Review: "Things are what you want them to be"
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 15, 2012
I discovered science fiction in the mid-1950s when I was about ten years old. Ray Bradbury quickly became one of my favorite authors. Now, many years later, I'm delighted to see some of his works being republished as ebooks.Although "The Playground" was one of Bradbury's earlier works, it evokes the same kind of vivid sensory images of later classics like Something Wicked This Way Comes. In the story, Charles Underhill is determined to spare his son Jim from the years-long cruelty and suffering of childhood. He would do anything, even trade places with his son if he could. But that meant entering the Playground and being beaten and tormented by the other kids for years.Was the Playground a real place, or was it simply a symbol for the pain of growing up and learning life's lessons the hard way? There was only one way for Charles Underhill to find out.This was a creepy, captivating story told by a master storyteller. We'll miss Ray Bradbury, but his work lives on.