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    The October Country
    The October Country
    The October Country
    Audiobook11 hours

    The October Country

    Written by Ray Bradbury

    Narrated by David Aaron Baker

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    About this audiobook

    Haunting, harrowing, and downright horrifying, this classic collection from the modern master of the fantastic features: THE SMALL ASSASSIN: a fine, healthy baby boy was the new mother's dream come true -- or her nightmare . . . THE EMISSARY: the faithful dog was the sick boy's only connectioin with the world outside -- and beyond . . . THE WONDERFUL DEATH OF DUDLEY STONE: a most remarkable case of murder -- the deceased was delighted! And more!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 18, 2018
    ISBN9781501981722
    Author

    Ray Bradbury

    Ray Bradbury (22 August 1920 – 5 June 2012) published some 500 short stories, novels, plays and poems since his first story appeared in Weird Tales when he was twenty years old. Among his many famous works are 'Fahrenheit 451,' 'The Illustrated Man,' and 'The Martian Chronicles.'

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    Reviews for The October Country

    4/5

    675 ratings24 reviews

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    • 3/5
      The stories were enjoyable, but at last I didn’t find anything scary or suspenseful about October Country. This was also my first introduction to Ray Bradbury, so I may just not be aware of his writing style or story telling technique. I do plan on adding more of his titles to my reading list for future enjoyment.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Some of Bradbury’s best. Maybe his most dark or gruesome but at the same time beautiful and timeless
    • 5/5
      Excellent! Every reader should partake in this treasure trove of shiny gems and artifacts.
    • 5/5
      Finally! Finally, I've read this classic collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury. I'm so glad that I did.

      What can I say about this that hasn't already been said? It's beautifully written. Some of the stories were so haunting, I know that they will stick with me for the rest of my life: Ones like "The Scythe" and "The Dwarf", "Jack in the Box" and "Homecoming."

      Bradbury's style is sparse; he packs a lot of meaning into very few words. His prose is so beautiful that, at times, the reader has to pause for a moment and savor it. Seriously, it's amazing.

      I highly recommend this collection of short stories written by one of the masters of the form!
    • 4/5
      This was a very good choice to read this month!I had picked it up to read "Small Assassin" & "The Emissary", both of which were enjoyable reads, but I got so much more! "The Next in Line" may quite possibly be my new favorite short story! It is so good, full of nervous energy, vivid descriptions, mummies, and spooky goings on, all set in Mexico, around Dia de los Muertos! Yikes!There are a few stinkers in here, but for the most part, I was quite entertained - vampires, the grim reaper, and an aunt who doesn't want to give up her body! And what was in that jar? I shudder to think of it...
    • 3/5
      This books marks one of those perplexing times when I both enjoy something and am disappointed by it. I have a love/hate relationship going on with Bradbury. I loathed Something Wicked, I liked Halloween Tree well enough, and I really liked Farenheit 451. My complaints are simple, and consistent:

      1) Bradbury has overwrought description that drags on far too long and reads more like clunky poetry than good prose. In direct defiance of the pyramid of abstraction, flowery metaphor is the default, and concrete language is a second-class citizen. Metaphor just isn't great as a primary descriptive tool. It's a spice, which some use sparingly and some use liberally, but it can never replace the dish it's being used in. Bradbury, seemingly, wants metaphor to be the entire dish. This was by far at its worst in Something Wicked and it drove me up the walls.

      2) Bradbury writes dialogue that comes across as stilted, awkward, and robotic. This does vary somewhat as well. Sometimes it's not bad enough to distract you, very rarely it's pretty good (usually when he's trying at humor), but often it sounds like generic character archetypes are speaking rough-draft television scripts at each other (the boys in Something Wicked were the worst for this).

      But my entire opinion up until this point has been formed by reading his novels. I've always heard he's the master of the short story, so I thought maybe these problems would disappear when I finally read one of his collections. They did not disappear, but they were toned down (depending on the particular story) and they are more tolerable in this format. I enjoyed this collection, don't get me wrong. Short story collections are hit and miss as a rule, and three stars is a respectable score from me for this format. That said, I, perhaps naively, expected a lot more from the "master" of short stories.

      The story Jack-in-the-Box is the only one that I really loved. The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone is very good, though I wouldn't say I loved it. To me those are the only two standouts. The rest were generally decent, but forgettable. A couple, like Skeleton and The Small Assassin are certainly memorable, but only because of a strikingly unique, almost gimmicky premise, not necessarily because the stories themselves do justice to the premise. You'll never catch me saying Bradbury isn't creative and doesn't have great original ideas, it's the execution I'm not so hot on. That said, the only story I actively disliked was The Lake, which is an accomplishment in itself. It was nice not feeling like I was forcing my way through this book, it held my attention pretty much the entire time and was an easy read, just not a deeply satisfying or memorable one.

      This has pretty much proven that Bradbury just isn't really for me. There is a mythological amount of hype and reverence surrounding his work that I've finally accepted I'm just never going to fully understand, and that's okay. With the exception of Something Wicked, I don't hate his work with a burning passion or anything. I probably won't be reading Dandelion Wine or Farewell Summer, because Something Wicked has taught me that Bradbury is at his most insufferable when he's pining for his childhood. On the other hand I'll definitely get around to reading The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man because so far his short stories have at the very least been entertaining.
    • 4/5
      Bradbury’s lyrical horror has aged pretty well, with the exception of a really stereotypical portrayal of an African-American in one story, complete with terrible dialogue (that’s not how AAVE works!). Men generally treat women with condescension, but they are not portrayed as right in doing so; their indifference to what women think is just part of the horror that our indifference to the subjectivity of others helps create. Bradbury’s repeating use of circuses, freak shows, exotic-to-the-protagonist locations, etc. helps highlight that the ordinary human heart is where the worst fears and hatreds lurk in his stories.
    • 5/5
      There's a wonderful quality Ray Bradbury stories have of feeling like something you must have read as a child even if you know that's not the case. These all have that feeling. I think the Uncle Einar stories are my favorite, but there are a lot of gems in this collection.
    • 4/5
      A neat collection of short fantasy (a bit like Twilight Zone if you aren't familiar w/ Bradbury). Mostly macabre or at least poignant, but one story was sweet (Uncle Einar) and the last (The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone) has a brilliant concept. And of course it's Bradbury's poetic prose that makes even the mediocre stories sing & haunt.

      There is one illustration each for most of the stories. They're amazing. I would have loved more. I'm going to see if I can find more examples of Mugnaini's work.
    • 3/5
      This is a collection of many of Ray Bradbury's earliest stories, primarily from the period 1943-1947. Fifteen of the Nineteen stories here were included in Bradbury's first published collection "Dark Carnival" from 1947, which had a total of 27 short stories. The author notes that some have been rewritten for the current collection. These stories as a whole perhaps tend to be darker than later stories from Bradbury, but they are unmistakably his themes and style. In the introduction to the collection the author notes: "For my later readers, THE OCTOBER COUNTRY will present a side of my writing that is probably unfamiliar to them, and a type of story that I have rarely done since 1946." There are some genuine classic tales in here, and even if you have never read Bradbury you might recognize a story or two that have been adapted for television. Older readers who watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents will have never forgotten the story of Charlie and "The Jar" that he bought from the carnival. Great idea for a story. The opener "The Dwarf" struck me that way as well - great idea - I thought it was really well done until we ran into the end where it muddied. These stories don't fit into a little box by type. There are mainstream stories, bits of supernatural, macabre type ones, bits of the fantastic, some creepy ones, some but not much that is overtly horror (but done stylishly), quite a few with weird aspects to them. One or two are even lighthearted and a little funny, such as "Uncle Einar". I don't think there is any science fiction here. Bradbury builds his stories around little truths of life. I enjoyed this collection. I think there are better collections of Bradbury's short fiction but this wasn't a bad place to visit. I think the main problem that I had with a number of stories was the ending. Bradbury would build something up within a story and the end would be a mush, or a disappointment. There are plenty of better stories to get one over the weaker seeming ones.There is a kind of precursor story in here for Dandelion Wine. It is called "The Man Upstairs" and features Douglas Spaulding living in his grandparent's rooming house in 1927 when a strange man comes to rent a room. The strange man is some kind of vampire, so we are not rally talking Dandelion Wine here. I liked this one. It dates to 1947, well before the writing of most of the short stories incorporated into Dandelion Wine in the mid 50's.
    • 4/5
      Rod Serling was definitely looking over my shoulder while I read this book. I didn't realize it was short stories until I picked it up to read it. And then I realized that here was one of the minds behind Twilight Zone. Eerie, to say the least! "The Next in Time" chilled me to the marrow. His mainstream story, "The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone" was probably my favorite though.
    • 5/5
      Bradbury is best known as a writer of science fiction, but most of the stories in this collection qualify as horror of one kind or another. It's a very effective collection of horror, in fact, largely because, over and over, it forces the reader to look mortality squarely in the face. "The Next in Line," for instance, features a description of mummified corpses in a Mexican cemetery that I'm pretty sure is going to haunt me for quite a while, not because it's gross or Halloween-scary, but because there's no escaping the awful, certain knowledge that one day, this will be you. And then there's "Skeleton," featuring a man freaking out at the realization that there is a skeleton inside him, which had me squirming uncomfortably in my chair feeling acutely, distressingly aware of my own skull and kneecaps. Some of the stories are more subtle, and some less so, but as a whole, it's a collection that really gets under your skin. So to speak.
    • 5/5
      I’m not a huge fan of short story collections, but this is by far one of my favorites. I love Bradbury’s work and these 19 stories are a stellar example of his skill. Equal parts creepy and poignant this stories dive into the dark hearts of ordinary people. From the terrifying look at parenthood in “The Small Assassin” to the aching desire to be someone other than yourself in “The Dwarf” I couldn’t put it down. “The Lake,” “The Scythe” and “The Emissary” are all eerie tales you could tell around a camp fire. In “The Wind” I could feel my pulse quicken as I turned the pages. Bradbury has a way of writing such vivid descriptions you feel like you’re sitting right there experiencing the story alongside the characters. Read this paragraph and tell me it doesn’t paint an incredible image in your head… “She ripped a dog-eared packet of cheap cigarettes like it was a bone with meat on it, snapped one of the cigarettes in her smeared mouth and lit it, sucking greedily on the smoke, jetting it through her thin nostrils until she was a feverish dragon confronting them in a fire-clouded room.”BOTTOM LINE: Just fantastic! Short stories aren’t for everyone, but these gems are worth trying out. This would be a perfect book to pick up around Halloween. Complete list of stories in this collection: The Dwarf, The Next in Line, The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse, Skeleton, The Jar, The Lake, The Emissary, Touched with Fire, The Small Assassin, The Crowd, Jack-in-the-Box, The Scythe, Uncle Einar, The Wind, The Man Upstairs, There Was an Old Woman, The Cistern, Homecoming, and The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone
    • 5/5
      At the time of its publication in 1955, The October Country was "all that Mr. Bradbury wishes to preserve from the long-out-of-print limited edition of DARK CARNIVAL, plus five new and equally brilliant selections..." (from the cover blurb of the paperback edition). It is early Bradbury, which is to say stories written from the beginnings of the flood of stories he would write over the next five decades, vintage Bradbury, which is to say short gems of poetic evocations of everyday humans living in the "October Country" that was Bradbury's mind. Mythic and archetypal and thoroughly captivating.
    • 5/5
      A collection of dark, eerie, hauntingly twisted short stories. Forget the candy, this assortment of Bradbury's best is the perfect Halloween treat for your favorite reader. Or a great gift for someone you'd like to see lose a little sleep.
    • 4/5
      This is probably my favorite book of short stories by Ray Bradbury. I especially love "The Small Assassin."
    • 4/5
      In his life's work, Bradbury is considered one of the leading writers of science fiction, but this odd collection of short stories includes a couple of horror stories, several ghost pieces, and some really WEIRD stories, mostly out of the bos fantasy. No science fiction, however. The collection gives us a writer trying to find his voice. Although the book was the second one Bradbury published, I think most, if not all, of the pieces were written well before "Fahrenheit 471" his premiere work.
    • 4/5
      A collection of stories, most about death, all of which manage to be delightful & life affirming in the whimsical manner typical of Bradbury.
    • 4/5
      Indeholder "Dværgen", "Den næste i rækken", "Manden der havde ondt i skelettet", "Krukken", "Søen", "Sendebudet", "Hjælperne", "Den lille morder", "Tilskuerne"."Dværgen" handler om ???"Den næste i rækken" handler om ???"Manden der havde ondt i skelettet" handler om ???"Krukken" handler om ???"Søen" handler om ???"Sendebudet" handler om ???"Hjælperne" handler om ???"Den lille morder" handler om ???"Tilskuerne" handler om ???
    • 5/5
      Bradbury showing off his fine style with the short story genre - I have reread "The Dwarf" story many times over, weeping for the little man who longed to be tall. The line drawings by Joe Mugnaini were perfect (and a tiny bit creepy).
    • 5/5
      Bradbury's best work!
    • 4/5
      The darkly fascinating tales in this collection both entrance and repugn. They will keep you awake for hours, deliberating on what they reveal of the nature of our world. They will give you nightmares. They will give you hope. They will make you consider how you live your life. Ray Bradbury is one of the best science fiction authors I have read. And, though these are not science fiction, they are among the best short stories of any kind that I have read.
    • 5/5
      I'm not a huge fan of short stories. Those which are a peek into a tantalizing side-show exasperate me when the tent flap closes. Others require too much investment for the pay-off. That said, some stories mark one forever, like a bicycle spill when you're ten years old and the concrete shaves your elbow. In October Country, the Lake is one of those stories. Bradbury sets the mood with a few deft brush strokes - a summer-spot boardwalk post Labor Day, shuttered stands and empty arcades, and then creates one of the tenderest meditations on love past and love present. With all the succinct passing beauty of a shooting star. The Lake alone is worth the purchase of this collection.
    • 5/5
      Early stories by Bradbury; mostly horror and mostly before his poetic streak took over, but some are among the his very best stories.