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The October Country
by: Ray Bradbury, Joe Mugnaini

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Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780380973873
ISBN: 0380973871
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 01, 1999
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: September 07, 1999
Studio: William Morrow
Sales Rank: 97948

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Welcome to a land Ray Bradbury calls "the Undiscovered Country" of his imagination--that vast territory of ideas, concepts, notions and conceits where the stories you now hold were born. America's premier living author of short fiction, Bradbury has spent many lifetimes in this remarkable place--strolling through empty, shadow-washed fields at midnight; exploring long-forgotten rooms gathering dust behind doors bolted years ago to keep strangers locked out.. and secrets locked in. The nights are longer in this country. The cold hours of darkness move like autumn mists deeper and deeper toward winter. But the moonlight reveals great magic here--and a breathtaking vista.

The October Country is many places: a picturesque Mexican village where death is a tourist attraction; a city beneath the city where drowned lovers are silently reunited; a carnival midway where a tiny man's most cherished fantasy can be fulfilled night after night. The October Country's inhabitants live, dream, work, die--and sometimes live again--discovering, often too late, the high price of citizenship. Here a glass jar can hold memories and nightmares; a woman's newborn child can plot murder; and a man's skeleton can war against him. Here there is no escaping the dark stranger who lives upstairs...or the reaper who wields the world. Each of these stories is a wonder, imagined by an acclaimed tale-teller writing from a place shadows. But there is astonishing beauty in these shadows, born from a prose that enchants and enthralls. Ray Bradbury's The October Country is a land of metaphors that can chill like a long-after-midnight wind...as they lift the reader high above a sleeping Earth on the strange wings of Uncle Einar.

Amazon.com Review:
Ray Bradbury's first short story collection is back in print, its chilling encounters with funhouse mirrors, parasitic accident-watchers, and strange poker chips intact. Both sides of Bradbury's vaunted childhood nostalgia are also on display, in the celebratory "Uncle Einar," and haunting "The Lake," the latter a fine elegy to childhood loss. This edition features a new introduction by Bradbury, an invaluable essay on writing, wherein the author tells of his "Theater of Morning Voices," and, by inference, encourages you to listen to the same murmurings in yourself. And has any writer anywhere ever made such good use of exclamation marks!?

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Still Chills After Fifty Years
Adapted from ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

Autumn is the season that draws me back to my central-Kentucky childhood. Back then, the daytime temperature would hover just above freezing point, the sun a warm disc in the chill blue sky. Leaves would slowly shift to orange and ochre and brown before cascading down in piles that reached your knees. The air smelled of cider, and you could always find pumpkins -- lined for purchase in fields, in stacks at the grocery, by every front door. Nights were different. The cold came down like a hammer. It stiffened the leaves into parchment and brittled the grass with frost. Wind would moan around the eaves like an afflicted spirit. As the season crawled near to winter, I'd wake to find the water in the horses' paddocks frozen like a stone. ... Read More

Rating:

- Not Free SF Reader
A collection of creepy horror, in the majority, with the odd other story. Right on the consistent Bradbury sort of average score for me, and happily lacking in the overly twee mainstream stories.

So, very good examples of his fantasy work, or dark fantasy, or whatever you would like to call it.

October Country : The Dwarf - Ray Bradbury
October Country : The Next in Line - Ray Bradbury
October Country : The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse - Ray Bradbury
October Country : Skeleton - Ray Bradbury
October Country : The Jar - Ray Bradbury
October Country : The Lake - Ray Bradbury
October Country : The Emissary - Ray Bradbury
October Country : Touched with Fire - Ray Bradbury
October Country : The Small Assassin - Ray Bradbury ... Read More

Rating:

- The October Country
Captivated through suspense, innovation, and awe I award The October Country five of five stars. Ray Bradbury's ingenuity and flair become indubitably evidnet within the catacombs, deep cisterns, a town called Obscurity, and a seashore called the Past that lay through the looking glass. The New York Times calls Bradbury "the uncrown king of the science fiction writers". The simple astonishment of this collection will be enjoyed by many imaginative readers time and time again. Within great minds are immense possiblities, horrors, and twisted fate, as these await you inside The October Country.

Rating:

- some gems with some clunkers
I found the first story to be mildly interesting, if a little predictable, and from there it seemed to slow down a bit. However, I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did, as this collection contains some excellent stories that really build up the suspense until endings that send a shiver through you and leave you feeling (contentedly) disquieted. My favorites were: Skeleton, The Jar, The Small Assassin, and The Scythe. (Maybe add The Wind to this list, on the basis of its ending.)

However, unfortunately, there are a few stories that I felt were a real let-down, and might be better skipped on first reading. Often these stories had some potential building up, but closed on a note that seemed out of nowhere and didn't satisfactorily resolve the strangeness and supernatural aspects of the story. ... Read More

Rating:

- read and reread
A gem. Thematically, the stories are not all that close, but they have great suspense, drama, interesting characters. Memorable.

Books : The October Country