My childhood was filled with stories by Ray Bradbury, who sadly passed away today at the age of ninety one.
Yes, like any geeky kid, I was obsessed with science fiction — Asimov, Heinlein, Pohl, all the greats — but Bradbury was in a different category entirely.
Yes, there are the obvious successes, such as “The Martian Chronicles”, but there is also so much more. Many of his stories — “The Veldt”, “A Sound of Thunder”, “All Summer in a Day” — resonated with something deep in my soul and forced my young mind to look at the world around me in a different way.
In particular, his masterpiece “Dandelion Wine” was, as I saw it, the perfect example of what might be called “inverse science fiction” — ordinary life seen as a thing of wonder. Absolutely nothing happens in defiance of the laws of reality, yet the reader is left with a feeling of delight and magic beyond the reach of any mere space opera.
There really was no other writer like him. We will miss you Mr. Bradbury.