From the Dust Returned

Ray Bradbury: From the Dust Returned (Morrow, 2001)

While From the Dust Returned is billed (it says so on the cover) as a "novel", it's a collection of interlinked short stories, much in the same way that The Martian Chronicles is a collection of interlinked short stories. True, there are common characters and a overall common theme, but I think that partly due to the length it took him to write this (1945 to 2000!) and the fact that most of the contents appeared in various collections over the years leads to something that is not quite a novel.

Not to say that it's a bad book. On the contrary, there are some great Bradbury tales here: The October People, Uncle Einar and The Wandering Witch, for example. There are wonderful Bradbury characters, and Bradbury's excellent use of many sources for his tales. And best of all, in this age of bloated authors (especially in the fields of science fiction and fantasy), there is Bradbury's sparse style. Like Clifford D. Simak and Arthur C. Clarke, Bradbury never uses four polysyllabic words when one or two brief (but piercing) words of description will do.

Counts as 25 contributions towards the 2004 Short Story Project.

Contents: Prologue: The Beautiful One is Here; The Town and the Place; Anuba Arrives; The High Attic; The Sleeper and Her Dreams; The Wandering Witch; Whence Timothy?; The House, the Spider, and the Child; Mouse, Far-Traveling; Homecoming; West of October; Many Returns; On the Orient North; Nostrum Paracelsius Crook; The October People; Uncle Einar; The Whisperers; The Theban Voice; Make Haste to Live; The Chimney Sweeps; The Traveler; Return to the Dust; The One Who Remembers; The Gift; How the Family Gathered.