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Ahora y siempre
Un periodista portador de una noticia terrible salta de un tren en marcha en un pueblecito que esconde secretos maravillosos e imposibles... La tripulación de una nave estelar sigue a su capitán, ciego y loco, en su búsqueda por el espacio profundo para enfrentarse al destino, la eternidad e incluso a Dios... Ahora y siempre es la nueva obra de un artista incomparable cuyas historias han dado forma al paisaje literario americano. Dos fascinantes novelas cortas (cada una de ellas única y diferente, pero puro Bradbury) que demuestran su sorprendente talento y la incontenible vitalidad de la mente, el espíritu y el corazón de este destacado narrador americano.
217 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
86 people are currently reading
1961 people want to read
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,560 books25.1k followersRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction.
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
Bradbury is best known for his novel Fahrenheit 451 (1953) and his short-story collections The Martian Chronicles (1950), The Illustrated Man (1951), and The October Country (1955). Other notable works include the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine (1957), the dark fantasy Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962) and the fictionalized memoir Green Shadows, White Whale (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including Moby Dick and It Came from Outer Space. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. Bradbury also wrote poetry which has been published in several collections, such as They Have Not Seen the Stars (2001).
The New York Times called Bradbury "An author whose fanciful imagination, poetic prose, and mature understanding of human character have won him an international reputation" and "the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 378 reviews
July 11, 2025
A book of two halves. Novella one - 'Somewhere a band is playing' is a decent spin on the strange town mystery, where a poet is drawn to Summerton by literature and an enticing woman, and finds a perfect town, albeit childless and emotionless, and he stays to uncover the mystery, whilst knowing he himself is a harbinger of bad news. Novella two 'Leviathan '99' is a science fiction re-imagining of 'Moby Dick', which falls very flat in my opinion. So this one merited a One Star > 3 out of 12!
2010 read
2010 read
November 15, 2019
4.5/5🌟 overall.
Somewhere a Band is Playing 5/5 🌟
Leviathan 99 4/5 🌟
Somewhere a Band is Playing 5/5 🌟
Leviathan 99 4/5 🌟
January 31, 2022
Now and Forever by Ray Bradbury contains two never-before-published novellas by one of America's finest living writers, Ray Bradbury. A journalist bearing terrible news leaps from a still-moving train into a small town of wonderful, impossible secrets . . .and the doomed crew of a starship follow their blind, mad captain on a quest into deepest space to joust with destiny, eternity, and God Himself . . .
Now and Forever is a bold new work from an incomparable artist whose stories have reshaped America's literary landscape; two bewitching novellas that have never before appeared in print—each distinctly different, yet uniquely Bradbury—demonstrating the breathtaking range of the master's talent and the irrepressible vitality of his mind, spirit, and heart.
In Somewhere a Band Is Playing, a writer is drawn by poetry and dreams to tiny Summerton, Arizona, a community hidden in plain view, where no small children play, and where the residents never seem to age. Enchanted by its powerful rural magic—and by a beautiful, enigmatic lady who bears the name of an Egyptian queen—the writer sets out to uncover Summerton's mysteries before the inevitable arrival of a ruthless destruction.
With Leviathan '99, the author who once colonized Mars returns to the cosmos to brilliantly reimagine Herman Melville's classic masterwork of obsession and the sea, transforming a great whale into a worlds-devouring comet. In the year 2099, fledgling astronaut Ishmael Hunnicut Jones boards the Cetus 7, placing his fate in the hands of a relentless madman who is blindly chasing the celestial monster's tail. And in the merciless void, a crew of earthborn and alien star-travelers will face a divine judgment, and an "enemy" wielding the most fearsome weapon of all . . . Time.
Ray Bradbury continues to delight and astound with grand visions, lyrical prose, and provocative thought. Rich in poetry, wonder, imagination, and truth, here is proof positive that the words and stories of the inimitable Bradbury will live on . . . Now and Forever. Feeding time for fans of Ray Bradbury!
Now and Forever is a bold new work from an incomparable artist whose stories have reshaped America's literary landscape; two bewitching novellas that have never before appeared in print—each distinctly different, yet uniquely Bradbury—demonstrating the breathtaking range of the master's talent and the irrepressible vitality of his mind, spirit, and heart.
In Somewhere a Band Is Playing, a writer is drawn by poetry and dreams to tiny Summerton, Arizona, a community hidden in plain view, where no small children play, and where the residents never seem to age. Enchanted by its powerful rural magic—and by a beautiful, enigmatic lady who bears the name of an Egyptian queen—the writer sets out to uncover Summerton's mysteries before the inevitable arrival of a ruthless destruction.
With Leviathan '99, the author who once colonized Mars returns to the cosmos to brilliantly reimagine Herman Melville's classic masterwork of obsession and the sea, transforming a great whale into a worlds-devouring comet. In the year 2099, fledgling astronaut Ishmael Hunnicut Jones boards the Cetus 7, placing his fate in the hands of a relentless madman who is blindly chasing the celestial monster's tail. And in the merciless void, a crew of earthborn and alien star-travelers will face a divine judgment, and an "enemy" wielding the most fearsome weapon of all . . . Time.
Ray Bradbury continues to delight and astound with grand visions, lyrical prose, and provocative thought. Rich in poetry, wonder, imagination, and truth, here is proof positive that the words and stories of the inimitable Bradbury will live on . . . Now and Forever. Feeding time for fans of Ray Bradbury!
June 17, 2009
When I think Ray Bradbury, I think pure Americana. Like Elvis, Jackie Robinson, Marilyn Monroe—that kind of thing. He portrays a nostalgia-tinged, post-war optimism and idealism that’s as compelling as it is fantastical, as comforting as it was nonexistent for so many Americans during those years. While he does scary as good as anyone, it always seems compartmentalized, cordoned off from more depressing societal woes. Strangely, I haven’t read his most famous work, Fahrenheit 451, so I will likely need to reevaluate my cobwebby Bradbury impressions at some point.
So although I consider him one of my favorite authors, I haven’t read anything by Bradbury in quite some time. I saw this remainder copy for 80% off the other day, and the discount was enough for me to give it a shot (and put me on my guard). While these are “new” stories in that they haven’t been previously released, they’ve been in the works for 50+ years. I was pretty concerned that my memories and feelings about Bradbury might best be left in the past; that he might no longer be for me. Thankfully, my anxiety was quickly allayed. The first novella, Somehwere a Band is Playing showcases Bradbury at his most whimsical and creative, achieving a tone somewhere between Dandelion Wine and The Martian Chronicles. This was the vastly more enjoyable of the two stories and probably only misses a 5-star individual rating due to a few disjointed moments and the unnecessarily extreme brevity (110-odd pages with generous spacing). The economy of language is almost laughable, and yet he’s able to create an arresting, fully-formed mood and setting in a flash—in this case an off-beat mix of old West nostalgia, haunted melancholy, and ancient myth. It’s quirky as hell, and I loved it.
The second novella, Leviathan ‘99, is an outer space reimagining of Moby-Dick set in 2099. It’s probable that I would have enjoyed this one more if I’d read Melville’s classic, but it fell pretty flat as a stand-alone piece. It’s even shorter than the first novella, which doesn’t allow for the development of character and obsession that presumably enlivens the original. I suppose it’s some consolation that I’m more interested than ever in picking up Moby-Dick, especially as my thoughts wander to summer and the sea. Bradbury is back to the front of my brain, and I’m relieved to find that I still consider him a fascinating creative mind worthy of further exploration.
So although I consider him one of my favorite authors, I haven’t read anything by Bradbury in quite some time. I saw this remainder copy for 80% off the other day, and the discount was enough for me to give it a shot (and put me on my guard). While these are “new” stories in that they haven’t been previously released, they’ve been in the works for 50+ years. I was pretty concerned that my memories and feelings about Bradbury might best be left in the past; that he might no longer be for me. Thankfully, my anxiety was quickly allayed. The first novella, Somehwere a Band is Playing showcases Bradbury at his most whimsical and creative, achieving a tone somewhere between Dandelion Wine and The Martian Chronicles. This was the vastly more enjoyable of the two stories and probably only misses a 5-star individual rating due to a few disjointed moments and the unnecessarily extreme brevity (110-odd pages with generous spacing). The economy of language is almost laughable, and yet he’s able to create an arresting, fully-formed mood and setting in a flash—in this case an off-beat mix of old West nostalgia, haunted melancholy, and ancient myth. It’s quirky as hell, and I loved it.
The second novella, Leviathan ‘99, is an outer space reimagining of Moby-Dick set in 2099. It’s probable that I would have enjoyed this one more if I’d read Melville’s classic, but it fell pretty flat as a stand-alone piece. It’s even shorter than the first novella, which doesn’t allow for the development of character and obsession that presumably enlivens the original. I suppose it’s some consolation that I’m more interested than ever in picking up Moby-Dick, especially as my thoughts wander to summer and the sea. Bradbury is back to the front of my brain, and I’m relieved to find that I still consider him a fascinating creative mind worthy of further exploration.
May 8, 2022
Dos relatos inéditos con Bradbury en todo su esplendor: poesía, nostalgia, mundos diferentes, personajes muy humanos (aunque no sean "normales").
El primer relato, En algún lugar toca la banda nos lleva a algún lugar del profundo EEUU, un pueblo perdido en el que sus vecinos viven en plena armonía y felicidad. La visita de un periodista que porta malas noticias cambiará algunas cosas.
Un ambiente nostálgico, moroso, en el casi escuchas las cigarras cantar... Un lugar donde siempre es verano, hay picnics en el prado, la gente es hermosa, feliz, no hay conflictos.
Y la llegada del "mundo exterior", representada por un periodista que llega inesperadamente, que descubre los secretos de ese shangrila cambiado de continente, y el coste que tiene el paraíso.
Leviatán 99 es un homenaje futurista a Moby Dick, transformado en un gran meteorito al que el capitán de la nave (Ajab, por supuesto) quiere destruir aunque eso suponga su propia muerte y la de su tripulación. No es necesario haber leído la obra de Melville para disfrutarlo, pero ese Llamadme Ismael del inicio ya indica por dónde va a ir el relato.
Una gozada de lectura, desde la introducción escrita por el propio Bradbury hasta la última frase
El primer relato, En algún lugar toca la banda nos lleva a algún lugar del profundo EEUU, un pueblo perdido en el que sus vecinos viven en plena armonía y felicidad. La visita de un periodista que porta malas noticias cambiará algunas cosas.
Un ambiente nostálgico, moroso, en el casi escuchas las cigarras cantar... Un lugar donde siempre es verano, hay picnics en el prado, la gente es hermosa, feliz, no hay conflictos.
Y la llegada del "mundo exterior", representada por un periodista que llega inesperadamente, que descubre los secretos de ese shangrila cambiado de continente, y el coste que tiene el paraíso.
Leviatán 99 es un homenaje futurista a Moby Dick, transformado en un gran meteorito al que el capitán de la nave (Ajab, por supuesto) quiere destruir aunque eso suponga su propia muerte y la de su tripulación. No es necesario haber leído la obra de Melville para disfrutarlo, pero ese Llamadme Ismael del inicio ya indica por dónde va a ir el relato.
Una gozada de lectura, desde la introducción escrita por el propio Bradbury hasta la última frase
March 6, 2017
Kitabın içinde iki kısa roman yer alıyor. Yazar her zamanki gibi bilim kurgu türünde yazmayı tercih etmiş. İlk kısa-roman, uzayda ve 2099 yıllarında geçiyor. Diğeri ise 20. yyın ikinci yarısında Amerik'da. Açıkçası ben iki hikayeyi de sevemedim, bir türlü kitaba ısınamadan kitap bitti. Özellikle de ilk hikayeden oldukça sıkıldım, yazarın sevdiğim tarzını bu kitapta bulamadım. hikayelerin derin anlamlı ana fikirleri yoktu ve özellikle uzayda geçende yaşanan olayları saçma buldum. Uzaylı şeylere hiçbir zaman ısınamayacağım sanırım.
İkinci hikaye daha iyiydi, yazarın o ham madde ile daha güzel şeyler yapmasını beklerdim ama olmamıştı. Yine de fena değildi, zaman zaman çok güzel noktalara değiniyor.
Genel olarak kötü bir kitap olmasa da Bradbury için oldukça basit bir kitaptı, biraz hayal kırıklığına uğradım ne yalan söyleyeyim. Bu kitabı okuyun da okumayın da demem ama Bradbury okuyacaksanız, Fahrenheit 451, Mars Yıllıkları gibi kitaplardan başlayın.
İkinci hikaye daha iyiydi, yazarın o ham madde ile daha güzel şeyler yapmasını beklerdim ama olmamıştı. Yine de fena değildi, zaman zaman çok güzel noktalara değiniyor.
Genel olarak kötü bir kitap olmasa da Bradbury için oldukça basit bir kitaptı, biraz hayal kırıklığına uğradım ne yalan söyleyeyim. Bu kitabı okuyun da okumayın da demem ama Bradbury okuyacaksanız, Fahrenheit 451, Mars Yıllıkları gibi kitaplardan başlayın.
February 20, 2022
..biju sadomājies palasīt, ko labu uzrakstījis šis pasaulē labi zināmais autors (man iepatikās abu grāmatā iekļauto stāstu ievadu teksti). taču lasāms bija tikai pirmais stāsts. un arī tas tikai "ir okei" līmenī. iesākot lasīt otro stāstu, es vienkārši nespēju turpināt. lasīju un likās – kāda sasodīta laika izšķiešana. pilnīgs mēsls. izrādās, ar zinātnisko fantastiku(?) man iet vēl grūtāk nekā ar lētiem detektīviem. (vērtējums 2* tikai pirmajam stāstam un tiem diviem ievadiem.)
March 30, 2020
Está compuesto de dos libros “Ahora y siempre” y “Leviatan”. El primero es de un lugar donde la gente solo nace y nunca muere. Pero cómo es esto posible? Sólo es posible si se trata de escritores, estando vedado la entrada a los escritores yonquis. Un libro que amarán todos los lectores excepto los yonquis.
El segundo libro no me ha agradado ni me ha desagradado así que no comentaré sobre un libro que no tiene la calidad del anterior. Podría gustar a los fans de Moby Dick, por fortuna no es mi caso.
El segundo libro no me ha agradado ni me ha desagradado así que no comentaré sobre un libro que no tiene la calidad del anterior. Podría gustar a los fans de Moby Dick, por fortuna no es mi caso.
November 13, 2017
Somewhere a Band is Playing, the first story, was wonderful and rates five stars. The second story was enjoyable and rates three stars.
July 21, 2010
Somewhere a Band Is Playing had some classic Bradbury elements; gorgeous descriptions of old-fashioned pleasures that make even a lazy, soft-bellied technophile like myself long for a world of ice boxes, bakery wagons, and (to prove it’s not JUST the food in Bradbury novels that catches my attention) swinging porch doors. But half-waking dreams and overly poetic descriptions muddled the plot development in the first half; not because they took too long, but because they didn't go anywhere and they lead me to believe there was a lot more going on than there really was. I was glad when the story finally shed the extra weight and ran with the steam it had actually earned. But by then it felt like multiple plot lines and been cut and left to die without any resolution. This story needed some editing. I found the end to be mostly satisfying, if not a little impractical. 2/5
Leviathan ‘99 was epic. Beautiful. Exciting. This is obviously, intentionally, and lovingly “Moby Dick in Space”. The time travel bothered me, but otherwise it was a solid story. Really, I’d be giving it a 5/5 if not for the time travel. I like my Bradbury with sparks and gleaming metal and rockets and loneliness even more than I like it with soda fountains and dusty cellars. If it hadn’t been for this half of the two novella collection, I would have been sorely disappointed. 4/5
Leviathan ‘99 was epic. Beautiful. Exciting. This is obviously, intentionally, and lovingly “Moby Dick in Space”. The time travel bothered me, but otherwise it was a solid story. Really, I’d be giving it a 5/5 if not for the time travel. I like my Bradbury with sparks and gleaming metal and rockets and loneliness even more than I like it with soda fountains and dusty cellars. If it hadn’t been for this half of the two novella collection, I would have been sorely disappointed. 4/5
August 22, 2017
This book contains two novellas. Somewhere a Band Is Playing, and Leviathan '99. For those who may not know, Bradbury did a stint writing screenplays in the soul-sapping realm of Hollywood; even though the Moby Dick screenplay for/and with John Huston was actually written in London. You can read a little of how awful that experience was for Bradbury here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Di... You can read more of the angst and ick of Bradbury's experience with the Hollywood ghouls in his book "A Graveyard for Lunatics." He felt endlessly sorry for those writers who put their head in the maw of the screenwriting demon and didn't come all the way back out. Leviathan '99 is Bradbury's effort at reimagining Moby Dick in space, so there are tooth marks of demonic Hollywood marring Bradbury's writing pencil. It works about as well as you'd expect. Somewhere a Band Is Playing is a dream of a thought poem, as mystical and fabulous as a homecoming to the way you imagined your past might appear if you could just polish the edges some more.
July 13, 2010
Sometimes you wonder whether folks with really great reputations are tempted to publish trash just because they can. I really wonder that about this pair of novella. Bradbury admits both are ideas he'd noodled with his whole life but never quite got them into a satisfactory form. Well, he still hasn't.
Both offers an interesting premise: neither quite delivers. "Leviathan '99" (Moby Dick set in space) came closer. "Somewhere a Band is playing" is a hodgepodge of stuff that others have published elsewhere.
He should be ashamed.
Both offers an interesting premise: neither quite delivers. "Leviathan '99" (Moby Dick set in space) came closer. "Somewhere a Band is playing" is a hodgepodge of stuff that others have published elsewhere.
He should be ashamed.
September 25, 2022
Somewhere a Band Is Playing - 5/5
Leviathan '99 - 3/5
Leviathan '99 - 3/5
May 15, 2019
Two novellas, published late in Bradbury's life, having gestated over decades.
Somewhere a Band is Playing
Beautiful.
A journalist sniffs a story and jumps off a train into a small town in Arizona, forgotten by the world. A story only Bradbury could make work ensues.
As an aside, in the Introduction, we learn that the inspiritaion for Nef in this story (and obviously for the movie star in Death is a Lonely Business) was none other than Katherine Hepburn. Well, it was obvious that there was a real world inspiration for those characters but exactly which leading lady from the Hollywood Age of Elegance was not easily guessed.
Leviathan '99
Bradbury went to Ireland when he wrote the screenplay for the film Moby Dick. The experience stuck with him, as his many Irish stories testify, but apparently the White Whale and Ahab stuck with him, too, since he wrote a radio play SF adaptation of the book (broadcast by the BBC), too and eventually that evolved into this novella, which is - bonkers.
There's a long tradition of these literary adaptations, of course, even just within SF, perhaps most famously, The Forbidden Planet being a take on Shakespeare's The Tempest. But despite being widely considered an SF writer, Bradbury for the most part stood apart from the mainstream development of the genre, not being really all that interested in science. And so if you go into this expecting a competent space opera, you will be very disappointed. Instead, it is necessary to ignore everything technical, which may as well be magic, and focus on this brief (unlike the voluminous original) examination of self-destructive obsession with it's weird telepathic alien "Queequeg" and blind "Ahab."
Somewhere a Band is Playing
Beautiful.
A journalist sniffs a story and jumps off a train into a small town in Arizona, forgotten by the world. A story only Bradbury could make work ensues.
As an aside, in the Introduction, we learn that the inspiritaion for Nef in this story (and obviously for the movie star in Death is a Lonely Business) was none other than Katherine Hepburn. Well, it was obvious that there was a real world inspiration for those characters but exactly which leading lady from the Hollywood Age of Elegance was not easily guessed.
Leviathan '99
Bradbury went to Ireland when he wrote the screenplay for the film Moby Dick. The experience stuck with him, as his many Irish stories testify, but apparently the White Whale and Ahab stuck with him, too, since he wrote a radio play SF adaptation of the book (broadcast by the BBC), too and eventually that evolved into this novella, which is - bonkers.
There's a long tradition of these literary adaptations, of course, even just within SF, perhaps most famously, The Forbidden Planet being a take on Shakespeare's The Tempest. But despite being widely considered an SF writer, Bradbury for the most part stood apart from the mainstream development of the genre, not being really all that interested in science. And so if you go into this expecting a competent space opera, you will be very disappointed. Instead, it is necessary to ignore everything technical, which may as well be magic, and focus on this brief (unlike the voluminous original) examination of self-destructive obsession with it's weird telepathic alien "Queequeg" and blind "Ahab."
November 11, 2021
This book had two short novellas. The second one is Leviathan `99, this one was just okay for me. Probably my least favorite Ray Bradbury work I've read thus far. The First one was Somewhere a Band is Playing, this one was so good! I wish it was longer. I wonder if Ranson Riggs read this story before he wrote the Miss Peregrine's series. Seems like he may have been winking at Ray Bradbury readers with his peculiars. I would love to know if other readers saw any parallels between the two.
December 15, 2019
İki uzun öyküden oluşan Şimdi ve Daima'da, Fahrenheit 451 ve Mars Günlükleri'nden aldığım okuma keyfini alamadım. Moby Dick'ten uyarlama Leviathan '99'u sevmedim. Çok zorlama olmuş. İkinci öykü, Bir Yerlerde Bir Müzik Çalıyor biraz daha iyiydi, ancak onu da okurken sıkıldığımı hissettim. Bu öyküdeki fikir ilginç, çok daha iyi işlenebilirdi.
August 2, 2017
È inconfondibilmente Bradbury, per tematiche, stile, poesia, atmosfere; lo è così tanto che se mi avessero dato questi due racconti senza dirmi il nome dell’autore, non avrei avuto dubbi nel riconoscerlo.
Eppure, questa lettura non mi ha dato la soddisfazione che speravo, anzi: in certi punti mi ha provocato qualcosa che mi sento in colpa ad associare a Ray: l’abbiocco! (perdono, perdono!)
Eccellente nella forma, ma… non mi ha emozionata, né stupita. Prevedibile, ecco, perlomeno se si conoscono bene le sue opere. E se magari la cosa poteva essere giustificata, nella rivisitazione futuristica di Moby Dick (poco riuscita, secondo me), non era bella quella sensazione di già letto durante il primo racconto.
Vado a rileggermi “La Vera Saggezza”, così mi viene un po’ di magone e compenso, va.
Eppure, questa lettura non mi ha dato la soddisfazione che speravo, anzi: in certi punti mi ha provocato qualcosa che mi sento in colpa ad associare a Ray: l’abbiocco! (perdono, perdono!)
Eccellente nella forma, ma… non mi ha emozionata, né stupita. Prevedibile, ecco, perlomeno se si conoscono bene le sue opere. E se magari la cosa poteva essere giustificata, nella rivisitazione futuristica di Moby Dick (poco riuscita, secondo me), non era bella quella sensazione di già letto durante il primo racconto.
Vado a rileggermi “La Vera Saggezza”, così mi viene un po’ di magone e compenso, va.
April 19, 2023
Hacía muchos años que no leía a Bradbury y volver a él con estas novelas cortas publicadas en sus últimos años, es una delicia.
Bradbury es pura poesía, ritmo y melodía. Sentimientos que fluyen en espacios fantásticos llenos de maravillas o angustias.
Estas dos novelas fueron "maceradas" durante muchos años por el autor, y el resultado es muy pero muy bueno.
Me quedo con la primera novelilla (En algún lugar toca la banda), puro Bradbury del medio oeste. La segunda (Leviatán99) es muy buena también, ojo y llamadme Ismael.
Bradbury es pura poesía, ritmo y melodía. Sentimientos que fluyen en espacios fantásticos llenos de maravillas o angustias.
Estas dos novelas fueron "maceradas" durante muchos años por el autor, y el resultado es muy pero muy bueno.
Me quedo con la primera novelilla (En algún lugar toca la banda), puro Bradbury del medio oeste. La segunda (Leviatán99) es muy buena también, ojo y llamadme Ismael.
October 6, 2017
Somewhere A Band Is Playing: My first thoughts are that in content and atmosphere it's somewhere between Something Wicked This Way Comes and Dandelion Wine. It is far more than that however.
Leviathan '99: Ray Bradbury admired Herman Melville and loved Moby Dick and this is his own take on the ideas Melville created. Obsession and what it can lead to with a unusual psychological angle.
Leviathan '99: Ray Bradbury admired Herman Melville and loved Moby Dick and this is his own take on the ideas Melville created. Obsession and what it can lead to with a unusual psychological angle.
April 2, 2008
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
I've mentioned here several times now, how it is that the literature I in particular grew up on was heavily dominated by so-called "Golden Age" science-fiction (or SF) -- authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and lots of others who first came into their own in the 1950s and '60s. This was a particularly special time for the SF genre, in fact, with many of its landmarks set to celebrate their 50th anniversaries in the coming years; a time not only when public interest in the genre was at its highest, not only when the US's real space program was at its frenziest, but also when many people considered the most exciting things in the arts to be coming out of the genre as well, with SF authors for example able to tackle such topics as religion, politics and identity in a way that mainstream literature simply could not.
Sadly, we're living in an age of history when most of the remaining golden-age SF authors are dying (in fact, Clarke himself sadly passed away a few weeks before this review was written); fortunately, though, not only is golden-age author Ray Bradbury still alive, but is one of the few writers from that period still publishing new work, certainly nothing that will be considered the best of his career but still highly readable and entertaining in many cases. 2007, for example, saw the issue of two "new" novellas, entitled "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" and "Leviathan '99," which are technically not actually "new" but are for sure getting their first original publishings in these forms in this particular manuscript. Because "Leviathan," actually, has been published in several different ways besides this novella one over the decades, including a screenplay and a novel and yet another screenplay (all of them inspired by Bradbury's adaptation of Moby Dick for director John Huston in the 1950s); according to his introduction, though, Bradbury has never been completely happy with any of the forms, which is why in the twilight of his life he decided to revisit the original novella they all came from, and finally get the story version into publishable shape. And then the other, "Somewhere a Band Is Playing," has never technically been published before at all, but is nonetheless a story that Bradbury has been working on for half a century (again, according to the introduction), something that he wanted to have reflect his magical childhood memories of briefly living in the pre-industrialized American Southwest, and that he simply thought was finally time to finish and publish after fifty years of tinkering (yeah, and you thought you were a procrastinating writer).
As you can tell, then, you need to be prepared for two very old-fashioned stories when you pick up Now And Forever, even with this being a new book of unpublished material; and as always with Bradbury, you also need to brace yourself for a precious, overly-written personal style, one that turns a lot of people off from the very start. Because that's the thing that's made Bradbury have such a weird relationship with the SF genre over the decades -- that in his best work, books like The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, he uses science-fiction to rein in his prose and ideas, to sharply focus them in a cold, modern environment so that they're at their most effective, while in a lot of his other work he has a tendency to wander into merely supernatural territory, and to couch the plots in schmaltz-laden nostalgic looks at overly delicate childhoods that never could've actually existed. (Confused? Think of Garrison Keillor writing a horror story. Or better yet, don't.) If you fall on the 'bleh' side of such audience splitters as Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes, you're bound not to like Now And Forever too much either; but like I said, I'm giving the book a few extra points today as well for merely existing. A man in Bradbury's position has every right to rest back on his laurels at this point in his life, and to simply bask in the glow of all the people who wish to rightly worship him; the fact that he's still working on and publishing new stories, still subjecting himself to the same potential random damning criticism as any other 27-year-old first-time-novelist schmuck, I think is something to be even more admired than his existing ouevre, the sign of a true artist who is truly passionate about his life and work.
Out of 10: 8.2
I've mentioned here several times now, how it is that the literature I in particular grew up on was heavily dominated by so-called "Golden Age" science-fiction (or SF) -- authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, and lots of others who first came into their own in the 1950s and '60s. This was a particularly special time for the SF genre, in fact, with many of its landmarks set to celebrate their 50th anniversaries in the coming years; a time not only when public interest in the genre was at its highest, not only when the US's real space program was at its frenziest, but also when many people considered the most exciting things in the arts to be coming out of the genre as well, with SF authors for example able to tackle such topics as religion, politics and identity in a way that mainstream literature simply could not.
Sadly, we're living in an age of history when most of the remaining golden-age SF authors are dying (in fact, Clarke himself sadly passed away a few weeks before this review was written); fortunately, though, not only is golden-age author Ray Bradbury still alive, but is one of the few writers from that period still publishing new work, certainly nothing that will be considered the best of his career but still highly readable and entertaining in many cases. 2007, for example, saw the issue of two "new" novellas, entitled "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" and "Leviathan '99," which are technically not actually "new" but are for sure getting their first original publishings in these forms in this particular manuscript. Because "Leviathan," actually, has been published in several different ways besides this novella one over the decades, including a screenplay and a novel and yet another screenplay (all of them inspired by Bradbury's adaptation of Moby Dick for director John Huston in the 1950s); according to his introduction, though, Bradbury has never been completely happy with any of the forms, which is why in the twilight of his life he decided to revisit the original novella they all came from, and finally get the story version into publishable shape. And then the other, "Somewhere a Band Is Playing," has never technically been published before at all, but is nonetheless a story that Bradbury has been working on for half a century (again, according to the introduction), something that he wanted to have reflect his magical childhood memories of briefly living in the pre-industrialized American Southwest, and that he simply thought was finally time to finish and publish after fifty years of tinkering (yeah, and you thought you were a procrastinating writer).
As you can tell, then, you need to be prepared for two very old-fashioned stories when you pick up Now And Forever, even with this being a new book of unpublished material; and as always with Bradbury, you also need to brace yourself for a precious, overly-written personal style, one that turns a lot of people off from the very start. Because that's the thing that's made Bradbury have such a weird relationship with the SF genre over the decades -- that in his best work, books like The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451, he uses science-fiction to rein in his prose and ideas, to sharply focus them in a cold, modern environment so that they're at their most effective, while in a lot of his other work he has a tendency to wander into merely supernatural territory, and to couch the plots in schmaltz-laden nostalgic looks at overly delicate childhoods that never could've actually existed. (Confused? Think of Garrison Keillor writing a horror story. Or better yet, don't.) If you fall on the 'bleh' side of such audience splitters as Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes, you're bound not to like Now And Forever too much either; but like I said, I'm giving the book a few extra points today as well for merely existing. A man in Bradbury's position has every right to rest back on his laurels at this point in his life, and to simply bask in the glow of all the people who wish to rightly worship him; the fact that he's still working on and publishing new stories, still subjecting himself to the same potential random damning criticism as any other 27-year-old first-time-novelist schmuck, I think is something to be even more admired than his existing ouevre, the sign of a true artist who is truly passionate about his life and work.
Out of 10: 8.2
May 22, 2018
To be honest, I was hoping to love this as much as "Something Wicked This Way Comes" or "The October Country". Oh well. However, I still enjoyed these two (vastly different) novelettes. Bradbury is such a master of whimsical nostalgia that he often has me yearning for a past I never even had.
November 2, 2007
NOW AND FOREVER: SOMEWHERE A BAND IS PLAYING & LEVIATHAN ’99 BY RAY BRADBURY: Now and Forever, the latest book from one of the best writers of our time, Ray Bradbury brings together two novellas that have never been published in book form before. While the two have little in common, they show two sides to Bradbury’s incredible imagination, giving you a taste of his greatness as a writer and story teller.
The first novella, Somewhere a Band is Playing, opens with the main character, James Cardiff, getting off a train that barely stops at a tiny station in the middle of nowhere. But there is something special about Summerton, Arizona that makes Cardiff immediately fall in love with it. As he enters the town and meets the first person, in the background is the quiet sound of a band playing. In Summerton Cardiff discovers a quiet peaceful place where one could settle down and feel very much at ease. But the longer he spends there, the more mysterious it becomes. He soon discovers that there are no children here, no one under twenty for that matter, that everyone is an adult, many of them old. Cardiff then notices that there are no schools; that it seems like there have never been any children here. Also that there are no hospitals or apparently any doctors, that people simply don’t get sick here. He finally finds the cemetery but discovers that it is little more than a prop, serving no purpose except to reassure visitors that it exists. Cardiff finally forces a confession out of the beautiful woman he has befriended who tells him what is going on and what is the true meaning behind Summerton, Arizona. It is a story that defies belief, and yet makes so much sense.
While the first novella is a masterpiece in its own way, the second, Leviathan ’99, is one also, but in a totally different manner. It is the year 2099 and the story is Moby-Dick, except characters names are different – of course, not Ishmael – and the ship does not travel across the ocean in search of a white whale, but across the darkness of space in search of the white meteor that has been plowing through galaxies. The characters of Captain Ahab and Queequeg exist here with different names and are also alien beings. Bradbury outdoes himself here by not only distilling the story of Moby-Dick into a hundred-page novella, but by perfectly imitating the pacing, language and feel of Moby-Dick in his story with the characters’ thoughts and actions.
Now and Forever is a collection of two incredible stories that serve as a perfect introduction to the greatness of Ray Bradbury, not just one of the greatest science fiction writers of our time, but one of the greatest story tellers.
The first novella, Somewhere a Band is Playing, opens with the main character, James Cardiff, getting off a train that barely stops at a tiny station in the middle of nowhere. But there is something special about Summerton, Arizona that makes Cardiff immediately fall in love with it. As he enters the town and meets the first person, in the background is the quiet sound of a band playing. In Summerton Cardiff discovers a quiet peaceful place where one could settle down and feel very much at ease. But the longer he spends there, the more mysterious it becomes. He soon discovers that there are no children here, no one under twenty for that matter, that everyone is an adult, many of them old. Cardiff then notices that there are no schools; that it seems like there have never been any children here. Also that there are no hospitals or apparently any doctors, that people simply don’t get sick here. He finally finds the cemetery but discovers that it is little more than a prop, serving no purpose except to reassure visitors that it exists. Cardiff finally forces a confession out of the beautiful woman he has befriended who tells him what is going on and what is the true meaning behind Summerton, Arizona. It is a story that defies belief, and yet makes so much sense.
While the first novella is a masterpiece in its own way, the second, Leviathan ’99, is one also, but in a totally different manner. It is the year 2099 and the story is Moby-Dick, except characters names are different – of course, not Ishmael – and the ship does not travel across the ocean in search of a white whale, but across the darkness of space in search of the white meteor that has been plowing through galaxies. The characters of Captain Ahab and Queequeg exist here with different names and are also alien beings. Bradbury outdoes himself here by not only distilling the story of Moby-Dick into a hundred-page novella, but by perfectly imitating the pacing, language and feel of Moby-Dick in his story with the characters’ thoughts and actions.
Now and Forever is a collection of two incredible stories that serve as a perfect introduction to the greatness of Ray Bradbury, not just one of the greatest science fiction writers of our time, but one of the greatest story tellers.
September 20, 2020
Bradbury gioca sempre le sue carte con enorme maestria. Che si tratti della paralisi della società vecchia e polverosa o dell'arroganza dell'uomo ebbro di potere. E poi il bisogno dell'altro e l'abbandono.
January 5, 2016
I guess Ray Bradbury and I do not get along. I really can't stand his writing; the best I can say about this book is that it was short. No wonder Something Wicked This Way Comes is one of only three books I couldn't get through, and the only one I attempted and failed to complete twice. The other two are Cryptonomicon and Moby-Dick. The second is a bit ironic because one of the two novellas in this book, Leviathan '99, is Bradbury's attempt to retell that tale in space using a rocket ship whose blind captain is chasing a white comet. That story was even worse than the first, Somewhere a Band is Playing, in which a young man encounters an odd place, although it's not clear exactly why went there, why the place is odd, or why the story is worth telling. The introduction makes it clear that the story was cobbled together from a number of disparate ideas Bradbury had floating around in his brain for decades, and unfortunately it shows.
I know this must be blasphemy, but my impression is that writing, and novels or short stories in particular, are just not Bradbury's medium. He seems more like a poet trapped in a screenwriter's body, and his literary pretensions and attempts to express his feelings poetically in writing overwhelm his ability to tell a story or otherwise communicate clearly. Neither of the stories in this book has much conflict, and it's often unclear what's going on. I suspect Bradbury does that intentionally to convey feeling, which is why I accuse him of being a poet instead of a writer.
I know this must be blasphemy, but my impression is that writing, and novels or short stories in particular, are just not Bradbury's medium. He seems more like a poet trapped in a screenwriter's body, and his literary pretensions and attempts to express his feelings poetically in writing overwhelm his ability to tell a story or otherwise communicate clearly. Neither of the stories in this book has much conflict, and it's often unclear what's going on. I suspect Bradbury does that intentionally to convey feeling, which is why I accuse him of being a poet instead of a writer.
June 11, 2013
I picked up this audiobook when I was still on my Ray Bradbury kick. Having read most of Bradbury's more prominent pieces, I decided to delve into a more obscure work of his.
Somewhere a Band Is Playing
An eerie short that follows a writer's compulsive journey to the mysterious town of Summerton, Arizona, in which he unearths a secret that the residents have kept hidden for ages. This short story just screams Bradbury -- it has all the typical elements. Spooky setting, unusual characters, and a sense of enchantment. For some reason though, I wasn't as enraptured with this story as I have been with his other works... although I did like it better than Leviathan '99. It just didn't seem to realize its full potential as a Bradbury piece.
Leviathan '99
A retelling of the classic Moby Dick, but in space! Pretty much exactly how you would imagine it. The captain of the spaceship is obsessed with chasing down the great white comet, which blinded him in one eye years ago. Somehow I've never read Moby Dick (I know, I know...), so I'm not able to compare the two, but regardless I didn't think this short story was anything special. Honestly, it read to me like sub-par fanfiction. I'm sad to say that about anything Ray Bradbury, but it really was just that.
All in all, disappointing for a Ray Bradbury novella but since I'm determined to read all his works, I suppose I can't complain too much. For those of you who want to read a Ray Bradbury sci-fi book, skip this one and go for The Martian Chronicles instead.
Somewhere a Band Is Playing
An eerie short that follows a writer's compulsive journey to the mysterious town of Summerton, Arizona, in which he unearths a secret that the residents have kept hidden for ages. This short story just screams Bradbury -- it has all the typical elements. Spooky setting, unusual characters, and a sense of enchantment. For some reason though, I wasn't as enraptured with this story as I have been with his other works... although I did like it better than Leviathan '99. It just didn't seem to realize its full potential as a Bradbury piece.
Leviathan '99
A retelling of the classic Moby Dick, but in space! Pretty much exactly how you would imagine it. The captain of the spaceship is obsessed with chasing down the great white comet, which blinded him in one eye years ago. Somehow I've never read Moby Dick (I know, I know...), so I'm not able to compare the two, but regardless I didn't think this short story was anything special. Honestly, it read to me like sub-par fanfiction. I'm sad to say that about anything Ray Bradbury, but it really was just that.
All in all, disappointing for a Ray Bradbury novella but since I'm determined to read all his works, I suppose I can't complain too much. For those of you who want to read a Ray Bradbury sci-fi book, skip this one and go for The Martian Chronicles instead.
July 31, 2017
This a book I read for the Powells SF group, to be discussed Tuesday Sept 11th at 8pm. There were two novellas in this book. The first was very pretty but pointless and stupid. The second was apparently a rewrite of Moby Dick in space but with a comet as a white whale. I have never seen a Moby Dick movie nor have I read Moby Dick the book. And after this short story I'm even less likely to do either.
I have to admit that I'm against the idea of liking a literary sf writer - a writer recognized by the wider community but not nearly as much within general sf. Perhaps it is because Bradbury concentrated in Hollywood.
Suffice to say I read Fahrenheit 451 (and saw the movie) and thought it worthwhile. I read the Illustrated Man and thought it good. And I have vague recollections of the Martian Chronicles (unimpressed). And I've not seen any reason to go out of my way to read Bradbury.
This is clearly not an author for me - and based on these two stories, not an author I'd recommend to anyone.
I have to admit that I'm against the idea of liking a literary sf writer - a writer recognized by the wider community but not nearly as much within general sf. Perhaps it is because Bradbury concentrated in Hollywood.
Suffice to say I read Fahrenheit 451 (and saw the movie) and thought it worthwhile. I read the Illustrated Man and thought it good. And I have vague recollections of the Martian Chronicles (unimpressed). And I've not seen any reason to go out of my way to read Bradbury.
This is clearly not an author for me - and based on these two stories, not an author I'd recommend to anyone.
February 6, 2013
Somewhere a Band is Playing: A whimsical little novella that hooks you with plenty of questions from the get-go. What's up with this weird town called Summerton, AZ? Who's this sexy young/old lady with an Egyptian name? Where are all the children? How come nobody in the town is aging? There is, of course, a Twilight Zone-y twist that you anticipate early on (there must be some reason things are weird in this town), but the story holds you and the big revelation at the end is more satisfyingly and magically Bradburian (<---word?) than you might expect. This is by far the stronger of the two novellas in this collection.
Leviathan '99: In the introduction to this novella Bradbury says that he has been trying since the '50s to get this Space Age retelling of Moby Dick right. I think (and no offense to the venerable and lately deceased Bradbury) that our favorite horn-rimmed sci-fi writer should have scrapped this one a long time ago (sample dialogue: "Damn! I'm not used to speaking to telepaths!"). Bradbury at his most melodramatic.
Leviathan '99: In the introduction to this novella Bradbury says that he has been trying since the '50s to get this Space Age retelling of Moby Dick right. I think (and no offense to the venerable and lately deceased Bradbury) that our favorite horn-rimmed sci-fi writer should have scrapped this one a long time ago (sample dialogue: "Damn! I'm not used to speaking to telepaths!"). Bradbury at his most melodramatic.
November 19, 2015
Dos novelas cortas, absolutamente distintas entre sí. Dos comentarios, dos calificaciones.
"En algún lugar toca una banda...". Una joya. Un texto entrañable. Por momentos se me antojó un Pedro Páramo norteamericano. Construido a partir de piezas que Bradbury fue gestando a través de varios años, el resultado es de un tinte poético genial.
"Leviatán 99". Un homenaje a Melville y su ballena blanca. Un texto que, según narra el propio Bradbury en una nota introductoria, es producto de múltiples revisiones. Y como el mismo autor apunta, toca al lector juzgar si el resultado merece la pena. En mi opinión, el esfuerzo es interesante pero el resultado es disparejo: entretenido, pero lejos de los momentos de genialidad que el escritor ha mostrado en buena parte de su obra.
5 estrellas al primero, 3 al segundo. 4 en promedio. Lo cierto es que, como sucede con los grandes artistas, incluso la menos buena de sus obras es mejor que muchas de las cosas que arrojan tantos mercenarios al mercado (en este caso, de las letras).
"En algún lugar toca una banda...". Una joya. Un texto entrañable. Por momentos se me antojó un Pedro Páramo norteamericano. Construido a partir de piezas que Bradbury fue gestando a través de varios años, el resultado es de un tinte poético genial.
"Leviatán 99". Un homenaje a Melville y su ballena blanca. Un texto que, según narra el propio Bradbury en una nota introductoria, es producto de múltiples revisiones. Y como el mismo autor apunta, toca al lector juzgar si el resultado merece la pena. En mi opinión, el esfuerzo es interesante pero el resultado es disparejo: entretenido, pero lejos de los momentos de genialidad que el escritor ha mostrado en buena parte de su obra.
5 estrellas al primero, 3 al segundo. 4 en promedio. Lo cierto es que, como sucede con los grandes artistas, incluso la menos buena de sus obras es mejor que muchas de las cosas que arrojan tantos mercenarios al mercado (en este caso, de las letras).
September 26, 2022
The first story was quite suspenseful, mysterious, and interesting. I was a tad annoyed at being confused about the ultimate fate of McCoy. If anyone reading this could explain that, I would be grateful. My impression was that he was rescued in the end, but it doesn't make sense to me that the character of McCoy would just leave the mystery alone afterward. It felt like a loose end that went unaddressed. The main story was connected to an exceptionally beautiful and inspiring poem -- surprising because, while I love Bradbury's stories, his poetry is not for me normally. This is a wonderful poem however.
I found the second story really quite tedious although the character of Quell and his friendship with Ishmael was interesting.
I found the second story really quite tedious although the character of Quell and his friendship with Ishmael was interesting.
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