem by Orson Scott Card
Malpractice (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Follower (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Hitching (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Damn Fine Novel (1989) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Billy's Box (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
The Best Family Home Evening Ever (1978) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Bicicleta (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card
I Think Mom and Dad Are Going Crazy, Jerry (1979) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Gert Fram (1977) / short story by Orson Scott Card
Afterword (Book 5: Lost Songs, The Hidden Stories) • essay by Orson Scott Card

The Golden Apples of the Sun

Books similar to The Golden Apples of the Sun

The Illustrated Man

I Sing the Body Electric! & Other Stories

The Martian Chronicles

The Nine Billion Names of God

Nightfall

City

Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

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