A collection of early short stories, demonstrating that Bradbury's first successes were in mainstream, not SF publications, and showing that his "science fiction" stories were basically vehicles for sociological and psychological explorations. Even Bradbury in the 1950s knew people could not live on the open surface of Mars (at least, I hope he did).
Several stories embody one of his on-going subjects, that of nostalgia for the (at that time fairly recent) past; even when not explicitly "time travel" riffs, the focus on life in the "better days" is still sharp. ( )

I have never understood why some people look down on science fiction; like any other genre, it contains some utter rubbish, but much great literature. If you are in any doubt as to the truth of this statement, you need to read this book. Ray Bradbury's literary style is almost poetic. Every word is carefully weighed, before it finds its way onto the page.

The stories too, are greater than their parts. The title story is about a small hotel in the American outback and all that happens is that a third guest books in. Under the influence of Bradbury's pen, this becomes a profound tale that we all need to read.

At the risk of being guilty of drawing upon racial stereotypes, this is a most un-American book: not because it flaunts left wing political opinions, or anything so obvious. It is the delicate style. There is nothing, "in your face", about this, or any of his writing.

An easy read but, not to be confused with a bland book. Quite excellent. ( )

If some of the short stories collected together in this book had appeared in a 14 year old school pupil's exercise book they might well have expected a B+ for them. Others are more C- material. Either way they didn't really warrant publishing in a book. Poor material from a well known author is still poor material. ( )

Poetic short stories by the master of magical realist science fiction. Includes 'Dark they were and golden eyed'.

Great, a good introduction to this writer. ( )