Out of all the abandoned reading challenges on this blog, the Ray Bradbury Reading Project is the one that I am most excited to start up again. Several years ago, I managed to make a significant dent in this massive anthology containing 100 of his short-stories (written between 1943-1980) and there are plenty of classics in here, including The Sound of Thunder. This is one of his most famous stories and rightfully so. For those encountering it for the first time, you are in for a treat and will immediately recognize its influence on other 'speculative' works of fiction. Think Jurassic Park meets H.G. Wells' The Machine. The Simpsons even created an excellent parody during the Tree House of Horror episode. Homer inadvertently creates a time machine from a broken toaster that sends him back to the prehistoric age of dinosaurs. No matter how small, any disruption to the natural order will have major implications for the future of mankind. Of course, Homer being prone to buffoonery, he sneezes on a T-rex killing it instantly and setting off a chain reaction that wipes out a host of other species. When he travels back to present day in various iterations, his family and entire world is completely different. The episode takes the basic premise of Bradbury's story and spoofs it for comedic effect but the original story is much more sinister.
The "Butterfly effect" is not a new concept, even during Bradbury's day. However, he takes this chaos theory and manages to weave such a riveting story from it that never skips a beat until the shocking finale. His prose is often lyrical containing a 'poetic' richness of imagery and metaphor that enhances the narrative. If you want to understand why Bradbury is a master of the short-story and deserves to be recognized as one of the great Science-Fiction writers of the 20th century, look no further than The Sound of Thunder.
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