R Is For Rocket

Finally got around to starting a Ray Bradbury collection I picked up in Chang Mai last month. It was recommended to me about seven years ago by someone very special and every time I go into a second hand book shop I would always look for it to no avail. Finally found it in Thailand of all places. Never been a huge fan of Ray Bradbury, despite his reputation as being one of the giants of early sci-fi (Fahrenheit 451 and Martian Chronicles) but it was there so I dutifully purchased the slim volume. Very interesting reading all the stories about interplanetary travel that are written in the 50s, the authors had no idea that the other planets were completely inhospitable for human life and often the rocketmen (his name for astronauts, and exclusively men of course) upon arriving at the moon or mars would instantly disembark and light a fire with local wood. Still, this collection contains the classic time travel piece, 'A Sound of Thunder', soon to be a mega-flop coming to a video store (maybe a cinema if we're unlucky) near you - not one of the best tme travel stories ever - I don't think you can go past '12 Monkeys' for that accolade, even The Time Traveller's Wife was very clever in that regard - but certainly one of the first to explore the butterfly effect. I can't think of anyone I know who would enjoy reading this collection but that's because most people I know ar a bunch of philistines and ignoramuses when it comes to good hard-core science fiction so it's their loss.