It's also a read that's about as satisfying as making a meal out of orchids.

In the end, this is typical Bradbury sentimental, floridly written, deeply distrustful of technology, filled with snobbish disregard for the middlebrow and middle class, yet close enough to mainstream fiction to find a niche in the more upmarket magazines of the day. And in more than one story, there isn't any science fiction element at all.

Instead, he uses the vocabulary largely for effect. He doesn't even put enough effort into it to create an air of verisimilitude. He has zero interest in science or technology. Bradbury contends that he doesn't write science fiction, which is true. The horror stories, such as 'The Veldt' and 'Zero Hour' work mildly well while the sci fi stuff, such as 'Kaleidoscope' and 'Rocket Man' are unbelievably sentimental and twee. The story narrates the fate of a group of men who narrowly escape an explosion on their rocket.

Summarising this one is easy: It's a collection of Bradbury short stories that have no connection whatsoever to one another wrapped in a thin framing device that Bradbury himself forgets about a quarter into the book. The short story collection The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury contains 18 tales, the second of which is 'Kaleidoscope.' The story describes the final moments of the lives of the crew of a. 'Kaleidoscope' is the second story in Ray Bradbury's science fiction anthology The Illustrated Man. The Illustrated Man In the prologue to the collection which introduces the unifying elementthe illustrated manthe tattoos covering his body which give him his nickname as described in great detail with flourishes of prose. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (1951)

The illustrated man kaleidoscope