In the space of mere moments, the men face the absolute terror of an imminent death and have to come to grips with their own mortality…very quickly. They were scattered into a dark sea and the ship, in a million pieces, went on, a meteor swarm seeking a lost sun.” The men were thrown into space like a dozen wriggling silverfish. “The first concussion cut the rocket up the side with a giant can opener. Bradbury’s voice regarding the incident is unmistakable.

The accident involves a meteor and the rocket the astronauts were riding in. “Kaleidoscope” concerns a group of astronauts who are sucked out of their spaceship on a trip through space. Today, we are going to summarize and analyze this short story though, I must say, if you haven’t read it, don’t do yourself the disservice of listening to me rhapsodize, and just go read it yourself first. For the purposes of this blog post, we will focus on “Kaleidoscope,” which serves as an excellent example of his talent and features the cosmic wonder of space paired with the intense horror of death. In his early works, you see the same kind of intense inventiveness and creativity as you do in his later works and collections (such as Driving Blind ). Even in his early phase as a writer, he was still one of the most lyrical and inventive craftsman of his time (possibly ever). Bradbury, though he grew and grew as a writer, capitalized on his talent with both The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man. Tolkien masterfully demonstrated his storytelling ability with The Hobbit. Rowling, for me, has a perfect first book in Harry Potter, and J.R. I was thinking tonight that there are few authors who really nail that first book with what they will become in the future. And yet another is “Kaleidoscope” by Ray Bradbury. Another is “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. One of which is “Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin. These stories typically follow me because they’ve unsettled me in some way or another. I have had a host of stories follow me around after I’ve read them (I think we all have).

The illustrated man sparknotes