| | Illustrated Man, The |  | Author: Ray Bradbury
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $2.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  203 reviews
Sales Rank: 1925367
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 186
ISBN: 0553132474
EAN: 9780553254839
ASIN: 0553254839
Publication Date: November 1, 1983
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater
Product Description
He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could bear the voiced murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.The Illustrated ManRay Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. The Illustrated Man is classic Bradbury --a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness ... the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere ... the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world. He was a riot of rockets and fountains and people, in such intricate detail and color that you could hear the voices murmuring, small and muted, from the crowds that inhabited his body.Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. A peerless American storyteller, his oeuvre has been celebrated for decades--from The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451 to Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN is classic Bradbury--a collection of tales that breathe and move, animated by sharp, intaken breath and flexing muscle. Here are eighteen startling visions of humankind's destiny, unfolding across a canvas of decorated skin--visions as keen as the tattooist's needle and as colorful as the inks that indelibly stain the body. The images, ideas, sounds and scents that abound in this phantasmagoric sideshow are provocative and powerful: the mournful cries of celestial travelers cast out cruelly into a vast, empty space of stars and blackness...the sight of gray dust settling over a forgotten outpost on a road that leads nowhere...the pungent odor of Jupiter on a returning father's clothing. Here living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, Martian invasions are foiled by the good life and the glad hand, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Ray Bradbury's THE ILLUSTRATEDMAN is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth, widely believed to be one of the Grandmaster's premier accomplishments: as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 198 more reviews...
 That uncanny way--"Illustrating" in brutal honesty of humans June 5, 2008
I've read many of the 1 star reviews of this book. And I repeatedly told them that to enjoy any science fiction, you must suspend their disbelief. The reader must judge the truth of what happens within the scope of the world created by the author, not by the world as we know it.
Sure there are always going to be opinions and I take that for granted.
Keeping in mind that Ray Bradbury has an uncanny way of introducing and writing his works, and his works bieng VERY odd. YOu find some brutal truth in this book, it's a difficult analogy to distinguish, but as you read the book, you see that he is showing us what we, humans, are really like, and not the side that we are exceptionally proud about.
Agreeing with the other reviews, it is one of he "must-have" books, though not really considered a classic, it should be. It is not one of those books that transports you places like high fantasy. It's one of those books that you have to read and accept what is happening, then think alot about it.
I thought it was an exceptional peice of work of Science Fiction i've ever read and I enjoyed it very much, even having to face the fact that there's a bad side to us, and you can't avoid it.
Can you believe this is coming from a 14 year old? Well you better!
Interested in the Human Mind? March 24, 2008
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the workings of the human mind. The vehicle - a man covered with illustrations - Bradbury uses to give us insight into the strengths and frailties of the human psyche is ingenious and as always his literary expertise provides for a spell-binding read.
 Not Free SF Reader March 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
A collection that is again basically science fiction, at least of Bradbury's particular Martian variety, among others. The most entertaining of which is 'The Exiles'. Again, all very old-fashioned.
There's an old prologue introducing 'The Illustrated Man' who sets out to recount the stories. Not sure there's a lot of point to doing that in such limited fashion.
Basically a 3.25 book, but rounding down in this case.
Illustrated Man : The Veldt - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : Kaleidoscope - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Other Foot - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Highway - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Man - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Long Rain - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Rocket Man - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Fire Balloons - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Last Night of the World - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Exiles - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : No Particular Night or Morning - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Fox and the Forest - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Visitor - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Concrete Mixer - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : Marionettes, Inc. - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The City - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : Zero Hour - Ray Bradbury
Illustrated Man : The Rocket - Ray Bradbury
Why did we come here again?
3 out of 5
Mean ship space end falling star.
3 out of 5
White man arrival decisions.
3.5 out of 5
Atomic war dispersal.
3.5 out of 5
Locals not too impressed by space travellers.
3.5 out of 5
Venus very wet.
3.5 out of 5
Planetary road trip father.
3.5 out of 5
Earth sin Mars.
2.5 out of 5
What to do at the end.
3 out of 5
Scary little dude.
4 out of 5
Clemens-Hitchcock space meteor mash.
3 out of 5
Time travel holiday.
3 out of 5
Hypnotist victim of Martian isolated projectile overenthusiasm.
3.5 out of 5
Earth invasion advice witchy pulp reinforcement problem.
3.5 out of 5
Stuck puppets.
2 out of 5
Long wait war trap release.
3.5 out of 5
Time To Burn.
3.5 out of 5
Nifty ride for the kids.
3 out of 5
pretty good February 28, 2008
this was my first ray bradbury novel i have ever read and after reading a few of his others...I saw this is the one that makes the most sense..the others were just plain confusing. Anyways, this book is about man with tattoos that come to life and tell stories about the future...its a pretty good book and you should check it out. Don't stop reading after the first story; it's a little demented (to me) but it's still great and i loved it.
Magical stories by the master January 22, 2008
This is a marvelous collection of stories in which Bradbury offers glmipses of human nature as only he can. His style and prose are at the highest level and the characters stay with you. This book is not quite as strong as "Martian Chronicles" in my opinion, but is still better than anything most other authors could produce. Bradbury fans and newcomers alike will devour this volume. It is worth the price of the book just to read "Kaleidoscope," a remarkable story that has been acted out by countless high school literature and drama classes across the nation. Highly recommended reading.
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