The Illustrated Man

By: Ray Bradbury

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Ari Fliakos, Marin Ireland

A new recording of Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, narrated by Marin Ireland, Ari Fliakos, and Prentice Onayemi!

The Illustrated Man, a classic collection of interconnected stories, is a seminal work in Ray Bradbury’s career, whose extraordinary power and imagination remain undimmed by time’s passage.

Ray Bradbury brings wonders alive. For this peerless American storyteller, the most bewitching force in the universe is human nature. In these eighteen startling tales unfolding across a canvas of tattooed skin, living cities take their vengeance, technology awakens the most primal natural instincts, and dreams are carried aloft in junkyard rockets. Provocative and powerful, The Illustrated Man is a kaleidoscopic blending of magic, imagination, and truth—as exhilarating as interplanetary travel, as maddening as a walk in a million-year rain, and as comforting as simple, familiar rituals on the last night of the world.

Collection of short depressing stories

TLDR: Beautifully written, deeply meaningful, but dense and pretty depressing. Read it slowly — and maybe have something lighthearted on standby!

Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man is a beautifully written, deeply literary collection of short stories woven together by the striking image of a man covered in living tattoos. Each story is haunting, introspective, and packed with meaning — exploring the darker sides of humanity, technology, and our future.

The opening stories pulled me right in, and the concepts Bradbury tackles are still incredibly relevant. But fair warning: this book is dense and relentlessly bleak. After halfway through, I found myself needing to slow down and take breaks — the heavy themes can feel like a lot to carry all at once.

The ending loops back to the illustrated man himself, but it doesn’t really wrap things up — it leaves you with the same eerie, uneasy feeling as the rest of the book. It’s more of an open-ended chill than a satisfying conclusion, which might not work for everyone.