Dialog shouted and exaggerated

Unfortunately the highly caricatured and shouted dialogue by the narrator spoils the crafted writing. Gave up listening.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Uninteresting

Mediocre stories of little interest and weak plot. Some good humor now and then, but not enough to make it work. Quit halfway

Decent narration.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Great stories of real people

the narration is sensitive, destroyed by all the unnecessary shouting. Impossible to listen to at the right volume. Very disappointing.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

A great selection

A great, generous and varied selection of sci-fi and speculative stories. There is the occasional stereotype that hasn’t aged so well (most of the stories were written in the 1950s), in particular the idea that the Irish need alcohol to operate, however nothing is meant with malice.

There are no chapter titles and with over 30 chapters / stories good luck finding a specific story you’d like to listen / re listen to.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

Soft Narration But Shouted Dialogue.

The narrator is brilliant until it comes to the dialogue. Any emotional dialogue is about 200 decibels louder than the narration, making it impossible to listen to at night. It's a shame because he has an excellent voice. Far too shouty to be able to relax to, or to listen to on headphones.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Not a waste of money, but you'd have to be in a very specific introspective mood for this, and I'm not.

It's rare I don't finish a book, and Bradbury at his best is one of the greatest.

But this... Slow and monotonous. Not great Bradbury, and not done well enough to overcome that.

I don't mind subtlety. I'm not an adrenaline jukie out after action. I appreciate scene setting and mood, within limits.

But I like stories. These are closer to paintings, and you sit there watching them dry. Too many of them are "nothing actually happened and I'm going to make you wait to find out even that":

--- Man would like to buy a Picasso but he and his wife can't afford it. Man sees Picasso making art in the sand on the beach. Man goes back to wife and doesn't tell her. Tide comes in.

--- Man gets off train for no reason. Man meets stranger. Stranger claims they intend to kill him for no reason. Man makes same claim back. They separate. Man gets back on train.

But each lasting maybe half an hour.

The narrator tries with the material, but the narration is inevitably slow and monotonous, as if they are as bored with the slow narrative, dialogue and lack of storyline as I am.

The chapter list doesn't give the the story titles, and doesn't discriminate between the separate stories and the chapters within the stories, so you can't easily find particular story.

There may be great stories in here somewhere, but, I gave up

For anyone wanting to give it a go, Wikipedia lists two versions of this book, US and UK with the table of contents for each. They have the stories in different orders and each has about 4 stories that the other doesn't. This is the US version.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!