In the following essay, Wolfe links “the traditional frontier orientation of much of American literature” and Bradbury's science fiction tales.

In the following essay, Wolfe surveys the major characteristics of Bradbury's post-holocaust science fiction.

In the following essay, Mogen explores mythopoetic elements in Bradbury's space-frontier fiction.

In this excerpted essay, Plank offers a variety of interpretations of Bradbury's "April 2000: The Third Expedition," lending insight into other stories collected in The Martian Chronicles.

In the following essay, Stockwell provides a stylistic analysis of “The Night,” focusing on Bradbury's utilization of language and the story's place within the conventions of science fiction.

In this essay, Bradbury explains how he wrote many of his short stories, claiming that they evolved out of personal experiences and fears.

In the following essay, Dimeo maintains that religious concerns play a significant role in Bradbury's short fiction.

In the essay below, Dimeo uncovers moralism in Bradbury's short fiction.

In the following essay, Bradbury discusses the role of memory in his work.

In the following excerpt, McNelly purports that Bradbury's short fiction is thematically tied to mainstream American tradition.

In the excerpt that follows, Stupple explores the relationship between the past and the future in Bradbury's short stories.

In the following essay, Knight presents a brief overview of Bradbury's early short fiction, noting that his principal subject is childhood.

In the essay below, Kirk alleges that it is Bradbury's preoccupation with the "moral imagination," rather than science and technology, that distinguishes him from other writers of science fiction.

In the following review, Disch attacks Bradbury's collected stories as unimaginative and poorly written, asserting that "Mr. Bradbury's failures outnumber his successes. "

In his review of Bradbury's collected Stories, Card briefly discusses the author's subject matter, noting that his short fiction exceeds the boundaries of the science fiction genre.

In the essay below, Highet comments on the originality of Bradbury's short fiction.

Faulkner's "That Evening Sun" (1931) and Bradbury's Dandelion Wine (1957) share an archetypal pattern that Maud Bodkin described in 1934. In her pioneer study, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, Psychological Studies of Imagination, she refers to a "pattern" of the "Heaven and Hell Archetype" in which Satan struggles "upwards from his tremendous cavern below the realm of Chaos, to waylay the flower-like Eve in her walled Paradise and make her an inm...

Since "Zero Hour" and "Mushrooms" are both primarily suspense stories, they share a number of structural traits common to such stories. For instance, the secret of the invasion is revealed to the reader almost at once. Real-life invasions usually depend heavily upon the element of surprise—such as in the attack on Pearl Harbor or in the invasion of Normandy. But in a story it is difficult to sustain reader interest if the main point is concealed until the very end. By reve...

In the excerpt below, King places Bradbury's fantasy fiction in the tradition of American naturalism, adding that the early collection Dark Carnival contains the author's best horror stories.

Ray Bradbury has drawn the sword against the dreary and corrupting materialism of this century; against society as producer-and-consumer equation, against the hideousness in modern life, against mindless power, against sexual obsession, against sham intellectuality, against the perversion of right reason into the mentality of the television-viewer. His Martians, spectres, and witches are not diverting entertainment only: they become, in their eerie manner, the defenders of truth and beauty. (p. 117) [Bradbu...

[The difference between the genres of science fiction and fantasy is that science] fiction is the art of the possible. There's never anything fantastic about science fiction. It's always based on the laws of physics; on those things that can absolutely come to pass. Fantasy, on the other hand, is always the art of the impossible. It goes against all the laws of physics. When you write about invisible men, or walking through walls, or magic carpets, you're dealing with the impossible. (p...

[Despite Bradbury's] regrettable tendency to dime-a-dozen sensitivity, he is a good writer, wider in range than any of his colleagues, capable of seeing life on another planet as something extraordinary instead of just challenging or horrific, ready to combine this with strongly held convictions…. The suppression of fantasy, or of all books, is an aspect of the conformist society often mentioned by other writers, but with Bradbury it is a specialty. (pp. 106-07) [There] is about Bradbury, as a...

The following review offers a favorable assessment of the collection One More for the Road.

The following review provides a positive appraisal of Driving Blind.