Science Fiction helped shape who I am and how I live, and Ray was the first author I read who made me say "huh?" and think much deeper instead of just following a narrative story where the timeline is clear. Robert Heinlein was the first author whose name I remember (started reading SF around age 8, Heinlein's Red Planet was a huge favorite.) But then I discovered Martian Chronicles when I was about 9 and began a lifelong habit of rereading it every 3-5 years or so and getting something more each and every time.
SF got me hooked on space, space got me hooked on science and engineering, and I owe a lot to the titans like Ray Bradbury who fueled my imagination. He'll be sorely missed.
Notable works include Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the iconic Martian Chronicles. Last night's transit of Venus also brings to mind the wonder and poignancy of his short story "All Summer in a Day" about a classroom of bullies who lock a little girl in a closet on Venus (before the true nature of its surface temperature was known), who then misses the only two hours of sunshine they receive in SEVEN YEARS.
SF got me hooked on space, space got me hooked on science and engineering, and I owe a lot to the titans like Ray Bradbury who fueled my imagination. He'll be sorely missed.
Notable works include Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and the iconic Martian Chronicles. Last night's transit of Venus also brings to mind the wonder and poignancy of his short story "All Summer in a Day" about a classroom of bullies who lock a little girl in a closet on Venus (before the true nature of its surface temperature was known), who then misses the only two hours of sunshine they receive in SEVEN YEARS.