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A Sound of Thunder
Free online fiction.
The short story, A Sound of Thunder, involves a Time Travel Safari where rich businessmen pay to travel back to prehistoric times and hunt real live dinosaurs.
The short story, A Sound of Thunder, involves a Time Travel Safari where rich businessmen pay to travel back to prehistoric times and hunt real live dinosaurs.
15 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1951
About the author
Ray Bradbury
2,216 books22.1k followersRay Douglas Bradbury, American novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, screenwriter and poet, was born August 22, 1920 in Waukegan, Illinois. He graduated from a Los Angeles high school in 1938. Although his formal education ended there, he became a "student of life," selling newspapers on L.A. street corners from 1938 to 1942, spending his nights in the public library and his days at the typewriter. He became a full-time writer in 1943, and contributed numerous short stories to periodicals before publishing a collection of them, Dark Carnival, in 1947.
His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.
Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.
Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.
Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."
His reputation as a writer of courage and vision was established with the publication of The Martian Chronicles in 1950, which describes the first attempts of Earth people to conquer and colonize Mars, and the unintended consequences. Next came The Illustrated Man and then, in 1953, Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state. Other works include The October Country, Dandelion Wine, A Medicine for Melancholy, Something Wicked This Way Comes, I Sing the Body Electric!, Quicker Than the Eye, and Driving Blind. In all, Bradbury has published more than thirty books, close to 600 short stories, and numerous poems, essays, and plays. His short stories have appeared in more than 1,000 school curriculum "recommended reading" anthologies.
Ray Bradbury's work has been included in four Best American Short Story collections. He has been awarded the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, the Grand Master Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America, the PEN Center USA West Lifetime Achievement Award, among others. In November 2000, the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters was conferred upon Mr. Bradbury at the 2000 National Book Awards Ceremony in New York City.
Ray Bradbury has never confined his vision to the purely literary. He has been nominated for an Academy Award (for his animated film Icarus Montgolfier Wright), and has won an Emmy Award (for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree). He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater. He was the creative consultant on the United States Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. In 1982 he created the interior metaphors for the Spaceship Earth display at Epcot Center, Disney World, and later contributed to the conception of the Orbitron space ride at Euro-Disney, France.
Married since 1947, Mr. Bradbury and his wife Maggie lived in Los Angeles with their numerous cats. Together, they raised four daughters and had eight grandchildren. Sadly, Maggie passed away in November of 2003.
On the occasion of his 80th birthday in August 2000, Bradbury said, "The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me. The feeling I have every day is very much the same as it was when I was twelve. In any event, here I am, eighty years old, feeling no different, full of a great sense of joy, and glad for the long life that has been allowed me. I have good plans for the next ten or twenty years, and I hope you'll come along."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 670 reviews
December 20, 2020
The butterfly effect is a term coined by Edward Lorenz, an American mathematician, meteorologist, and a pioneer of chaos theory (and who does NOT look like Jeff Goldblum) that essentially says that a hurricane can be influenced by the distant flapping of butterfly wings several weeks earlier. Although his research took place in the 50s, his description of the idea took place in the later 60s.
Ray Bradbury’s short story A Sound of Thunder, first published in Collier's magazine in the June 28, 1952 issue and Playboy in June 1956 deals with, and actually includes, a butterfly and most definitely explains the idea in a fantastic way better adapted to lay explanation than the good physics professor Lorenz.
Time Safari Inc., for a sizeable fee, will take a client back in time, WAY back, so that they can hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex. But overly conscious of any possible effect on future time (the butterfly effect) great measures are taken to ensure that as little impact on time is allowed. Time Safari employees mark possible huntee animals as those who would have died anyway and a gravity defying path is formed to protect every blade of ancient grass.
But what happens when a hunter walks off the path?
Bradbury demonstrates AGAIN that he is the literary equivalent to Chuck Norris, kicking ass, taking names, and teaching physics without a chalkboard to generations of SF/F readers.
*** 2020 reread - it only gets better. This time I noticed a subtle homage to Hemingway's "Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and we also see some quirky political machinations. A MUST read for fans of SF.
Ray Bradbury’s short story A Sound of Thunder, first published in Collier's magazine in the June 28, 1952 issue and Playboy in June 1956 deals with, and actually includes, a butterfly and most definitely explains the idea in a fantastic way better adapted to lay explanation than the good physics professor Lorenz.
Time Safari Inc., for a sizeable fee, will take a client back in time, WAY back, so that they can hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex. But overly conscious of any possible effect on future time (the butterfly effect) great measures are taken to ensure that as little impact on time is allowed. Time Safari employees mark possible huntee animals as those who would have died anyway and a gravity defying path is formed to protect every blade of ancient grass.
But what happens when a hunter walks off the path?
Bradbury demonstrates AGAIN that he is the literary equivalent to Chuck Norris, kicking ass, taking names, and teaching physics without a chalkboard to generations of SF/F readers.
*** 2020 reread - it only gets better. This time I noticed a subtle homage to Hemingway's "Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and we also see some quirky political machinations. A MUST read for fans of SF.
April 6, 2022
This is the Ray Bradbury SF story that inspired the "butterfly effect" theory ... well, maybe. At least there's a really intriguing connection there!
Review first posted at www.fantasyliterature.com. You can read this classic story online here: http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/A...
In the year 2055 (about 100 years in the future when Ray Bradbury wrote this classic science fiction short story), one of the uses of time travel is for big game “safari” hunting: hunters pay a huge fee to take a guided safari trip to the far-distant past and bag a Tyrannosaurus Rex or other dinosaur. In order to avoid any chance of changing the past and affecting the future, the hunting party is strictly enjoined to stay on a metal pathway floating six inches above the earth, and to shoot only dinosaurs that were a minute or two away from death from other causes. Eckels, their latest hunter, is torn between his desire to kill a T Rex and a case of nerves, exacerbated by the appearance of the Tyrant Lizard:
Bradbury relates this adventure story in a more straightforward way than much of his work, although there are perhaps a few excess adjectives strewn along the Path. Still, the dramatic tension holds through the entire story, although the ending may not logically hold water. Frankly, I’ve never been able to understand how authors can justify an act in the past changing the future, except for the memories of those people who had traveled to the past ... and then they go back to the future and they're the only ones who remember the old version of the world. It just doesn't make sense to me, although I understand its usefulness as a plot device.
“A Sound of Thunder” is famous as for its ― perhaps tenuous and coincidental, but nevertheless compelling ― connection to the “butterfly effect” concept of chaos theory. In 1963, a meteorologist named Edward Lorenz suggested that the beat of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the world might ultimately cause a tornado on the other side of the world. Lorenz’s point was that nature is highly sensitive to tiny changes, making weather impossible to predict accurately more than a few days in advance. The butterfly in Bradbury’s story also causes a tornado of sorts, albeit not by flapping its wings!
Original story illustrations, courtesy of http://www.sffaudio.com/radio-drama-r...
Review first posted at www.fantasyliterature.com. You can read this classic story online here: http://www.astro.sunysb.edu/fwalter/A...
In the year 2055 (about 100 years in the future when Ray Bradbury wrote this classic science fiction short story), one of the uses of time travel is for big game “safari” hunting: hunters pay a huge fee to take a guided safari trip to the far-distant past and bag a Tyrannosaurus Rex or other dinosaur. In order to avoid any chance of changing the past and affecting the future, the hunting party is strictly enjoined to stay on a metal pathway floating six inches above the earth, and to shoot only dinosaurs that were a minute or two away from death from other causes. Eckels, their latest hunter, is torn between his desire to kill a T Rex and a case of nerves, exacerbated by the appearance of the Tyrant Lizard:
It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker’s claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail of a terrible warrior… Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers.Can Eckels overcome his nerves and ― more importantly ― stay on the Path?
Bradbury relates this adventure story in a more straightforward way than much of his work, although there are perhaps a few excess adjectives strewn along the Path. Still, the dramatic tension holds through the entire story, although the ending may not logically hold water. Frankly, I’ve never been able to understand how authors can justify an act in the past changing the future, except for the memories of those people who had traveled to the past ... and then they go back to the future and they're the only ones who remember the old version of the world. It just doesn't make sense to me, although I understand its usefulness as a plot device.
“A Sound of Thunder” is famous as for its ― perhaps tenuous and coincidental, but nevertheless compelling ― connection to the “butterfly effect” concept of chaos theory. In 1963, a meteorologist named Edward Lorenz suggested that the beat of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the world might ultimately cause a tornado on the other side of the world. Lorenz’s point was that nature is highly sensitive to tiny changes, making weather impossible to predict accurately more than a few days in advance. The butterfly in Bradbury’s story also causes a tornado of sorts, albeit not by flapping its wings!
Original story illustrations, courtesy of http://www.sffaudio.com/radio-drama-r...
June 28, 2018
A short story about using a time machine to hunt dinosaurs. The company that runs the trips is explicitly aware of the risks: “We don’t want to change the Future”, hence oxygen helmets, sterilised clothes, and an anti-gravity path that “Doesn’t touch so much as one grass blade”. What could possibly go wrong?
It was more clichéd than exciting for me, but Bradbury wrote it in 1952, whereas the other explorations of these ideas I’ve read and watched mostly date from after that. It’s always a shame when trailblazers seem unoriginal because of their own success.
I was less forgiving of the way it flipped between two very different writing styles: lyrical and sensuous descriptions (which I loved – see below) alternating with clunky and verbose exposition (which I disliked, so haven't quoted).
Changing Morals
This is set just after a presidential election, the result of which avoided “the worst kind of dictatorship. There’s an anti-everything man for you, a militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual.”
I’ve seen quite a few social media posts in the last eighteen months where people have longed for a time machine so that they could change the outcome of an election or referendum. If that were possible, would that undermine democracy or possibly secure it? I suppose it depends in part on whether you used facts and persuasion to change the result, or cheated somehow.
What about big game hunting and trophy photos? When this was written, few would think it inherently wrong. Nowadays, it gives the story a different slant. Think of the uproar about the US dentist who shot Cecil the lion – on the edge of a reserve where hunting is allowed. And the number of people who were outraged by a picture of Stephen Spielberg with a trophy of a dead triceratops!
Butterfly Effect
This story is credited with the first use of the idea. However, the phrase itself was coined a few years later by Edward Lorenz, in the context of climate modelling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterf....
Lush Descriptions
Bradbury loves waxing lyrical about fire (see Fahrenheit 451, which I reviewed HERE)
“There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame… Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious east. ”
“The jungle was high and the jungle was broad and the jungle was the entire world forever and forever. Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky, and those were pterodactyls soaring with cavernous gray wings, gigantic bats of delirium and night fever. ”
“It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker’s claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail6 of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight. It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit arena warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air. ”
“Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate. ”
It was more clichéd than exciting for me, but Bradbury wrote it in 1952, whereas the other explorations of these ideas I’ve read and watched mostly date from after that. It’s always a shame when trailblazers seem unoriginal because of their own success.
I was less forgiving of the way it flipped between two very different writing styles: lyrical and sensuous descriptions (which I loved – see below) alternating with clunky and verbose exposition (which I disliked, so haven't quoted).
Changing Morals
This is set just after a presidential election, the result of which avoided “the worst kind of dictatorship. There’s an anti-everything man for you, a militarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual.”
I’ve seen quite a few social media posts in the last eighteen months where people have longed for a time machine so that they could change the outcome of an election or referendum. If that were possible, would that undermine democracy or possibly secure it? I suppose it depends in part on whether you used facts and persuasion to change the result, or cheated somehow.
What about big game hunting and trophy photos? When this was written, few would think it inherently wrong. Nowadays, it gives the story a different slant. Think of the uproar about the US dentist who shot Cecil the lion – on the edge of a reserve where hunting is allowed. And the number of people who were outraged by a picture of Stephen Spielberg with a trophy of a dead triceratops!
Butterfly Effect
This story is credited with the first use of the idea. However, the phrase itself was coined a few years later by Edward Lorenz, in the context of climate modelling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterf....
Lush Descriptions
Bradbury loves waxing lyrical about fire (see Fahrenheit 451, which I reviewed HERE)
“There was a sound like a gigantic bonfire burning all of Time, all the years and all the parchment calendars, all the hours piled high and set aflame… Out of chars and ashes, out of dust and coals, like golden salamanders, the old years, the green years, might leap; roses sweeten the air, white hair turn Irish-black, wrinkles vanish; all, everything fly back to seed, flee death, rush down to their beginnings, suns rise in western skies and set in glorious east. ”
“The jungle was high and the jungle was broad and the jungle was the entire world forever and forever. Sounds like music and sounds like flying tents filled the sky, and those were pterodactyls soaring with cavernous gray wings, gigantic bats of delirium and night fever. ”
“It came on great oiled, resilient, striding legs. It towered thirty feet above half of the trees, a great evil god, folding its delicate watchmaker’s claws close to its oily reptilian chest. Each lower leg was a piston, a thousand pounds of white bone, sunk in thick ropes of muscle, sheathed over in a gleam of pebbled skin like the mail6 of a terrible warrior. Each thigh was a ton of meat, ivory, and steel mesh. And from the great breathing cage of the upper body those two delicate arms dangled out front, arms with hands which might pick up and examine men like toys, while the snake neck coiled. And the head itself, a ton of sculptured stone, lifted easily upon the sky. Its mouth gaped, exposing a fence of teeth like daggers. Its eyes rolled, ostrich eggs, empty of all expression save hunger. It closed its mouth in a death grin. It ran, its pelvic bones crushing aside trees and bushes, its taloned feet clawing damp earth, leaving prints six inches deep wherever it settled its weight. It ran with a gliding ballet step, far too poised and balanced for its ten tons. It moved into a sunlit arena warily, its beautifully reptilian hands feeling the air. ”
“Its armored flesh glittered like a thousand green coins. The coins, crusted with slime, steamed. In the slime, tiny insects wriggled, so that the entire body seemed to twitch and undulate. ”
August 5, 2023
هزيم الرعد قصة قصيرة نُشِرت في مجلة أمريكية عام ١٩٥٢ للكاتب الأمريكي راي برادبري صاحب الرواية الشهيرة فرنهايت ٤٥١ و تحوَّلت هذه القصة إلى فيلم سينمائي عام 2005...
القصة مبنية علي مفهوم تأثير الفراشة وذلك من خلال شركة تنظم رحلات صيد للسفر عبر الزمن ٦٠ مليون عام في الماضي وبتوضح إزاي إحداث تغيير طفيف في الماضي ممكن يغير الحاضر بشكل كبير جداً...
حلوة القصة ..فكرتها ممتازة و مكتوبة ببراعة..
القصة مبنية علي مفهوم تأثير الفراشة وذلك من خلال شركة تنظم رحلات صيد للسفر عبر الزمن ٦٠ مليون عام في الماضي وبتوضح إزاي إحداث تغيير طفيف في الماضي ممكن يغير الحاضر بشكل كبير جداً...
حلوة القصة ..فكرتها ممتازة و مكتوبة ببراعة..
April 19, 2020
Libro aceptable
Leí esta pequeña historia porque en el libro 22/11/63 de Stephen King, los personajes mencionan este libro y dicen que aquí se explica el efecto mariposa. Por eso lo busqué, lo leí y en menos de diez minutos lo terminé.
Es una historia escrita de forma sencilla. Al leerlo, me hizo recordar un capítulo de Los Simpson en el que Homero regresa en el tiempo con una tostadora y altera el futuro. Luego de pensar en esta casualidad y conociendo que Los Simpson usan muchas referencias para hacer sus capítulos, busque por internet y comprobé que efectivamente en ese capítulo de la tostadora, que es el capítulo seis de la sexta temporada, llamado La casita del Horror V, se hace una parodia basándose en esta historia y combinándola con 1984 de George Orwell.
En cuanto a la historia hay muy poco que contar por su tamaño. ¿Explica lo necesario sobre el efecto mariposa? Sí, solo que la historia mereció desarrollarse mejor. La idea era muy buena y con un poco más de trabajo este texto podría haber sido una gran obra literaria. Sin embargo, este texto queda como una historia simple que cumple su propósito, pero que pudo ser mejor.
La calificación de tres estrellas es más que justa.
Leí esta pequeña historia porque en el libro 22/11/63 de Stephen King, los personajes mencionan este libro y dicen que aquí se explica el efecto mariposa. Por eso lo busqué, lo leí y en menos de diez minutos lo terminé.
Es una historia escrita de forma sencilla. Al leerlo, me hizo recordar un capítulo de Los Simpson en el que Homero regresa en el tiempo con una tostadora y altera el futuro. Luego de pensar en esta casualidad y conociendo que Los Simpson usan muchas referencias para hacer sus capítulos, busque por internet y comprobé que efectivamente en ese capítulo de la tostadora, que es el capítulo seis de la sexta temporada, llamado La casita del Horror V, se hace una parodia basándose en esta historia y combinándola con 1984 de George Orwell.
En cuanto a la historia hay muy poco que contar por su tamaño. ¿Explica lo necesario sobre el efecto mariposa? Sí, solo que la historia mereció desarrollarse mejor. La idea era muy buena y con un poco más de trabajo este texto podría haber sido una gran obra literaria. Sin embargo, este texto queda como una historia simple que cumple su propósito, pero que pudo ser mejor.
La calificación de tres estrellas es más que justa.
May 19, 2023
أثر الفراشة.. قصة تم تناولها كثيرًا فى الأدب و ابرزهم ستيفن كينج و تم أقتباسها فى السينما، لكن الطريقة التي تناول بها راي برادييري القصة كانت بحرفية متقنة و الفكرة تنم عن خيال خصب خاصةً إنها تم كتابتها منذ اكثر من ٥٠ عام فى ١٩٥٢ بالتحديد لذلك كان تقديري لها كبيرًا بالإضافة طبعًا الى استمتاعي بها كثيرًا .
الرواية فى المستقبل عن شركة تمتلك آلة زمن تاخذ محبي المغامرات و الصيادون لزمن الديناصورات لاصطيادهم لكن يوجد قوانين معينة حتي لا تعبث بالمستقبل و يختل النظام .. على الرغم من إتخاذ كل الإجراءات الازمة لابد للإنسان ان يعبث كعادته فى كل شيء .
الرواية فى المستقبل عن شركة تمتلك آلة زمن تاخذ محبي المغامرات و الصيادون لزمن الديناصورات لاصطيادهم لكن يوجد قوانين معينة حتي لا تعبث بالمستقبل و يختل النظام .. على الرغم من إتخاذ كل الإجراءات الازمة لابد للإنسان ان يعبث كعادته فى كل شيء .
May 22, 2019
Time travel,
Dinosaurs,
Democracy or Dictatorship
The adventure in the Past begins
SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST. YOU NAME THE ANIMAL. WE TAKE YOU THERE. YOU SHOOT IT. A warm phlegm gathered in Eckels' throat; he swallowed and pushed it down. The muscles around his mouth formed a smile as he put his hand slowly out upon the air, and in that hand waved a check for ten thousand dollars to the man behind the desk. "Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?"
"We guarantee nothing, "He turned. "This is Mr. Travis, your Safari Guide in the Past. He'll tell you what and where to shoot. If he says no shooting, no shooting. If you disobey instructions, there's a stiff penalty of another ten thousand dollars, plus possible government action, on your return."
Voting selections
"A real Time Machine." He shook his head. "Makes you think. If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."
"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "We're lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of dictatorship. There's an anti-everything man for you, a mili- tarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual. People called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in 1492- Of course it's not our business to conduct Escapes, but to form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's President now. All you got to worry about is"
"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.
"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Thunder Lizard, the damnedest monster in history. Sign this release. Anything happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry."
Stay on the Path!
He indicated a metal path that struck off into green wilderness, over steaming swamp, among giant ferns and palms. "And that," he said, "is the Path, laid by Time Safari for your use. It floats six inches above the earth. Doesn't touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. It's an anti-gravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching this world of the past in any way. Stay on the Path. Don't go off it. I repeat. Don't go off. For any reason! If you fall off, there's a penalty. And don't shoot any animal we don't okay."
"We don't want to change the Future. We don't belong here in the Past. The government doesn't like us here. We have to pay big graft to keep our franchise. A Time Machine is damn finicky business. Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species."
Run away, run away!
The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun. Eckels, not looking back, walked blindly to the edge of the Path, his gun limp in his arms, stepped off the Path, and walked, not knowing it, in the jungle. His feet sank into green moss.
Oh no. By stepping off the Path Eckels had changed the Past and would now affect the Future. Find out what waits for him in the modern world...
Enjoy!
Dinosaurs,
Democracy or Dictatorship
The adventure in the Past begins
SAFARIS TO ANY YEAR IN THE PAST. YOU NAME THE ANIMAL. WE TAKE YOU THERE. YOU SHOOT IT. A warm phlegm gathered in Eckels' throat; he swallowed and pushed it down. The muscles around his mouth formed a smile as he put his hand slowly out upon the air, and in that hand waved a check for ten thousand dollars to the man behind the desk. "Does this safari guarantee I come back alive?"
"We guarantee nothing, "He turned. "This is Mr. Travis, your Safari Guide in the Past. He'll tell you what and where to shoot. If he says no shooting, no shooting. If you disobey instructions, there's a stiff penalty of another ten thousand dollars, plus possible government action, on your return."
Voting selections
"A real Time Machine." He shook his head. "Makes you think. If the election had gone badly yesterday, I might be here now running away from the results. Thank God Keith won. He'll make a fine President of the United States."
"Yes," said the man behind the desk. "We're lucky. If Deutscher had gotten in, we'd have the worst kind of dictatorship. There's an anti-everything man for you, a mili- tarist, anti-Christ, anti-human, anti-intellectual. People called us up, you know, joking but not joking. Said if Deutscher became President they wanted to go live in 1492- Of course it's not our business to conduct Escapes, but to form Safaris. Anyway, Keith's President now. All you got to worry about is"
"Shooting my dinosaur," Eckels finished it for him.
"A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The Thunder Lizard, the damnedest monster in history. Sign this release. Anything happens to you, we're not responsible. Those dinosaurs are hungry."
Stay on the Path!
He indicated a metal path that struck off into green wilderness, over steaming swamp, among giant ferns and palms. "And that," he said, "is the Path, laid by Time Safari for your use. It floats six inches above the earth. Doesn't touch so much as one grass blade, flower, or tree. It's an anti-gravity metal. Its purpose is to keep you from touching this world of the past in any way. Stay on the Path. Don't go off it. I repeat. Don't go off. For any reason! If you fall off, there's a penalty. And don't shoot any animal we don't okay."
"We don't want to change the Future. We don't belong here in the Past. The government doesn't like us here. We have to pay big graft to keep our franchise. A Time Machine is damn finicky business. Not knowing it, we might kill an important animal, a small bird, a roach, a flower even, thus destroying an important link in a growing species."
Run away, run away!
The Monster roared, teeth glittering with sun. Eckels, not looking back, walked blindly to the edge of the Path, his gun limp in his arms, stepped off the Path, and walked, not knowing it, in the jungle. His feet sank into green moss.
Oh no. By stepping off the Path Eckels had changed the Past and would now affect the Future. Find out what waits for him in the modern world...
Enjoy!
October 23, 2021
Una edición muy cuidada con unas ilustraciones preciosas que complementan a un gran relato.
December 7, 2020
Wow!!!! Me ha gustado mucho este relato de Ray Bradbury, estamos en el año 2055, y el protagonista Eckels decide hacer un viaje en el tiempo, con una empresa dedicada a realizar safaris al pasado, concretamente para cazar dinosaurios....pero no pueden alterar nada y no todo ocurre como estaba planeado y sabremos si el efecto mariposa se produce al mínimo cambio o no.
Me ha encantado esta historia, y esta reedicción de este libro para conmemorar el centenario del nacimiento de Ray Bradbury, es una edición preciosa y muy cuidada que está bellamente ilustrada por
Elena Ferrándiz.
Me ha encantado esta historia, y esta reedicción de este libro para conmemorar el centenario del nacimiento de Ray Bradbury, es una edición preciosa y muy cuidada que está bellamente ilustrada por
Elena Ferrándiz.
June 21, 2016
Butterfly Effect, Chaos Theory, time paradoxes, all are contained in this brilliant short story by Ray Bradbury. It's about time travel and it's possible consequences on the future, and as usual Bradbury's messages are not delivered with subtlety; they are delivered with force and they are delivered loudly, and they roll around in your consciousness like "a sound of thunder".
November 4, 2020
Curioso relato muy breve sobre las consecuencias de los viajes en el tiempo (teoria del caos, efecto mariposa).
May 28, 2023
"أثر الفراشة لا يُرى
أثر الفراشة لا يزول."
- محمود درويش
قصة قصيرة بعنوان "هزيم الرعد" للكاتب الأمريكي "راي برادبوري"، واحد من أهم كتاب الخيال العلمي، والذي أسس العديد من المصطلحات والمفاهيم التي تُستخدم في أغلب روايات ومسلسلات وأفلام وقتنا الحالي، هناك قانون غير رسمي بألا تعبث مع الديناصورات، وأيضاَ قانون غير رسمي آخر بألا تعبث مع السفر في الزمن، فما بالك لو عبثت بالأثنين؟
قصة قصيرة مشوقة، ورغم صفحاتها القليلة ولكنها تفتح الأفق للخيال لكي يرى الكثير والكثير، وتأتي أهميتها في وقت نشرها والخيال الجامح الذي يتمتع به الكاتب برادبوري، الذي لم يقنعني في روايته الأشهر "فهرنهايت"، ولكنه أقنعني في قصته القصيرة "هزيم الرعد".
January 14, 2018
Wow! Another brilliant story by Ray Bradbury! Although it's a really short one, you will get the essence of a lot of things like safari, time travel, the butterfly effect (literally and I loved this part the most!) etc.
I can see that the story was first published in 1951 and it talks about 2055! Isn't that interesting? Bradbury was really ahead of his times I must say! :D
I can see that the story was first published in 1951 and it talks about 2055! Isn't that interesting? Bradbury was really ahead of his times I must say! :D
February 4, 2018
A very good short story, one that makes me sincerely hope that time travel will never be possible.
August 20, 2014
Why are you reading reviews right now? You could probably read the whole story in the time you're spending reading reviews.
Click here for a free copy!!!!
You won't be disappointed.
Hopefully you listened to me and left, but obviously, if you're reading this, you didn't. Here's a second chance.
Seriously? You didn't click the link? Shame on you. I'll cut to the real review now.
This was a grate boook tht was funn to read. Itta had eferythinc that yu could want. It waz grate.
You're probably thinking that I can't write a review. It's not that I can't. I just want you to click the link. You have one more chance.
Click the link.
Click here for a free copy!!!!
You won't be disappointed.
Hopefully you listened to me and left, but obviously, if you're reading this, you didn't. Here's a second chance.
Seriously? You didn't click the link? Shame on you. I'll cut to the real review now.
This was a grate boook tht was funn to read. Itta had eferythinc that yu could want. It waz grate.
You're probably thinking that I can't write a review. It's not that I can't. I just want you to click the link. You have one more chance.
Click the link.
June 29, 2023
أثر الفراشة
August 3, 2021
An interesting story about time travel and its ripple effect by sci-fi master Ray Bradbury. The story follows a rich hunter who wants to travel to the past to kill a dinosaur. But it turns out to be unlike what he expected and the repercussions dawn on him only later.
I enjoyed how Bradbury introduced the butterfly effect with the help of a butterfly. While the story is much simplistic about time travel, it still enthralls.
On a side note, President Deutscher reminded me of the former President of the US. 🙃
This story is in the public domain and can be found online on many sites. I read it on https://www.scaryforkids.com/a-sound-...
I enjoyed how Bradbury introduced the butterfly effect with the help of a butterfly. While the story is much simplistic about time travel, it still enthralls.
On a side note, President Deutscher reminded me of the former President of the US. 🙃
This story is in the public domain and can be found online on many sites. I read it on https://www.scaryforkids.com/a-sound-...
January 28, 2021
He disfrutado mucho del viaje en el tiempo y de como Bradbury explica el famoso "efecto mariposa". Creemos que nuestras acciones no tienen importancia y que no afectan a nadie pero según el autor estamos muy equivocados, cualquier acción, por pequeña que sea puede tener sus consecuencias a largo plazo y a nivel global.
Es un libro entretenido que te anima a reflexionar sobre lo pequeños e intrascendentes que nos creemos y lo mucho que podemos cambiar el mundo.
Es un libro entretenido que te anima a reflexionar sobre lo pequeños e intrascendentes que nos creemos y lo mucho que podemos cambiar el mundo.
November 26, 2021
'A Sound of Thunder' is a short story by science fiction stalwart Ray Bradbury first published in 1952.
Bradbury's tells the imagined story of a world where we are able to travel back in time to the land of the dinosaurs - focusing very much on the potential ramifications of doing so and the so-called 'butterfly effect'.
Very beautiful and very disturbing" - is how Bradbury's story is described and referenced in Stephen King's time travelling novel '11.22.63' and 'A Sound of Thunder' is clearly in some sense an inspiration for King's aforementioned novel.
It's a great story - short and perfectly formed. Science fiction at it's very best.
Bradbury's tells the imagined story of a world where we are able to travel back in time to the land of the dinosaurs - focusing very much on the potential ramifications of doing so and the so-called 'butterfly effect'.
Very beautiful and very disturbing" - is how Bradbury's story is described and referenced in Stephen King's time travelling novel '11.22.63' and 'A Sound of Thunder' is clearly in some sense an inspiration for King's aforementioned novel.
It's a great story - short and perfectly formed. Science fiction at it's very best.
December 16, 2021
An engaging and interesting short story about a group of wealthy time-travelers heading into a prehistoric safari
January 23, 2023
Pues... relato cortito sobre los viajes en el tiempo y sus consecuencias.
**Alerta Spoiler!!
Me ha gustado mucho como en sus escasas 16 páginas lleva el efecto mariposa al extremo.Y no pude evitar acordarme del capítulo en el que Homer Simpson viaja en el tiempo con su tostadora. No sé si sacaron de aquí la idea o no, pero ha sido divertido.
Me gustó la prosa de Bradbury la encontré poética y la idea me pareció muy buena.
En fin, 4 estrellas sobre 5 porque a un relato tan corto, poca más se le puede pedir.
**Popsugar 2023 categoría 26. El libro más corto (por páginas) en tu lista de libros por leer.
**Alerta Spoiler!!
Me ha gustado mucho como en sus escasas 16 páginas lleva el efecto mariposa al extremo.Y no pude evitar acordarme del capítulo en el que Homer Simpson viaja en el tiempo con su tostadora. No sé si sacaron de aquí la idea o no, pero ha sido divertido.
Me gustó la prosa de Bradbury la encontré poética y la idea me pareció muy buena.
En fin, 4 estrellas sobre 5 porque a un relato tan corto, poca más se le puede pedir.
**Popsugar 2023 categoría 26. El libro más corto (por páginas) en tu lista de libros por leer.
August 21, 2020
Un cuento delicioso de Bradbury editado con mucho gusto por Nørdica libros.
April 25, 2018
It wasn't a good story or story line, and it had a lot of unnecessary (long) lists of cause and effect that were unneeded for the plot line in the first place. Plus the ending is awful! It doesn't wrap anything up, and just abruptly ends the story!
August 24, 2021
Great but pretty violent short story with action and time travel. Read for school.
July 30, 2015
The first Ray Bradbury short story I've ever read turns out to be one of the best short stories I've ever read. I'm hoping that's not just a coincidence.
I'm not going to bother with much of a synopsis, considering the story is about seven pages long and you should be reading it RIGHT NOW. But I will say that my mind was very, very blown.
It's a rare thing for authors to cover all their bases in short stories, but Bradbury has done it. Just when you start to think "But what-? How did they-?" He answers it. This is an especially hard thing to do when writing time- and dimension-bending stories, since it involves a technology that seems centuries from being invented, but Bradbury's vision of time travel and it's implications really rocked my world, as it is the one thing you almost never see: travelling to the distant past or future, having a little adventure, and coming back to the present and finding it irreparably changed because of your actions. The one little snag you put in the thread of time grows and tangles over the millennia until you end up with a universe where millions of things have transpired that wouldn't have if you didn't change one little tiny thing in the past.
Like stepping on a butterfly.
Bradbury's prose is silken and lyrical and the imagery he uses to bring the lofty concept of time travel down to earth is wonderful. There is one particular line of dialogue that made me stop in my tracks. Don't quote me on this, since I don't have the story in front of me, but the safari guide (Travis was his name, I think) says to the hunters something along the lines of, "Did you feel that bump in the time machine just now? That was us passing ourselves on our way back to the future." I mean, WOAH. It makes sense. In time travelling, you pass yourself, a version of you that knows more than you do know, and maybe a completely different person than who you are when you see them. Somebody whose past is your future, and who has experienced things you have no idea will even happen, and been shaped by events that haven't even come to pass.
There are dozens of paradoxes concerning time travel, but there's one I remember called the Grandfather Paradox that goes something like: If you travel back in time and kill your grandparents before they give birth to your parents, and you cease to exist, does that mean that you never go back in time to kill your grandparents in the first place? It's all about how changing the past damages and fucks with the present and future, but it also raises questions about where, or when, rather, you are. Like if you travel to the past, doesn't it cease to be the past because you are now experiencing it as you would the present? Would you be affected if you were in the future and somebody else did something in the past that changes it? Could you be time travelling and then suddenly cease to exist because another time traveller killed your grandparents, but the time traveller was actually you in the future, but how could it be if your grandparents were killed?! How could there even be a you? The moral of that story is to never kill your grandparents, obviously. And what's to stop you from accidentally meeting yourself in the past? Would you immediately start to have memories of meeting yourself, since it was in your past? And don't even get me started on Robert Heinlein's bizarre short story on time-travelling and a seriously warped family tree, 'All You Zombies'. (Read it here: http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Heinlein....) It's all rather complicated and it makes my brain hurt. But I digress.
I apologise for all the spoilers, but you shouldn't even be reading this review right now. You should be reading 'A Sound of Thunder'. So stop reading and go out there and create a version of time where you read that short story instead of this review, and maybe change the future irreparably in the process. To make it even easier, here's the link the the story: http://www.onebee.com/media/PDF/A_Sou.... Click it, god damn it.
P.S. I just attempted to watch the film adaptation of this story, and it was awful. Terrible, cliché, wouldn't-touch-it-with-a-ten-foot-pole, my-retinas-are-burning-from-its-terribleness, awful. I'm sure even Ben Kingsley is trying to erase it from his memory. Do not watch it.
P.P.S. While I was editing this review, a storm began to approach and I heard thunder in the distance... IT IS A SIGN!
I'm not going to bother with much of a synopsis, considering the story is about seven pages long and you should be reading it RIGHT NOW. But I will say that my mind was very, very blown.
It's a rare thing for authors to cover all their bases in short stories, but Bradbury has done it. Just when you start to think "But what-? How did they-?" He answers it. This is an especially hard thing to do when writing time- and dimension-bending stories, since it involves a technology that seems centuries from being invented, but Bradbury's vision of time travel and it's implications really rocked my world, as it is the one thing you almost never see: travelling to the distant past or future, having a little adventure, and coming back to the present and finding it irreparably changed because of your actions. The one little snag you put in the thread of time grows and tangles over the millennia until you end up with a universe where millions of things have transpired that wouldn't have if you didn't change one little tiny thing in the past.
Like stepping on a butterfly.
Bradbury's prose is silken and lyrical and the imagery he uses to bring the lofty concept of time travel down to earth is wonderful. There is one particular line of dialogue that made me stop in my tracks. Don't quote me on this, since I don't have the story in front of me, but the safari guide (Travis was his name, I think) says to the hunters something along the lines of, "Did you feel that bump in the time machine just now? That was us passing ourselves on our way back to the future." I mean, WOAH. It makes sense. In time travelling, you pass yourself, a version of you that knows more than you do know, and maybe a completely different person than who you are when you see them. Somebody whose past is your future, and who has experienced things you have no idea will even happen, and been shaped by events that haven't even come to pass.
There are dozens of paradoxes concerning time travel, but there's one I remember called the Grandfather Paradox that goes something like: If you travel back in time and kill your grandparents before they give birth to your parents, and you cease to exist, does that mean that you never go back in time to kill your grandparents in the first place? It's all about how changing the past damages and fucks with the present and future, but it also raises questions about where, or when, rather, you are. Like if you travel to the past, doesn't it cease to be the past because you are now experiencing it as you would the present? Would you be affected if you were in the future and somebody else did something in the past that changes it? Could you be time travelling and then suddenly cease to exist because another time traveller killed your grandparents, but the time traveller was actually you in the future, but how could it be if your grandparents were killed?! How could there even be a you? The moral of that story is to never kill your grandparents, obviously. And what's to stop you from accidentally meeting yourself in the past? Would you immediately start to have memories of meeting yourself, since it was in your past? And don't even get me started on Robert Heinlein's bizarre short story on time-travelling and a seriously warped family tree, 'All You Zombies'. (Read it here: http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Heinlein....) It's all rather complicated and it makes my brain hurt. But I digress.
I apologise for all the spoilers, but you shouldn't even be reading this review right now. You should be reading 'A Sound of Thunder'. So stop reading and go out there and create a version of time where you read that short story instead of this review, and maybe change the future irreparably in the process. To make it even easier, here's the link the the story: http://www.onebee.com/media/PDF/A_Sou.... Click it, god damn it.
P.S. I just attempted to watch the film adaptation of this story, and it was awful. Terrible, cliché, wouldn't-touch-it-with-a-ten-foot-pole, my-retinas-are-burning-from-its-terribleness, awful. I'm sure even Ben Kingsley is trying to erase it from his memory. Do not watch it.
P.P.S. While I was editing this review, a storm began to approach and I heard thunder in the distance... IT IS A SIGN!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 5, 2017
یه داستان کوتاه معروف از ری بردبری. ایده "اثر پروانه ای" در حقیقت اولین بار توی این داستان کوتاه شکل گرفته.
ممکنه الان که بخونیدش براتون خیلی تازگی نداشته باشه، ولی خب زمانی که داستان نوشته شده، این ایده تقریبا ناب بوده.
از اینجا میتونید بخونید داستان رو:
http://www.fantasy.ir/news/story/%D8%...
ممکنه الان که بخونیدش براتون خیلی تازگی نداشته باشه، ولی خب زمانی که داستان نوشته شده، این ایده تقریبا ناب بوده.
از اینجا میتونید بخونید داستان رو:
http://www.fantasy.ir/news/story/%D8%...
June 11, 2020
Included as a short story in The Time Traveller's Almanac: The Ultimate Treasury of Time Travel Fiction - Brought to You from the Future
May 2, 2016
What would happen if you make the tiniest of errors?
Bradbury makes a great explanation of the chaos theory. Contrary to popular belief, he did not invent the concept of the butterfly effect.
Bradbury makes a great explanation of the chaos theory. Contrary to popular belief, he did not invent the concept of the butterfly effect.
January 4, 2018
4 Stars
I had to read this book for my English class that I am taking this year. At first I was not to crazy about reading this book simply because what we read in school is always is boring for me. As we got reading though I had changed my mind about this book. I did like how it was short with only 41 pages. I was kind of surprised that we actually read a book that was short because most of the time we read books that are kind of long. I thought the writing was good. I was really surprised that it was easy to understand better than I thought it would be. I would maybe read this book again maybe once or twice. I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a short book to read.
I had to read this book for my English class that I am taking this year. At first I was not to crazy about reading this book simply because what we read in school is always is boring for me. As we got reading though I had changed my mind about this book. I did like how it was short with only 41 pages. I was kind of surprised that we actually read a book that was short because most of the time we read books that are kind of long. I thought the writing was good. I was really surprised that it was easy to understand better than I thought it would be. I would maybe read this book again maybe once or twice. I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a short book to read.
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