The Illustrated Man By Ray Bradbury

Like Stephen King, I believe Ray Bradbury is an iconic author, and one whom I personally adore. I must admit I am a bit biased as I grew up with his stories and studied more than a couple in school.
My sister first told me about this book when I was in elementary school, and I had never been able to get my hands on a copy until now. As you can imagine a man whose skin is covered in stories that actually move and tell tales is more than appealing to someone of that age.
When I first started this book it was everything I had ever hoped it to be and more. Once again Mr. Bradbury manages to spellbind with his descriptions of both character and his depictions of a possible technological future.
He has a particular talent with engaging technology in an overabundance and having it shrink the people into themselves as somewhat lesser beings for their dependency on such things as a "shoelace tier" and a table that produces meals from itself.
Though I did not know upon starting the book that it was a collection of short stories (which was a bit of a let down to be honest) I immediately was captured by each story in turn. Most having to do with space travel and Martians of one being or another. Such as the story of the men walking through the never ending rains of Venus that wash away the color from your being and drives you mad, or the nursery whose walls come to life with the imagination of its inhabitants (thus being
lions in Africa whom you can smell and feel the heat), or the Martians who are really the souls of men floating around as glowing blue orbs. Some of these stories I wished would be longer and had more to them, simply because it was so interesting and I hate to end a story (I never have been a huge fan of short stories) though some stories were so similar in the sense of flying in a rocket to mars, that it seemed redundant but each storyh had such unique characters and themes so different that I feel as if I need to go on a Bradbury-Bender and reread all of his works.
What really fascinates me about Mr. Bradbury is that he wrote the majority of his works in the mid 1900's. The illustrated Man was published in 1951, and yet they take place in what would now be modern times or in the near future. Yet these things he writes about (which I believe He believed would be happening around this time era) have not occurred, really at all. Space travel is nowhere near beign commercialized, life on other planets is still HIGHLY controversial with "no proof" and no communication, not to mention interplanetary travel. Yet it is still written as if it could occur and with strong conviction.
There has been no author that has come close to the originality and conviction of his works in this genre and to me he is, and remains so, the leader in the science fiction department.