AmySea

I like Ray Bradbury narrated this audiobook, and I've listened to a few things that he's narrated, and have generally liked what he does as a narrator. The problem with his narration of The Illustrated Man, though, is that this is essentially a collection of short stories, and Brick narrates each story with the same James T. Kirk-ian intensity and urgency. After awhile, the listener kind of starts to wonder, "what's all the emoting about?" Don't get me wrong, this works in a Bradbury novel, but in a short story it's just a little too much intensity in a short space, and it comes off a little false.

I also didn't love every story in this collection. My favorites were The Veldt, The Long Rain (which I totally identified with, having almost been driven insane by Seattle's rain last winter), Zero Hour, The Rocket, and the short story The Illustrated Man. Those stories all got four stars from me (except The Long Rain, which got five), but every other story in the book was three stars or less (eight of them were two stars or less). What I loved about the book, I really loved, but for me, the short story format is rarely a big favorite, and The Illustrated Man is no exception to that.