Ray Bradbury is a painter who uses words rather than brushes—for he created lasting visual images that, once observed, are impossible to forget. Sinister mushrooms growing in a dank cellar. A family's first glimpse at Martians. A wonderful white vanilla ice-cream summer suit that changes everyone who wears it. A great artist drawing in the sand on the beach. A clunky contraption made out of household implements to help some kids play a game called Invasion. The most marvelous Christmas display a little boy ever saw. All those images and many more are inside this book, a new trade edition of thirty-one of Bradbury's most arresting tales—timeless short fiction that ranges from the farthest reaches of space to the innermost stirrings of the heart. Ray Bradbury is known worldwide as one of the century's great men of imagination. Here are thirty-one reasons why.

In eine kleine Stadt in den USA kommt eines Tages ein Zirkus, der von den beiden 14jährigen Jungen Jim Nightshade und Will Halloway natürlich freudig begrüßt wird. Bald aber merken sie, daß mit diesem Zirkus etwas nicht stimmt, daß auf merkwürdige Weise in das Leben der Karussellpassagiere eingegriffen wird. Die Besitzer des Karussells scheinen nur auf unglückliche Opfer zu warten, sich regelrecht von ihren Leiden zu ernähren. Als sie merken, daß Jim und Will sie durchschaut haben, beginnen sie mit einer unheimlichen Jagd auf die beiden Jungen.Titel der amerikanischen Originalausgabe:›Something Wicked This Way Comes‹(Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York 1962)Copyright © 1962 by Ray BradburyAus dem Amerikanischen vonNorbert Wölfl

It is the first in a series of three mystery novels that Bradbury wrote featuring a fictionalized version of the author himself as the unnamed narrator. Toiling away amid the looming palm trees and decaying bungalows, a struggling young writer (who bears a resemblance to the author) spins fantastic stories from his fertile imagination upon his clacking typewriter. Trying not to miss his girlfriend (away studying in Mexico), the nameless writer steadily crafts his literary effort until strange things begin happening around him. Starting with a series of peculiar phone calls, the writer then finds clumps of seaweed on his doorstep. But as the incidents escalate, his friends fall victim to a series of mysterious "accidents"--some of them fatal. Aided by Elmo Crumley, a savvy, street-smart detective, and a reclusive actress of yesteryear with an intense hunger for life, the wordsmith sets out to find the connection between the bizarre events, and in doing so, uncovers the truth about his own creative abilities.

Titel der amerikanischen Originalausgabe THE MARTIAN CHRONICLESDeutsche Übersetzungen von Thomas Schluck und Wolfgang Jeschke

Halloween 1954, Mitternacht, die Stunde der Geister und Verstorbenen. Über die Friedhofsmauer zwischen der Stadt der Toten und der Filmstadt Hollywood klettert eine Leiche – oder ist es eine Puppe? Ein junger Science-Fiction-Schreiber und Drehbuchautor beobachtet dies …»In einer grandiosen Mischung aus Horrorstück, Detektivroman, Gesellschaftssatire und philosophischem Traktat über die fließenden Übergänge von Sein und Schein schildert Bradbury mit wohldosierter Steigerung von Spannung und Gruseleffekten seine haarsträubende Geschichte von der Stadt der (in der Fiktion) Lebenden, dem Studiogelände von Maximus Films, und der Stadt der Toten, dem direkt daneben liegenden Friedhof Green Glades, deren Grenzen im Laufe der rasanten Handlung immer weiter zusammenfließen. Das liest sich amüsant und spannend, gruselig und aufschlußreich zugleich, und das am besten in einer unheimlichen Nacht vom Anfang bis zum Ende in einem Zuge.«Westfalen-Blatt, Bielefeld»Eine Hollywood-Gruselgeschichte mit allen Merkmalen des reifen Bradbury-Sounds. Bradbury macht seine Leser süchtig nach mehr Bradbury.«Frankfurter Allgemeine ZeitungTitel der 1990 bei Alfred A. Knopf, New York,erschienenen Originalausgabe:›A Graveyard for Lunatics‹

Amerikaning mashhur fantast yozuvchisi Rey Bredberining nomi va asarlari o‘zbek o‘quvchilariga ham yaxshi tanish. Endi adibning shoh asari “Marsga hujum”ni siz aziz fantastika ixlosmandlariga havola etmoqdamiz. Oltmish yoshida ilk marta uchoqqa chiqqan, uyida eski yozuv mashinkasidan boshqa bironta zamonaviy texnika uskunasi bo‘lmagan Rey Bredberi favqulodda quvvai zehni bilan olis-olis galaktikalarga xuddi fazogirlarday “sayohat” qiladi va mo‘‘jizaviy taassurotlarini jahon ahli bilan baham ko‘radi.Muallifning fantastika vositasida bunday g‘aroyib “sayohat”lari zamirida ulkan majoziy ma’no yotadi — u Yerdagi hayot, xususan ona tabiatga munosabat allaqachon izdan chiqqanligini alam, o‘kinch va zaharxandalik bilan ifoda etadi. Hatto biz shaffof marsliklar istiqomat qiladi deb tasavvur etganimiz Mars sayyorasini ham mana shu odamlar allaqachon boshiga yetib bo‘lganini alohida uqtiradi. Bu esa Yerdagi har bir odamni chuqurroq o‘ylashga, hushyor bo‘lishga da’vat etadi.“Jahon adabiyoti” jurnalidan

What do you imagine when you hear the name… Bradbury?You might see rockets to Mars. Or bizarre circuses where otherworldly acts whirl in the center ring. Perhaps you travel to a dystopian future, where books are set ablaze… or to an out-of-the-way sideshow, where animated illustrations crawl across human skin. Or maybe, suddenly, you're returned to a simpler time in small-town America, where summer perfumes the air and life is almost perfect… almost.Ray Bradbury—peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors—is a literary giant whose remarkable career has spanned seven decades. Now twenty-six of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.

Here are eighteen visions of humankind's destiny. A mixture of magic, imagination and truth.

In 2055 a hunter named Eckels goes on the adventure of a lifetime: travelling back into the past on a prehistoric safari to kill a Tyrannosaurus rex. He is warned that even the smallest change in the past could have unpredictable consequences in the present…