Stargazer the Toynbee Convector

By Stefan Kanfer

On an otherwise ordinary evening in May, a week before his 29th birthday, Jonathan Hughes met his fate, commuting from another time, another year, another life.

No further identification is necessary. Addicts of the Ray Bradbury Theater and votaries of The Illustrated Man can immediately identify the author's unique blend of science fiction, comic horror and pure corn oil. In this newest collection of stories, Bradbury, 67, shows why his previous works have sold more than 40 million copies in some 20 countries.

In the title story, a dreamy old sage steps out of his time machine with a typically Bradburian message: Utopia lies a century ahead. In fact, the traveler has never ventured farther than his laboratory. He fakes his trips in order to provide the earth with its most precious commodity: hope.

Not all of the work demands a suspension of disbelief. One for His Lordship, and One for the Road! is a plausibly ribald bar story. In a little Irish village, Lord Kilgotten passes on, after demanding that the rare and valuable contents of his wine cellar be poured into his grave. The idea of such waste appalls the thirsty villagers, who ingeniously honor the letter of the will by voiding the vintage. A literary joke provides the spine of Long Division. Splitting up their family and their library, a divorcing couple vehemently argue about the allocation of each beloved novel, history and biography. Several disputations go by before the husband remembers to ask, "Who gets the kids?"

Although Bradbury is an authentic original, he has his antecedents. Promises, Promises, about the price a man must pay for the survival of his injured daughter, is a direct descendant of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. In Trapdoor, when an attic swallows a homeowner, the author is bowing in the direction of John Collier and Roald Dahl, two modern masters of the big chill. Bradbury is quick to acknowledge the sources of inspiration. "The ideas are my own," he says, "but books, movies, memories, provide the launching pads on the voyage to stories. So far, I've located about 500. And there must be at least 1,000 more out there, twinkling like stars waiting to be discovered."