The Golden Apples of the Sun

by Ray Bradbury

The Golden Apples of the Sun is a collection of 32 of the most famous short stories by Ray Bradbury. It is named after W.B. Yeats' poem The Song of Wandering Aengus, the last stanza of which reads: "Tho I am old with wandering/Thru hollow lands & hilly lands,/I will find out where she has gone/& kiss her lips & take her hands;/& walk among long dappled grass,/
& pluck till time & times are done/The silver apples of the moon,/The golden apples of the sun."

The book was originally published in '53 with 22 stories. An semi-omnibus edition of the '53 collection & R is for Rocket was published in '90 by Bantam Books as Classic Stories 1, which omitted four stories from Golden Apples of the Sun & one from R is for Rocket. The 3rd printing of Classic Stories 1 ('95) restored the title story from Golden Apples of the Sun. In '97, the contents of the 3rd printing of Classic Stories 1 were retitled Golden Apples of the Sun & published by Avon. The book is currently published under the title A Sound of Thunder & Other Stories ('05).
Contents of 1953 edition:
'52 The Fog Horn
'51 The Pedestrian
'51 The April Witch
'52 The Wilderness
'48 The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl
'45 Invisible Boy
'53 The Flying Machine
'53 The Murderer
'53 The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind
'47 I See You Never
'51 Embroidery
'45 The Big Black & White Game
'52 A Sound of Thunder
'53 The Great Wide World Over There
'48 Powerhouse
'52 En La Noche
'53 Sun & Shadow
'47 The Meadow
'53 The Garbage Collector
'49 The Great Fire
'53 Hail & Farewell
'53 The Golden Apples of the Sun

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Classics, Horror, Science Fiction Fantasy

169 pages, Paperback

First published March 19, 1953

About the author

Ray 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".

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goodbye Ray Bradbury. He was the first author I loved, he was a natural for me with his heart on his sleeve and his absolute belief in the power of words and the religion of wonder. His brilliant restless short stories set off puffballs of astonishment in my brain, I slept on Mars and woke up in Green Town, I grew giant mushrooms for fun and profit and I was the illuminated boy, Ray Bradbury illuminated me with death, calliopes, mechanical houses, ice cream suits, towns where no one got off, dwarves, old women, winds which knew your name and carousels which drove screechingly backwards. He was outrageously sentimental (Icarus Montgolfier Wright, The April Witch, The Strawberry Window, Dandelion Wine and no one could get away with that kind of stuff) but seriously weird too (The Man Upstairs, Skeleton, Fever Dream). He had moods, he had ideas, he could stop your heart (The Big Black and White Game, Zero Hour, The Emissary). And this was all stuff I was getting for the first time - what happens when you tread on a butterfly in the Jurassic Age, what happens when we go to Mars, what happens when you need to make sure you haven't left any fingerprints after a murder (you get caught by the police as you're polishing the fruit at the bottom of the fruitbowl). You could almost eat the weather in his stories. The old Corgi paperback editions compounded the joy by having the exact right artwork on the front






Even Penguin came up with a beauty for The Day it Rained Forever.





Of course when I grew up some more I laid aside Ray Bradbury. Physically, that is. He never left the internal choir which sings and converses in my internal ear.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una extraña criatura marina visita un faro como cada noche, una vez por año.
Un peatón en el año 2052 desafía a la soledad por la noche.
Una niña bruja usurpa el cuerpo de una muchacha y enfrenta el peligro de enamorarse.
Un asesino de obsesiona en borrar las huellas de su crimen al estilo de "El corazón delator" de Edgar Allan Poe.
La amistad entre un niño que se cree invisible y una vieja que se hace pasar por bruja.
Un emperador chino encuentra a un hombre y su artefacto volador.
Un asesino de artefactos tecnológicos. Cuento en 1953 anticipa la adicción de hoy a los celulares y el WhatsApp.
Un mandarín hace cambiar las murallas de su ciudad al estilo del juego "Piedra, papel y tijeras".
Mujeres bordando en el instante previo a una hecatombe nuclear.
Un partido de béisbol entre blancos y negros.
Un cazador viaja al pasado a matar dinosaurios y cambia el futuro.
La obsesión de una mujer aislada del mundo que no sabe escribir.
Una mujer sin fe atraviesa una experiencia mística en una fábrica abandonada.
Los quejidos de una mujer enloquecida ponen en vilo a todos los vecinos de un edificio.
Un recolector de residuos enfrenta un atroz e inquietante cambio en su trabajo.
Un hombre humilde resguarda su intimidad contra de fotógrafos indiscretos.
Willie, un niño de cuarenta años cuyo trabajo es reconfortar a matrimonios sin hijos.
El capitán de una nave espacial que se empecina en llegar hasta el sol.

Todos estos cuentos demuestran la versatilidad de estilos que Ray Bradbury le puede dar a sus libros de cuentos y que no siempre puede ser la ciencia ficción el tema excluyente.
En estos relatos el viejo Ray expone el costado humano de sus personajes, narrando con tonos altamente poéticos, por momentos o invitándonos a una reflexión acerca de cómo podemos alterar nuestro destino y nuestro futuro.
Algunos de estos cuentos son de una factura impecable como "El asesino", "El basurero", "La sirena", "La fruta en el fondo del tazón" o "El ruido del trueno".
Todos ellos, a partir de parábolas chinas, relatos policiales o historias fantásticas revelan una enseñanza, una reflexión o un mensaje ante los cuales detenernos a pensar.
Creo que ese ha sido siempre el objetivo de este escritor tan maravilloso que se llamó Ray Bradbury.

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury is a collection of short stories first published in 1953 with 22 short stories.

Published again in 1997, this later edition contains the original stories as well as 10 more previously released stories by the Grand Master. These stories serve as a representative sample of Bradbury’s unique and far ranging talent, blending elements of several genres into a cohesive universe of speculative fiction, as well as a demonstration of his mastery of the short fiction vehicle.

The reader will enjoy elements of science fiction, fantasy and Bradbury’s distinct perspective on American literature, and all illuminated by his incomparable imagination.

Many stories stand out as exceptional, perhaps especially the novelette “Frost and Fire” as speculative fiction at it’s best, standing by itself as an entertaining story but also working as allegory for larger truths and observances.

Bradbury's influence on literature is evident and writers such as Richard Matheson, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King and Neil Gaiman seem clearly to have drawn inspiration.

[Kerri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find short story collections difficult to review, especially ones like this, where there were many stories (22) all brief enough that a sentence long description would give away pretty much everything that happens!

So I'll stick to some more general observations. I read one or two stories from this each day, and quickly found myself looking forward to the time when I would be reading the next one -- yesterday I abandoned my pacing and read four in one go. One of my favourites was 'The Murderer' which felt incredibly relevant, given our dependence on our phones (not everyone of course, but most).
'The Fruit At The Bottom Of The Bowl' was another standout. But even as I write that, I have to admit all of the stories were. I really liked them all!

What impressed me most was how within the space of just a few pages I was so involved in each story, completely on board with whatever was happening. I was quite sad when I got the end of the book just now, but am pleased that I have finally begun reading Ray Bradbury, and that I have many more books of his to find and read.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

How does one review a book of tiny short stories? Do I describe the stories individually? Or do I just mention a couple favorites, like the one about the last dinosaur and the lighthouse, or the pedestrian, or The Sound of Thunder, the time travel story that everyone knows even if they don't know the name of?

I'm one of the few people that didn't have to read Fahrenheit 451 in school so the only exposure I had to Ray Bradbury before this was issues of Tales from the Crypt where they adapted his stories. Bradbury's got a quaint sort of writing style and most of his tales have that bite you in ass ending. He knows how to tell a short story without letting it get too wordy. 22 stories in 169 pages is impressive. Not all of them are gems but there are more gems than bits of broken glass in this collection, that's for sure.

[Paula Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

#lerosclássicos

“Algo, em Berty, pegava primeiro no desgosto, travava conhecimento com ele, examinava todos os seus pormenores, antes de transmitir a mensagem à totalidade do corpo expectante. O corpo possuía uma fé que era como um labirinto, e o desgosto que o atingia perdia-se e partia até que, por fim, chegava onde o queria ferir. Às vezes, aquela fé provocava-lhe a ela uma fúria insensata, da qual recuperava com rapidez, sabendo que era inútil criticar algo como um caroço num pêssego."
- O Grande e Vasto Mundo Lá Fora

Se mais autores de ficção-científica e fantasia tivessem a verve de Ray Bradbury, talvez eu já me tivesse convertido a esses géneros literários. Em "As Maçãs Douradas do Sol", Bradbury salta entre contos realistas, de fantasia e de ficção-científica com uma naturalidade extraordinária, conseguindo criar mundos e delinear personagens em poucos parágrafos. Desta colectânea, destaco “A Máquina Voadora”, “O Bordado”, “O Grande e Vasto Mundo Lá Fora”, “A Central Eléctrica”, “O Som de um Trovão”, que têm passagens que são verdadeira poesia.

“Ela contemplou um fogo, quase ao retardador, apanhar a casa bordada e desmanchá-la, e puxar cada folha bordada da arvorezinha do topo, e viu o próprio sol ser rasgado do desenho. Depois, o fogo apanhou o movente ponto da agulha, enquanto esta ainda dardejava, a mulher observou o fogo a subir pelos seus dedos e braços e corpo, desmanchando o fio do seu ser, tão dolorosamente que conseguiu vê-lo em toda diabólica beleza, arrancando o desenho da matéria.
- O Bordado

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Bradbury got the title from last line of this poem...

 

THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS

by: W.B. Yeats

WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
 
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.
 
When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.
 
Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

'The Song of Wandering Aengus' is reprinted from An Anthology of Modern Verse. Ed. A. Methuen. London: Methuen & Co., 1921.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twenty two short stories in my edition, some with powerful themes—extinction (The Fog Horn), feminism (The Wilderness), the nefarious appropriation of technology (The Flying Machine), Neo-Luddism (The Murderer), the Cold War arms race (The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind), immigration and deportation (I See You Never), and racism (The Big Black and White Game)—just to name a few.

If I had a Mount Rushmore of science fiction I would sculpt the likenesses of Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon, and Harlan Ellison—in that order.

[مسیح بی شفا · Rating 4 out of 5]

چه صفحه‌های غریبی، چه کلمات عمیقی.
خود داستان شرکت سهامی آدم‌های مصنوعی، به نظر من زیبا ترین داستان این کتاب بود، و قطعا کتابی نیست که بخوایم ساده و بدون فکر ازش بگذریم

[Johann (jobis89) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Always a pleasure to spend some time with the imagination of Ray Bradbury.

[notgettingenough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bradbury on the sea:

"One day many years ago a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said "We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I'll make one. I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like the trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I'll make a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and to all who hear it in the distant towns. I'll make me a sound and an apparatus and they'll call it a Fog Horn and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life."

And although he writes of a beast of a hundred miles and a million years below who comes to the horn, to love it, I recalled it as I grew older as a whale and with this one story as child I was able to be horrified by the terrible, terrible things we do to the sea and its inhabitants. Does that matter? I think so. If everybody in the world had read this story as a child, we'd treat those things with the care and respect they deserve.

I cannot begin to say how wrong the people are who think that Ray Bradbury doesn't count, that he is for some period where we believed in things that we don't any more. He makes things important without proseltysing. It was a story about something that can't even exist and yet!

Bradbury explained his influence on kids like me thus:

Do you know why teachers use me? Because I speak in tongues. I write metaphors. Every one of my stories is a metaphor you can remember. The great religions are all metaphor. We appreciate things like Daniel and the lion’s den, and the Tower of Babel. People remember these metaphors because they are so vivid you can’t get free of them and that’s what kids like in school. They read about rocket ships and encounters in space, tales of dinosaurs. All my life I’ve been running through the fields and picking up bright objects. I turn one over and say, Yeah, there’s a story. And that’s what kids like. Today, my stories are in a thousand anthologies. And I’m in good company. The other writers are quite often dead people who wrote in metaphors: Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne. All these people wrote for children. They may have pretended not to, but they did.

Sorry. I want to say how amazing he is, again! He IS!!!

[Pedro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hay cuentos muy buenos en esta colección, otros no tanto.

Mi favoritos son el primero y el último: La sirena y Las doradas manzanas del sol. Ambos, por sí solos, merecerían un 5 rotundo. Están muy bien construidos, y son de una belleza lírica que da gusto leerla y regodearse en ella.

Mención especial para El basurero, pienso que se merece un 4.5, quizás un poco más.

Otros que me parecieron buenos, a los que les pondría un 4: El asesino, El ruido de un trueno y El prado.

El resto de las historias no me cautivó lo suficiente, y aclaro con esto que ninguna me pareció mala.

[carlos carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bradbury es garantía.

[Tecilli Tapia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury es uno de mis autores predilectos, me gusta ponerme a filosofar con sus palabras.
Hace tiempo, leí un cuento que me encantó El ruido del trueno y por eso, leí este libro, hay cuentos excelentes y otros regulares, pero ninguno es malo, recomiendo la lectura de este libro.
Mi calificación (el promedio de la calificación de todos los cuentos) es: 3.76

[Carol Mola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encantaron el relato del efecto mariposa y el de las tecnologías de comunicación, entre muchos otros. Ciencia ficción de esa escrita el siglo pasado, que aún toca a día de hoy.

[Joy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of thirty-three short stories includes an assortment of science fiction, fantasy, and realism. As in most of these types of collections, I liked some stories more than others. One of my favorites is The Murderer (which is not about murder). It is about a man who is annoyed by the intrusion of electronic devices. It includes a wrist radio, which is similar in concept to the modern cell phone and was written in 1953. The protagonist questions the value of these technological advances and has taken to destroying them. I can only imagine what he would have thought of today’s social media! Another favorite is Frost and Fire, which tells of a civilization in which people live an entire lifetime in eight days. Overall, I found this collection well-written and creative, and particularly enjoyed the science fiction entries.

The Foghorn – 3 stars
The April Witch – 3
The Wilderness – 3.5
The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl – 3.5
The Flying Machine – 3
The Murderer – 5
The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind – 3
I See You Never –3
Embroidery – 2
The Big Black and White Game – 1
The Great Wide World Over There – 3
Powerhouse – 4
En la Noche – 3.5
Sun and Shadow – 4
The Meadow – 3
The Garbage Collector – 3
The Great Fire – 3
Hail and Farewell – 3
The Golden Apples of the Sun – 4
R is for Rocket – 4
The End of the Beginning – 4
The Rocket – 4
The Rocket Man – 4
A Sound of Thunder – 3.5
The Long Rain – 4
The Exiles – 4
Here There Be Tygers – 2
The Strawberry Window – 3
The Dragon – 3.5
Frost and Fire – 5
Uncle Einar – 4
The Time Machine – 3.5
The Sound of Summer Running – 3.5

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good mix of fiction, SF, light horror, and (urban, today) fantasy, harkening back to a time when we all could be a little sheltered form the harsher realities.

The Fog Horn (1951)
The Pedestrian (1951)
The April Witch [The Elliott Family] (1952)
The Wilderness [The Martian Chronicles] (1952)
The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl non-genre (1948)
Invisible Boy (1945)
The Flying Machine (1953)
The Murderer (1953)
The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind (1953)
I See You Never non-genre (1947)
Embroidery (1951)
The Big Black and White Game (1945)
A Sound of Thunder (1952)
The Great Wide World Over There (1952)
Powerhouse (1948)
En la Noche (1952)
Sun and Shadow non-genre (1953)
The Meadow (1953)
The Garbage Collector (1953)
The Great Fire [Green Town] (1949)
Hail and Farewell (1953)
The Golden Apples of the Sun

[Michael Jandrok · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The Golden Apples of the Sun” is a collection of Ray Bradbury’s short stories, first published in hardback and then republished for mass consumption in a lovely series of paperbacks distributed by Bantam Books in the early 1970s. There were a number of these collections floating around, and I have many, many fond memories of these Bantam editions. For starters, they had catchy cover art that captured my imagination as a young reader. The paperbacks also kept the beautiful story header line drawings by artist Joe Mugnaini, a longtime Bradbury collaborator. Each reissue had around 20 or so stories in them, split about evenly between Bradbury’s science fiction and his non-genre writing.

Bradbury’s science-fiction was not “hard” science fiction in any sense. He had no education in the sciences, but loved the romance and excitement of the space program and enlightenment in general. As such, his sci-fi work is more grounded in fantasy, evoking the humanity of his characters and their motivations rather than highlighting technical details. His non-genre prose was often based on autobiographical incidents and was definitely rooted in a bygone era of life in the United States. He peopled his stories with strong men and women, carving out personalities with great care and supple descriptions. He was a writer ahead of his time in many ways, advocating for a number of what we nowadays refer to as “progressive principles.” His take on race relations was nuanced and sensitive and his outlook on women as fully developed characters was unusual for it’s time. He was not afraid to tackle social issues such as immigration or racism.

And of course you get the traditional Bradbury writing form. The man could bend words in such beautifully poetic prose to the point where I could go back and reread whole sections for nothing more than the sheer appreciation of the wordsmithing. To witness:

"There was a great insect humming all through the air. It sang in a ceaseless, bumbling tone, rising a bit, perhaps falling just a bit, but keeping the same pitch. Like a woman humming between pressed lips as she makes a meal in the warm twilight over a hot stove. They could see no movement within the building; there was only the gigantic humming. It was the sort of noise you would expect the sun-shimmer to make rising from hot railroad ties on a blazing summer day, when there is that flurried silence and you see the air eddy and whorl and ribbon, and expect a sound from the process but get nothing but an arched tautness of the eardrums and the tense quiet." --- from the short story “Powerhouse”, included in this collection.

Now THAT, kids, is a man who knows his way around the language, pure and distilled down to its beautific essence. I remember having an English teacher in the 8th grade who just loved Ray Bradbury. She would read to the class from his stories in enraptured glee, trying to engage the love of metaphor, the appreciation of style and quality and vocabulary. It was lost on most of the kids, but not me. I had been reading Bradbury for a few years at that point. Sometimes I would stay after class and discuss our shared love of the stories, finding a common ground and reveling in the joy of language as an art form.

“The Fog Horn” - A ancient and lonely sea monster mistakes the sound of a lighthouse fog horn for a cry of love. What manner of heartbreak awaits the lovelorn?

“The Pedestrian” - Dystopic tale set mid-21st century. Decent enough, even if it covers familiar ground.

“The April Witch” - One of my favorite stories in the collection. An isolated young witch travels out of body to seek the secrets of human love. She gets more than she bargained for.

“The Wilderness” - A tale of anticipation and excitement, as the exodus to Mars takes on a corollary to the wagon trains of the Old West. Brimming with all sorts of that poetic Bradbury magic.

“The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl” - Murder and obsession do not make for a good combination. One of Bradbury’s forays into the suspense story.

“Invisible Boy” - A powerless witch learns the art of deception is not all it’s cracked up to be. Comedic moments lead to a wistful ending. Fun story.

“The Flying Machine” - Perhaps the most chilling story in the book, though it trades in no supernatural or science-fiction tropes. It’s a fable for our times….all we have to fear is fear itself.

“The Murderer” - Another prescient tale, as a man who is inundated by technology rebels against the system in a quest for peace and quiet. Bonus points for Bradbury’s spot-on prediction of wrist phones, and the endless drone of the “connected”.

“The Golden Kite, The Silver Wind” - Another fable with an Oriental perspective, unusual pacing since “The Flying Machine” was only two stories ago in this collection and had a similar style. Note to editors everywhere: placement is important. Anyway, good story with a fine moral: working together beats working at odds and working oneself into the grave to do it. Probably not in line with current capitalist/individualist theory, and that’s just fine with me.

“I See You Never” - Non sci-fi. Another eerily prescient little riff, this time concerning a model tenant being shipped back to Mexico because he overstayed his work visa. Could have been written yesterday.

“Embroidery” - There is anecdotal evidence that some number of the scientists who developed the first atomic bomb had calculated and believed that there was a significant chance that the detonation would ignite the atmosphere and kill all life on Earth. The decision was made to go ahead with the test anyway.

“The Big Black and White Game” - Non sci-fi. Supposedly based on a real-life experience Bradbury had as a child on a family vacation to Wisconsin. Copyrighted in 1945, two years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. This is a story with strong racial overtones, as the white residents of a small Wisconsin town take on a team of black players from the same region. As one might expect, troubles brew up, and the game ends in riotous disarray. A powerful story, a relic of it’s time. One can only wonder what white readers thought of this clearly progressive take on race relations circa the mid-1940s. As usual, Bradbury was far ahead of his time as he puts a very human face on a turbulent topic.

“A Sound of Thunder” - So if a singular butterfly flapping its wings in Africa can cause a hurricane in North America, imagine what the consequences would be of silencing a singular butterfly’s flapping some 65 million years ago………

“The Great Wide World Over There” - Non sci-fi. Mail service comes to rural Missouri in this bittersweet story of a woman who discovers the world through the magic of her mailbox, and then loses it forever.

“Powerhouse” - Non sci-fi. An unexpected stopover at an abandoned power generating station provides for a consciousness-expanding episode.

“En La Noche” - Non sci-fi. A wailing woman keeps the inhabitants of a tenement up at all hours, until a brave married man makes a sacrifice of fidelity in order to secure peace and quiet for all. Kinda racy for Bradbury, especially given the era it was written in.

“Sun and Shadow” - Non sci-fi. A humorous tale of pride and heritage. What do we own if not ourselves?

“The Meadow” - Non sci-fi. The ghosts of an old movie lot about to be demolished rear their heads one last time. Great story that wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve.

“The Garbage Collector” - Who gets the task of picking up and disposing of the bodies post-apocalypse?

“The Great Fire” - Non sci-fi. One of Bradbury’s comedic and sweet slice-of-life tales follows a flirtatious young girl staying with her family and burning with the fires of young love. Or maybe NOT love.

“Hail and Farewell” - A tale of a man cursed with eternal youth. Sounds like fun, but the reality is much different.

“The Golden Apples of the Sun” - You have to remember that Bradbury did not write “hard” science-fiction. His vision was more poetic, more mythological. Fine story…..but suspend your disbelief.

I can't recommend these stories enough. And I'd also recommend seeking out the Bantam paperback editions. You will get a feel for the pulpy paper, the vivid line drawings, the joy of thumbing through a cheap paperback found on a twenty-five cent shelf in some forgotten resale shop somewhere. Read, appreciate, enjoy.

[Luciana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy buena recopilación de cuentos sobre temas variados. Mis recomendados son: "El peatón", "La fruta en el fondo del tazón", "El asesino", "El mundo allá lejos" y "La fábrica". Bradbury siempre recomendado :)

[Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to rate my own review 2 stars, because I know what I have to say. A year ago I read and reviewed The October Country, another book of short stories, and commented that I should have read it years earlier. For this one, that's even more painfully true. In my 20s I would have loved it and now would have the memories of that. As it is, well, Bradbury still writes wonderfully but his streak of sentimental nostalgia stands out like the summer's first ice cream cone accidentally dropped on the hot sidewalk and now irretrievably melting into nothing but a sticky liquid of disappointment. (Or something.) Also, his gift for lyrical descriptions of nature is evident, a cool summer wind felt on a back porch at night, the soft music of a backwoods creek, the crunch of gravel beneath the shoes of boys running. He does this effortlessly, as well as anyone ever; it's just, he leans on it alot. A few decades ago I would have either not noticed as much or not been bothered. But then maybe we have an instinct for gateway authors, mine was Richard Matheson, whose stories I have revisited in subsequent decades and have continued to revere. Also I did read Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in those formative years and loved it.

Anyway, included here are two all-time classics, both with dinosaurs! The justly famous A Sound of Thunder, which I had read before, and which is still as good an explanation as any for the 2016 election. And the lovely, poignant The Fog Horn, about a lonely solitary dinosaur that mistakes a fog horn for the call of its mate. There are several non-genre stories about small town life, some of these are so slight they're just vignettes really. But one of these is excellent, The Big Black and White Game, about a baseball game in a small Ohio town between a team of Black players and a team of white players. I braced for something on-the-nose, but in fact this is a subtle, humorous story that is quite nuanced in its observation of various levels of racism. One story, The Wilderness, exemplifies Bradbury's gifts and limitations. Two women are having their last night in a small town before leaving on a spaceship to join their husbands on Mars. The writing is beautifully understated, capturing a slightly foreboding atmosphere that is equal parts expectant, resentful, somber, and hopeful. But you get to the end of the story and the message is that men will always be going off on adventures, and women will loyally uproot themselves and follow. I try to avoid grafting current sensibilities onto older stories, it can be so reductive, but I couldn't help wonder how Bradbury's imagination could conjure so many wondrous things and yet fail to foresee that half the human race might someday be more than helpful appendages to the other half, maybe even piloting some of those spaceships.

[Alaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is like my third book by Ray? I'm not sure but so far I've enjoyed them all.

The Golden Apples of the Sun is a book filled with short stories. Sometimes they work for me and other times they don't. For some odd reason, I don't always mesh with novellas or short stories. Especially if they are in a series. Not sure why that happens but it does.

Luckily for me, it worked this time around. Maybe it's because I just haven't read that much by this author but I will just go with the flow. That being said, out of the stories within this I think I have a few that I liked a bit more than the others. The Murderer was probably hands down my favorite because it just felt so realistic. We are so freaking dependent on our phones because they are basically our life lines to people that we don't see every day. Especially now during this pandemic.

I'll be honest, my phone is always by my side. I text my family and friends every day. Heck, even my coworkers who I haven't seen since March. While I don't miss seeing them face to face.. I can definitely get by with just texting them every once in a while.

In the end, I enjoyed this book and look forward to my next one by Ray.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sigh. GR Librarians strike AGAIN. The below review was for a short story from this compilation, read by LeVar Burton on his podcast. This was before I was noting the name of the story, in anticipation of the GR Librarian Evil doing just this thing, so who knows what story this is for.

Haven’t read entire book yet, but it’s moved up my TBR since the GR Librarians have decided in their infinite glory to be evil, AGAIN. Or should I say STILL?

Sheesh. LEAVE OUR REVIEWS ALONE! ITS NOT HURTING ANYBODY TO HAVE REVIEWS FOR LEGIT SHORT STORIES!

End rant.

I love Bradbury, but this one was too depressing for me. Also, MC was kinda dumb. Her nephew can't visit again and TEACH her to do what she wanted to learn? There was no teacher where she lived, no one in her area knew how to do those two things? I'm calling shenanigans on this one.

Listened to Levar Burton reading this on his podcast. That helped it get a slightly higher rating I think.

3 solid stars. I need to re-read the Bradbury I have. He's such a great writer, even when depressing.

[Abolfazl Nasri · Rating 3 out of 5]

لازار پیش بیایید ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
آژیر ⭐️⭐️
کابوس در حارماجدون ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
مکافات بدون جنایت ⭐️
شرکت سهامی آدم‌های مصنوعی ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
یک تکه چوب ⭐️⭐️⭐️
شیشه آبی ⭐️⭐️
برای همیشه زمین ⭐️⭐️⭐️
میوه‌های طلایی خورشید ⭐️⭐️

[Saige · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury you guys. He rules. RULES. Every single story in here has vision, and heart, and just plain fantastic writing. I love the way he leaves stories open to ambiguous endings and lets readers decide for themselves what happens to the characters after the few pages of their lives that we get to see. I love reading his female characters. They're always more layered and multi-dimensional than a lot of male authors, particularly old ones. But out of all the stories in this book, I think "The Pedestrian" was my favorite. It has all the haunting, futuristic warning that he worked into Fahrenheit 451, and it's only 3 pages long. I'm amazed by how much Bradbury can convey so succinctly.

[دانیال بهزادی · Rating 4 out of 5]

‫ مجموعهٔ داستان کوتاه.

‫به نظرم باید قانونی بگذارن که ناشرها، موقع انتشار مجموعهٔ داستان‌های کوتاه، ملزم باشن که این عبارت رو روی جلد کتاب قید کنن. من این کتاب رو به عنوان یک داستان بلند خریدم و خب بعد از اتمام فصل نخست، در حالی که با هیجان منتظر بودم ببینم چه اتّفاقی در ادامه خواهد افتاد، این حقیقت مثل پتک توی سرم خورد! بگذریم…

‫بهترین داستان‌های این مجموعه مکافات بدون جنایت و شرکت سهامی آدم‌های مصنوعی بودن که هر دو در یک کیهان قرار داشتند. یک تکّه چوب هم داستان ضدجنگ و زیبایی بود.

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Son veintidós relatos cortos para mi, hermosos. Te invitan a soñar pero a la vez estimula a la reflexión de nuestras costumbres y actitudes cotidianas.
Alguien me preguntó una vez ¿Por qué lees que cuentos de ciencia ficción ?
Leo para alimentar y ejercitar la capacidad que tenemos desde niños a imaginar, ahora de grandes podemos usarla para crear lo que todavía no se hizo.
En fin ... excelente libro.

[Encarni Prados · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obvio es decir que Bradbury tenía una gran imaginación y aquí queda claramente demostrado con este libro de relatos. Historias de todo tipo, unas que me han gustado mucho, otras un poco menos, lo normal que suele ocurrir cuando lees una recopilación de relatos. Lo que queda clarísimo es que Bradbury era un gran contador de historias y recomiendo este libro a los amantes de la ciencia-ficción.

[Théo · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai déjà lu quelques livres de Ray Bradbury, qui ont (plus ou moins) tous été des claques, des excellents moments de lecture. Cet auteur est pour moi la plus importante découverte livresque de cette année 2020, et je ne suis que joie à chaque fois que je décide de me lancer dans un de ses romans ou recueils de nouvelles.

"Les Pommes d'or du soleil" avaient donc une sérieuse attente de ma part, et je plaçais la barre très haut en entamant ce recueil de 22 nouvelles. Et si, au final, je trouve que ce livre est le "moins excellent" des 4 que j'ai lu, c'est parce que je suis très exigeant avec cet auteur, vu que je connais sa capacité à me transcender et à m'éblouir.

Ici, et contrairement à "L'Homme Illustré" et aux "Chroniques Martiennes", les nouvelles n'ont aucuns liens entre elles. Si je peux donner un conseil, c'est de ne pas engloutir le recueil ; je pense qu'il est mieux de digérer chaque nouvelle afin d'en apprécier pleinement la saveur, car les tableaux que nous décrit Bradbury sont très différents à chaque fois.

L'auteur aborde énormément de thèmes et de genres dans son livre, encore plus que dans ses précédents. On retrouve du fantastique ("la Corne du brume", "La Sorcière d'avril"), de la dystopie/sf ("Le Promeneur", "Un coup de tonnerre"), et des petites pastiches pleines d'humour ("Côté ombre, côté soleil", "Le Grand Incendie").
Mais il innove aussi, avec notamment une nouvelle policière, "Les fruits du fond de la coupe", qui s'est révélé hyper original et psychologique. Bradbury a exploré le genre du polar dans sa carriere, et j'ai hâte de lire plus de nouvelles de ce style chez lui.

Pour moi, ce qui a fait que ce recueil n'était pas un coup de cœur, c'est deux choses.
La première, et la plus futile, c'est que pas une seule intrigue ne se déroule dans l'espace (à part pour "Les Pommes d'or du Soleil"), ou sur une autre planète que la Terre, ce que l'auteur abordait à foison dans ses deux précédents recueils. Ça m'a un peu perturbé, mais au fond ce n'est pas très important si vous ne les avez pas lu.
La deuxième, la plus importante, c'est que certaines nouvelles m'ont simplement diverti, ou alors m'ont paru anecdotiques. C'était légèrement le cas dans "L'Homme Illustré", mais ici ce sentiment est venu à plusieurs reprises, assez pour que ce soit gênant (notamment dans "Le garçon qui était invisible", "La sorcière d'avril", "Je vous vois jamais", "En la noche" et quelques autres..). Ce sont des nouvelles souvent réalistes, ou alors qui n'ont pas vraiment de fins, et qui sont moins intéressantes (comparés à ce que Bradbury a déjà pu faire, évidemment).

Néanmoins, cela n'empêche que j'ai eu des gros coups de cœur, car tout ce qui fait le charme de la prose de Bradbury se trouve dans ce recueil. La poésie de son écriture se retrouve dans tout les textes, mais plus particulièrement dans certains, délivrant des messages touchants ("Le cerf-volant doré et le vent argenté", "La prairie"), ou alors poignants et actuels ("Les Noirs contre les Blancs"). D'autres sont originaux et fascinants ("La Corne de brume", "L'Assassin", "Broderie", ou encore "Un coup de tonnerre").

Bref, il s'agit là d'une très bonne lecture, comme à chaque fois avec Bradbury, mais j'avoue que certains récits ont eu plus de mal à me captiver, et que dans l'ensemble il s'agit du recueil de nouvelles le moins égal que j'ai lu de l'auteur. En revanche cela n'altère pas mon intérêt pour celui-ci, et j'ai encore une fois hâte de lire ses autres textes.

[César Bustíos · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Hombres de la ciencia y la religión, venid, ¡bebed de esta copa! Calentaos contra la noche de la ignorancia, las largas nieves de la superstición, los fríos vientos del escepticismo y el gran temor a la oscuridad que se alberga en el corazón de todo hombre."

Una colección de relatos cortos publicada en 1953. Creo que hay de todo y para todos, algunas son buenas y otras que, a mi parecer, se quedan un poco cortas. De todas formas, no cabe dude que el mayor aporte del gran maestro Bradbury viene en frasco pequeño.

Mi favorita fue El ruido de un trueno, historia en la que una empresa ofrece viajes en el tiempo para cazar dinosaurios. Esta empresa es consciente de los cambios que pueden ocasionar en el futuro así que toman sus precauciones para evitarlo. Unas rotundas 5 estrellas.

Menciones honrosas para "La sirena", "El asesino" y "Las doradas manzanas del sol".

[Margie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ray Bradbury, master storyteller, thank you for all the years we have been mesmerized and dazzled by your tales of wonder, of worlds we never dreamed of, of the human condition, of love and hate, of dystopian nightmares, and by your beautiful writing. The golden apples of the sun is one of your treasures.

When asked about the title for this book and the last story Bradbury said it was a metaphor for the last line of Yeats' beautiful poem below, The Song of Wandering Aengus (last stanza). Bradbury said he was introduced to romantic poetry by his wife, Maggie, and fell in love with it.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

Hard as it was to choose a favorite story in this book, the first story, The Fog Horn, a haunting tale of loneliness and unrequited love captivated us and will always remain my favorite.