CyborgHobbit reviewed Now and forever by Ray Bradbury
Review of 'Now and forever' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Somewhere a Band Is Playing had some classic Bradbury elements; gorgeous descriptions of old-fashioned pleasures that make even a lazy, soft-bellied technophile like myself long for a world of ice boxes, bakery wagons, and (to prove it’s not JUST the food in Bradbury novels that catches my attention) swinging porch doors. But half-waking dreams and overly poetic descriptions muddled the plot development in the first half; not because they took too long, but because they didn't go anywhere and they lead me to believe there was a lot more going on than there really was. I was glad when the story finally shed the extra weight and ran with the steam it had actually earned. But by then it felt like multiple plot lines and been cut and left to die without any resolution. This story needed some editing. I found the end to be mostly satisfying, if not a …
Somewhere a Band Is Playing had some classic Bradbury elements; gorgeous descriptions of old-fashioned pleasures that make even a lazy, soft-bellied technophile like myself long for a world of ice boxes, bakery wagons, and (to prove it’s not JUST the food in Bradbury novels that catches my attention) swinging porch doors. But half-waking dreams and overly poetic descriptions muddled the plot development in the first half; not because they took too long, but because they didn't go anywhere and they lead me to believe there was a lot more going on than there really was. I was glad when the story finally shed the extra weight and ran with the steam it had actually earned. But by then it felt like multiple plot lines and been cut and left to die without any resolution. This story needed some editing. I found the end to be mostly satisfying, if not a little impractical. 2/5
Leviathan ‘99 was epic. Beautiful. Exciting. This is obviously, intentionally, and lovingly “Moby Dick in Space”. The time travel bothered me, but otherwise it was a solid story. Really, I’d be giving it a 5/5 if not for the time travel. I like my Bradbury with sparks and gleaming metal and rockets and loneliness even more than I like it with soda fountains and dusty cellars. If it hadn’t been for this half of the two novella collection, I would have been sorely disappointed. 4/5