Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Long After Midnight
    Long After Midnight
    Long After Midnight
    Audiobook9 hours

    Long After Midnight

    Written by Ray Bradbury

    Narrated by MacLeod Andrews

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Two drifters caught in the backwash of space wander from city to dead city, sifting the rubble for the fabled Blue Bottle of Mars-and find in it two different, equally entrancing, dooms... A young boy in Green Town, Illinois, does not marry-yet marries-his beloved eighth-grade teacher... In the hell of a Manhattan July night, Will Morgan is offered a possibly Mephistophelean proposal by which he might gain a perfect love and a magical immunity... A jealous husband who orders an exact replica of his unfaithful wife from an android manufacturing company (purpose: murder) runs afoul of the compassionate new "live robot" law... At forty-eight, seized with an overwhelming desire to settle an old score, a man journeys back into the past under the spell of his "utterly perfect, incredibly delightful idea," only to recoil in stunned disbelief when he confronts, at last, his former tormentor... Bradbury's imaginative field is boundless. In this book, his stories carry us from the cozy familiarity of the small-town America we lived in in Dandelion Wine to the frozen desert and double moon that have been part of our interior landscape since The Martian Chronicles. His characters range from the "ordinary"-a rookie cop, an unhappy wife on vacation in Mexico, an old parish priest hearing confession-to the quite extraordinary: the parrot to whom Ernest Hemingway confided the plot of his last, greatest, never-put-down-on-paper novel, and a woman who, in New York City in the summer of 1974, hangs out a sign reading "Melissa Toad, Witch." Fantastic or conventional, chillingly suspenseful or hauntingly nostalgic, each of these stories has that aura of the unexpected combined with the special ring of absolute rightness that is brilliantly, uniquely Bradbury.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateAug 3, 2018
    ISBN9781501966217
    Long After Midnight
    Author

    Ray Bradbury

    In a career spanning more than seventy years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think, and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and close to fifty books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time. His groundbreaking works include Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. An Emmy Award winner for his teleplay The Halloween Tree and an Academy Award nominee, he was the recipient of the 2000 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, the 2004 National Medal of Arts, and the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, among many honors.

    More audiobooks from Ray Bradbury

    Related to Long After Midnight

    Related audiobooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky

      May 12, 2020

      Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky
      7 min read

    • Article

      Hunting Ghost Ponds

      Jul 27, 2023

      THE OLD NORFOLK gamekeeper, who was sitting next to me in the Land Rover, shifted uncomfortably and adjusted his hearing aid. “Right, about this pond. There are ponds. There are plenty of ponds but they’re all overgrown. I can show you them. But to b

      3 min read

    • Article

      Selkie

      Feb 3, 2022

      Selkie
      10 min read

    • Article

      New Land

      Oct 13, 2017

      New Land
      11 min read

    • Article

      Table Talk

      Mar 1, 2018

      Table Talk
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Joy Of Sticks

      Sep 30, 2022

      The Joy Of Sticks
      2 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Sep 1, 2022

      1. Here there’s no rainy season.Sun scalds my forehead,yet the pool is empty. Beside it,a toppled table, its glass surface shattered.The asphalt is too hot for bare feet. 2. Far away: white hillocksand white dunes under a deepblue sky. Swirling winds

      5 min read

    • Article

      A Tableau Of Life And Death

      Dec 22, 2022

      When discussing death over an intimate candle-lit dinner with a former future-ex who said she’d like her ashes scattered on the River Blackwater I got my diary out and said: “I’m free on the 20th.” Turns out this was the wrong thing to say – I only m

      3 min read

    • Article

      Marco

      Mar 1, 2022

      THE ALLEY STANK . Marco could feel the damp soaking into his tunic as he pressed his back against the wall, trying to seem like part of the shadows. He cursed himself. How could he have been so stupid? He knew if he stayed out after dark they might f

      6 min read

    • Article

      Happy As A Mudlark

      Jul 13, 2020

      Happy As A Mudlark
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Time Machine

      Aug 4, 2021

      There’s a pattern built into this story – can you work it out from the numbers in bold at the start of each section? I’m sitting on the beach by Rhodes port, watching sailors load our luggage onto a ship bound for Rome. I don’t want to go, but my f

      7 min read

    • Article

      Off The Scale

      Apr 29, 2022

      Off The Scale
      7 min read

    • Article

      Wax On

      Mar 16, 2021

      Wax On
      4 min read

    • Article

      Final Analysis

      Feb 1, 2022

      It’s an early December morning and a bit cold in my office (desk at the end of my bed). The temperature reads 7°C. I pull on a 100% polyester hand-wash-only Fila brand gilet. The sash windows are draughty and speckled with black mould. Condensation i

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Scrub

      Oct 3, 2018

      The Scrub
      3 min read

    • Article

      Death Is No Laughing Matter

      Nov 10, 2023

      Death Is No Laughing Matter
      3 min read

    • Article

      Maxim Osipov

      Mar 9, 2021

      Vnukovo is the smallest, most intimate of Moscow’s airports, and when your flight arrives—especially if it arrives on Saturday at eleven at night—you don’t expect to see much of a crowd. Stamps in the passport, baggage claim—quick and easy. “Where ar

      14 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    • Article

      Burning Man Blazes Into Britain: Can Its Wild Sculptural Magic Work In The Dales?

      Mar 23, 2022

      Climbing the inside of Christina Sporrong’s gigantic head, I look up towards the books that are escaping through the top of its open skull and fluttering out into the perfect blue sky. I have to watch my step – there are some gaps in the railings – u

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Beyoğlu Municipality Waste Management Orchestra

      Jun 8, 2021

      Selim the half-wit hoarded everything—that was the story they told me my first day in waste management. Selim had lost his wife, and I guess everyone figured he took up hoarding as a way to fill the void. It started out with stuff his wife might have

      24 min read

    • Article

      Poem Of The Week: How To Be A Fern By Kit Fan

      Jul 17, 2023

      How to Be a Fern Blue-white then inky grey then hailstonesgo pitter-patter on the glass.The city I loved whose name I’ve erased returnsbetween me and the glassas the thunder bends like saxophonesburied inside one of Keats’s urns.Give me a second chan

      2 min read

    • Article

      Pour One For Me

      Jan 15, 2024

      Pour One For Me
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Long After Midnight

    4/5

    140 ratings11 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      The October Game was my favorite story in Long After Midnight. It's one of those tales where the last line punches you right in the gut.

      Unfortunately, many of the rest of the stories didn't resonate with me. Perhaps I read this collection too close to The Martian Chronicles? I couldn't help but compare the two and The Chronicles always came out ahead.

      I'm still happy that I read this collection, as my goal is to read all of Ray Bradbury's work. I guess not all of his stories are going to knock the ball out of the park, but a mediocre Bradbury story is still better than a good one from most other authors.

      Recommended for fans of science fiction, dark fiction and short stories.
    • 5/5
      A fabulous celebration of imagination, shady spots of the soul, and writing itself. Bradbury's confidence is intoxicating - how he pulls of his trapeze act of shouting the story as if in a fit and yet staying superbly readable, I'll never know.

      Don't expect sci-fi or fantasy; it's anything but.
    • 4/5
      For me this was his last really great collection of stories, where I loved every one. Misplaced my original copy and had to buy a replacement, then found this special edition published by PS and signed by him.
    • 3/5
      The subtitle of this collection is "22 hauntings and celebrations." I suppose it is, but not much to celebrate. I would say it is about wishes also. Getting what you wished for isn't always good we are reminded (but sometimes it is.) These 22 stories were written between 1946 and 1976. The collection was first published in 1976 and 11 of the stories were published between 1971 and 1976. With only 2 stories from the early 60's and the rest from 1946-1954, there is a real time split in the collection between early stuff and contemporary (at publication). The stories are a broad mix of a lot of mainstream fiction, some zany stuff, horror/supernatural, science-fiction and surreal/fantasy. The zany stuff was entertaining at times, the angst-ridden modern material was really tiresome and it didn't seem like Bradbury.Like many writers, Bradbury had a period early in his career where he produced a lot of really good work. Later Bradbury almost always suffers in comparison to his early great works. The later material in here, with a few exceptions seems much weaker, certainly different. Some of the early material isn't his best work either. Nevertheless of the 22 stories here perhaps 5 or so are very good stories (and come from across the years), and even the majority of lesser stories are OK, which leaves this reader with a mostly satisfied feeling at the end, but wishing it was better. So, there is good and bad Bradbury in here, but mostly unmemorable. There were two "Green Town" stories that I had just read in "Summer Morning, Summer Night" as well as other Green Town stories including an early one from 1946, "One Timeless Spring" that I had not read before and that handles young Doug's first kiss pretty well, although I thought the first part of the story rather awful/weak. There is also an absolutely crazy Adolph Hitler story in here. My favorite stories or ones that I thought notable, included: "The Burning Man" (1976) which managed to create a pretty spooky bit of horror in a few pages without anything horrible actually happening on the page. "Long After Midnight" (1963) in some ways is the best story in the collection; it sure hits hard. "The October Game" (1948), a genuine horror story that I've read before. I must also give a nod to "The Better Part of Wisdom" (1976) for a sensitive, progressive handling of a homosexual relationship. I don't think it a great story, but a noteworthy one. There is also a story here, "The Messiah" (1973), which to me is a good add-on to "The Martian Chronicles" and I liked it.
    • 5/5
      I'm thoroughly enjoying these short stories. They're the perfect length, each about 10 to 15 pages, just enough to build up the story and knock it over with a classic Bradbury twist. My favorite stories for far are "The Burning Man", which asks the reader to reexamine his or her own prejudices in the setting of a typical lone road hitchhiker horror story, and "The Perfect Murder" which shows that time is the ultimate judge and jury. I plan to finish reading the remaining stories and mail the book on Saturday.
    • 4/5
      The Blue Bottle - some humans have travelled to Mars to search for a special blue bottle which is filled with whatever the beholder most wants it to be filled with.One Timeless Spring - I really liked this one. A pre-teen boy is convinced that his parents are poisoning him and his teachers are brainwashing him. But then he kisses a girl and realizes that it's just puberty.The Parrot Who Met Papa - Papa being [[Ernest Hemingway]]. Hemingway used to go to a bar in Cuba and talk to this parrot there. He told him all kinds of gossip about other celebrities (which could be used for blackmail) and the rumor is that he told a story to the parrot that was never written down. The parrot becomes a celebrity because it knows everything Hemingway said, and speaks in his voice. Now Hemingway is gone (dead, I think), and someone has kidnapped the parrot. A reporter travels to Cuba to figure out whodunit. But the real challenge is getting the parrot back, and what to do with it. (I *loved* this one)The Burning Man - a woman and her nephew pick up a hitchhiker who is probably Satan.A Piece of Wood - A soldier tells his superior officer that he has created a machine which will rust all metal (i.e. guns) within a set radius. Good thing the soldier is merely a harmless psych ward resident who has been wandering around. Right?The Messiah - A particularly devout priest on Mars sees Jesus in his church. Or maybe it's a Martian who looks like Jesus. G.B.S - Mark V - G.B.S. being [[George Bernard Shaw]], who at this point is a robot living on a space ship. He is basically in a prison cell and is extremely unpopular with everyone except one crew member, who shirks his duties (and social life) to hang out with G.B.S. Then there is a meteor that kills everyone except robot G.B.S. and his friend, and they have a grand old time.The Utterly Perfect Murder - A 50-year-old man decides to travel across the country back to his home town and kill the man who was his frenemy when they were 8.Punishment Without Crime - An old man learns that his young wife is cheating on him. He decides that instead of getting mad at her he will go to a company where he can pay to murder a robot that is designed to look and act exactly like his wife, and thus avoid actually hurting anyone or doing something illegal and getting in trouble Getting though Sunday, Somehow - On a boring Sunday, a man is moping in a park in Dublin. He hears a woman playing the harp and it makes him un-mopey. He goes up to her and tells her how awesome her playing is for like 20 minutes, but somehow that makes her play badly. Then he leaves her alone.Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds - I did not understand this one at all. A man sees an interesting sign on the street and so he walks over to it and then he meets a witch who says she wants to give him everything he desires in exchange for his soul. Then she says just kidding, a person can't give away their soul, they can only lose it. Also she wants to marry him. Then the man goes to work and he thinks he's going to get laid off but he wishes his coworker would get laid off instead. Neither of them gets laid off. Then the man goes back to the witch and he will marry her, but she says she won't marry him because he doesn't have a soul anymore. Then many years later the man runs into his coworker, who now owns the company they worked for.Interval in Sunlight - This was really hard to listen to (I had to stop several times because I was too upset), and it did not have the ending that I needed to feel okay about it. A woman and her horrible awful abusive asshole husband are on vacation in Mexico. And he is terrible. He controls her with money (she has to pay him every time she "ruins" something, such as getting him a soda that is not cold enough) and by tearing down her self esteem at every moment. She tries to get free in several different ways, but she can't.A Story of Love - A 13-year-old boy is in love with his teacherThe Wish - A man wishes on the first snow of the year that his father would come back to life. His wish comes true, but it isn't quite what he wanted. But then it is.Forever and the Earth - 200 years in the future, a book publisher decides that the only author who could do justice to the majesty of the Space Age is [[Tom Wolfe]]. So he sends someone back in time to get Wolfe an hour before he dies, cure him, and bring him to the 23rd century. It is done, and the publisher sends Wolfe to Mars where he writes and writes and writes. And then they send him back to the 1900s to die so that they don't cause a paradox.The Better Part of Wisdom - A dying uncle visits his grown nephew. He's oblivious/in denial about his nephew's homosexuality, but comes to terms with it after recalling how he felt when he was young and in love. Darling Adolf - A really weird story about two Jewish men in the 70s who are directing/producing a movie about Hitler. After some choice comments by the lead actor about hosting and filming a real Nazi rally at Nuremberg to get Nazi supporters to be free extras, the producer & director are convinced that the actor wants to use his role in the movie to actually take over the world. The Miracles of Jamie - Jamie really wants to do well on his test, and then he does. Jamie really wants a girl to like him, and then she does. Clearly, Jamie must be able to perform miracles. But then one day Jamie really wants something that he doesn't have control over.The October Game - A creepy horror story about a really, really bad father who hates his wife and is throwing a Halloween party for his young daughter.The Pumpernickel - A loaf of pumpernickel bread in a deli reminds a man of a summer he had with some friends when he was young. He wants to send the bread to them to remind them as well, but then he remembers that after that summer, they all forgot about him. So he eats the bread instead.Long After Midnight - Some EMTs collect the body of a beautiful teenage girl who has hanged herself from a tree. They speculate on what she must have been like and what could have happened to cause her to do something so drastic. Then they take a closer look at her, and realize that all is not what it seems. Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You - A chocoholic goes to confession, which is very exciting for the priest who is tired of fornicators and masturbators. He eventually helps the young glutton, simply by talking with him every day for the whole summer. Then the man leaves to travel the world. Many years later he returns to thank the priest, and leaves him a gift brought from Vatican City.
    • 4/5
      This collection of 22 short stories showcases the range and diversity of Bradbury's writing. There are, of course, science fiction stories set on Mars or aboard rocket ships---such as the opener, "The Blue Bottle"; "The Messiah" about priests on Mars and a Martian who appears to humans in the shape they want to see, similar to a few of the stories in The Martian Chronicles and elsewhere; and "G.B.S.--Mark V", about a robot George Bernard Shaw. There are also scary stories, such as "The Burning Man" and the shockingly horrific "The October Game", perfect for Halloween. Then there are humorous stories, such as "The Parrot Who Met Papa" about the kidnapping of a bird which has memorized Hemingway's final unpublished novel, and the closing story "Have I Got A Chocolate Bar For You!" And there are moving stories, such as "The Miracles of Jamie" about a young boy who imagines that he is Christ reincarnated as a means of coping with his mother's terminal illness, and the aforementioned "Chocolate Bar". And there are several other stories, some of which are difficult to even classify. But they all have in common Bradbury's trademark charm and magic.Most of Bradbury's short story collections contain one or two that fall flat, but this one, while it doesn't have any that really stand out, doesn't really have an clunkers as far as I can remember. It's just a solid set of work, not his best, but definitely worth reading.
    • 4/5
      A collection of short stories. Some are better than others. Some are science fiction and others are of general interest. Ray Bradbury wrote some clever short stories and several that seem to have little value. I recommend it based on the fact that some of the stories are entertaining and thought provoking.
    • 5/5
      a wonderful anthology!! a well earned five stars!! "The Blue Bottle" kicks it off, about a Martian-made blue bottle that, once opened, gives the opener whatever he mostly wants. This Hemingway fan was exhilerated by "The Parrot who Met Papa," and the stories "The Miracles of Jamie" and "The Messiah" deal with my favorite pre-puberescent fantasy -- that I was the second coming of Christ.
    • 5/5
      This is for everyone who thinks Bradbury is 'just' a SF writer and it cannot be serious literature. Ray Bradbury's a marvellous writer, a pure genius....
    • 5/5
      Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favorite short story writers. These stories range from science fiction, to fantasy, to horror or mystery. He's thought of primarily as a science fiction writer, but you will find that his stories run the gamut.