Bradbury Beyond Apollo

As a Ray Bradbury aficionado, I found much to appreciate in this book. Though he lived a prolific life as an author, this book reminds me of the power of Bradbury’s work and I appreciate the research and level of development included in this project.

The thing with biographies is, that usually you don't read the biography of someone you don't know anything about. As an avid SF reader I have a collection books by Ray Bradbury and some of them are among my favorites. And even if you are not an SF reader: who doesn't know about the famous Fahrenheit 451?
I think the author did a very thorough and excellent job in describing Bradbury's life and works in three volumes. This one is the last one and it starts with telling that the landing site of Curiosity, on Mars, was named 'Bradbury Landing' in honor of Ray Bradbury, who died on 12 June 2012. And no, the famous Bradbury Building in Los Angeles was not named after Ray Bradbury but after Lewis Bradbury, a very rich man, who had it built in 1892.
A richly detailed book that gives insight in Bradbury's thinking and writing; a must for every SF reader.

Thanks to Netgalley for this digital review copy.

I'm a lifelong Bradbury fan and so there wasn't much chance that I wouldn't love this biography. I'm not even going to pretend to be objective- if you have Ray's books read and re-read on your shelves you need this one too.

When the release date of a Ray Bradbury biography coincides with the 100th anniversary of his birth, of course I have to post it on that day.

If you're reading this review, you probably are a Bradbury fan, and there's a chance you know a lot about his life and work, but this is not your average biography, because Eller went for a more scholarly approach to show how Ray Bradbury became the SF powerhouse he was.

Through book and interview quotations, Eller analyzed and drew parallels between Bradbury's life events and the deeper messages his stories contained. Therefore, I would recommend you at least read the classics before venturing into this one.

Having read this biography, I now can't wait to pick up the two previous ones that focus on Bradbury's earlier periods in life. On that note, I'd like to point out that I didn't feel the need to have read the others before reading this one, though I would have preferred to have done so, had I had the time.

Thank you to the University of Illinois Press and Jonathan R. Eller for the good read.

To read my full review, please visit my website:
https://wigginswords.com/2020/08/22/bradbury-beyond-apollo-by-jonathan-r-ellerbook-review/

Is it enough to know someone you never met only found by time? Predicated on love, conviction and a healthy supply of dreams share the answer in this third installment from the biography trilogy by Jonathan R. Eller, Bradbury Beyond Apollo. The autodidactic author from Waukegan, Illinois lived a mixed albeit remarkable life of a man and a myth. He is a celebrated cultural commentator and liaison for humanity who had the preternatural understanding of the mysteries of life and death before he was literate. From being an autograph hound over the walls of Hollywood studios to convention-bending and genre-breaking writing, Ray Bradbury has gone far beyond his understated status as a storyteller using his past and pulled back the curtain of reality as a visionary to reach the future.

In the latter half of Bradbury’s career, the expense of celebrity and craft were in conflict and complicated his creativity, a condition of careful consultations with his childhood loves and creative control of his story adaptations for film, stage, and television. This transition into new mediums began after his first twenty years in the literary mainstream, starting with his popular pulp tales from the 1940s. With the short-lived Apollo missions starting in 1969, his moonward mission with the Great Tale of the Space Age became spiritual and political, social and personal, as the need for exploration off the page became greater than on the page. Public engagements, humanitarian causes, editorial specificities, and the refashioning of stories for anthologies and the mass media audiences made it difficult for Bradbury to pen anything original. What can be salvaged, however, is the belief in reinvention as rebirth, a means to never end a project by writing it in more than one format, for more than one audience. Meanwhile, Bradbury was able to weather these production storms through the denouncement of labels, dangers of fame, the fear of unrequited love, and the unfettered, ego-centric tunnel-vision and detachment from progress that denies all human potential and history, forward and backward.

Eller marks Ray Bradbury’s centennial birthday with the publication of this timepiece of a man who was a timepiece. Many of Bradbury’s readers knew his early work best, perhaps to the detriment of his later installments as a poet, playwright, and screenwriter. A first impression is rarely a last impression and his unique, amorphous path from stardom to the stars is a testament to the subversion of self in favor of the selfless. Bradbury Beyond Apollo does not pose a life after Bradbury, it witnesses and celebrates life onto another ad infinitum, with Bradbury’s vision for the future: a mirror to show you and I as us. The life of Ray Bradbury cannot be missed as much as it can be said in this sense: Ray Bradbury never died, he lived.

Having loved the work of Ray Bradbury since I was about 12 years old (a long time ago), I was pleased to receive this review copy. I have read the previous two books, Becoming Ray Bradbury and Ray Bradbury Unbound, and this completes the trilogy. I must say that I can think of few, if any, authors about whom I would read one biography, let alone three. It also inspired me to read again for the millionth time the splendid stories of Mr Bradbury. Most interesting.
Thanks to the publisher for a digital review copy.

An excellent and desirable read for anyone wanting to know more about the inimitable Ray Bradbury. A well written and enjoyable book.