I grew up reading Ray Bradbury. He was one of my early introductions to science fiction. It was from writers like him and Isaac Asimov that I grew to love the genre. But, more than that, it was from them that I also developed a love for science and consequent thinking. Why consequent thinking? Well, while it is true that science fiction has some significant imaginative writing and speculations about the future, nevertheless, everything in science fiction has to be put in the context of a coherent universe with rules. Even the later fantasy, steampunk, and writers of “magical” tales have adhered to the thought that there has to be a coherent universe with rules. You can write all the science fiction you want, but when you open the spaceship door into a vacuum you will get explosive decompression and you will die, unless you have a force shield in place or a space suit or are some type of reasonable protection. Classical science fiction, at its best, promoted logical thinking, every bit as much as the Sherlock Holmes novels promoted an interest in minute bit of evidence that is still the hallmark of C.S.I. style investigations.
Fahrenheit 451 was his best known novel in my youth. But, that is not all he wrote. However, it is not well known that he was also an amateur magician! He was also quite capable of writing horror stories, one of them was featured on the Alfred Hitchcock Theater and another on the Twilight Zone and of writing detective novels. More than one of his short stories and novels were made into movies such as, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Others of his short stories were serialized into radio programs, both on the BBC and on NPR. Quite an all around writer.
Rest In Peace, good writer.
Let us raise a glass to the author of _The October Country_, still my favorite creepy stories. This world is a sadder, less imaginative place without Ray Bradbury.