Previous

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert C. Heinlein

Robert C. Heinlein’s 1961 novel also explores the implications of an inter-planetary human race. Stranger in a Strange Land is an extension of many of the same ideas in Bradbury’s "All Summer in a Day." In Heinlein’s story, a young man who grew up on Mars due to a mishap returns to Earth a stranger.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke was one of Ray Bradbury’s contemporaries, and the two wrote many of the classic Space Age science fiction of the 1950s and ‘60s. Like “All Summer in a Day,” 2001: A Space Odyssey imagines what it might look like, practically, for humans to travel through space and explore new worlds. Clarke’s 1968 novel also explores the darker implications of humans’ relationship to the powerful technology they create. 

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The primary subject of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1969 masterpiece Slaughterhouse-Five is World War II, but it is also a classic science fiction story. While Bradbury’s settlers of Venus have created a hell of their own making, Vonnegut’s protagonist is kidnapped by aliens and forced to live in exceedingly comfortable captivity. 

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

William Golding’s 1954 novel Lord of the Flies also explores children’s bullying and the resulting alienation of its victims in extreme circumstances. The novel uses an extreme setting to illuminate the machinations behind human behavior.

Previous section Other Ray Bradbury Works on SparkNotes

Take a Study Break