Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99

by Ray Bradbury

Book Overview

A journalist bearing terrible news leaps from a still-moving train into a small town of wonderful, impossible secrets . . . The doomed crew of a starship follows their blind, mad captain on a quest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061131563
• ISBN13: 9780061131561
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Ray Bradbury's Two "New" Exciting Novella

Ray Bradbury has once again created two thought provoking tales, one of a unqiue town in Arizona where no one ages and another set in space chasing an elusive comet. Ray, always the romantic, involves several themes into "Somewhere A Band is Playing." one of youth seeking love and companionship, yet another being the desire of us all to live forever. "Leviathan 99," echoing Melville's battle with Moby Dick, has a crew seeking out a rebel comet out to destroy them before they destroy it. All good reading, fast paced and exciting.

"And Death will lie silent forever In June and June and more June."

If there is something you can take away from this book, then let it be that some stories aren't just cranked out of the typewriter, word processor, or whatever method the author uses to put them onto paper. They are often the product of constant revision and framing that takes place over years, or even decades before the author is satisfied with the final draft. Take for example the two novellas featured in Now and Forever: "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" and "Leviathan '99". The genesis for the former came from 1926 Tucson, Arizona. And the latter story's roots came from the days in which radio was the main source of entertainment. In "Somewhere a Band Is Playing", a reporter named James Cardiff finds himself mysteriously drawn to the unmapped town of Summerton, Arizona. At first, he doesn't completely understand why he is here of all places. But the more he stays, the stranger the truth is and the clearer his understanding becomes. For instance, there are no children in the town. Even more shocking is how in the town's cemetery, the tombstones have the names and dates of birth engraved upon them; but where the date of death should be is blank, unetched stone. I am reminded of a cross between a much less sinister version of Bradbury's own "Mars is Heaven" and James Hinton's Lost Horizon: A Novel. Cardiff is in many ways like Hugh Conway, particulary how both of them are torn between paradise and the less perfect world that the rest of us live in. Yet Bradbury infuses the story with more than enough originality and flair, so it is its own unique entity. "Leviathan '99" is a futuristic take on Moby-Dick or, The Whale. Instead of hearing the call to the sea, Ishmael feels the pull of the cosmos. The whaling vessel Pequod becomes the gigantic starship Cetus 7. The titular white whale of Melville's novel is replaced by a comet that may be on a collision course with Earth. And Captain Ahab is now blind, insane, and will stop at nothing in order to conquer the comet that he blames for taking his sight. This story is what I have always wanted to read from Bradbury - cosmic fiction of novella length. I say cosmic (not science) fiction since his work entails very little actual science utilized by hard SF giants like Clarke, Asimov, or Heinlein. But I still find it tremendously enjoyable nonetheless even with all the technical innaccuracies. Getting back to the subject, he has more short story collections than novels; none of those really leave the Earthly domain. Here he finally has the space to let his imagination run free, especially when it comes to the Captain's dementedly Shakespearean monologues. Seeing how he is now 88 years old, Bradbury will probably never put out another book that will create a major cultural impact like Fahrenheit 451 or The Martian Chronicles. However, I find Now and Forever to be another worthy addition to his canon, and so will many of his longtime readers.

An exquisite storyteller

The two stories in NOW AND FOREVER are not new. In fact, "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" was begun over 40 years ago. "Leviathan '99" began life as a radio play script that was never produced as television started to grow. Aged though they may be, this is the first they have seen the light of day, finally dusted off, polished and presented to the reading world. As with most of what Ray Bradbury delivers to us, they are gems --- beautiful gifts of wonder and humanity that pull and lure until we, as mere readers, are within the story and seeing it side by side with the characters. "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" is a tale of eternal youth, of ghost towns and havens, perhaps even heavens, for those fortunate enough to find their way. Sumerton, Arizona isn't found on any map. It is a quiet town in the middle of the desert, soon to fall under the coming onslaught of time and industry as the Interstate will bury it under concrete. James Cardiff arrives in Sumerton to warn its residents, though he does not know why he chose to come or what he can really do. While there, he begins to find a world he never imagined --- a world without death, of cemeteries filled with gravestones bearing birthdates but no mortal dates, an existence with no children, of long-lost stories of history that have been archived for all eternity. Katharine Hepburn was the inspiration for the story and for its character Nef, who never ages. In his introduction, Bradbury says that he worked on the tale for years, finding inspiration in movies and life, hoping one day to have it ready for Hepburn to star in on stage or screen. She would not see it completed, and Bradbury's admission colors the story with more sorrow and more beauty. Likewise, "Leviathan '99" was begun in the hopes of having it directed for radio broadcast by Norman Corwin. It was never to be, though Bradbury would eventually continue to redraft the original work until he felt it was suitable for the stage. It failed in that medium, and he tried to rework it back to its more original form until he included it in this book. The novella came on the heels of his screenplay for MOBY DICK, and it is nothing more than that classic story reworked for a different age. Set in the year 2099 aboard the starship Cestus 7, Ishmael Jones is a crewman caught between his desire for survival and his duty to follow his Captain. Standard exploratory orders have been ignored, and the Captain, blind and mad, pursues Leviathan, the most devastating and impressive comet the universe has ever known. This unnamed Ahab hurtles his crew into certain destruction in his bid to destroy the beast before it can pulverize the Earth --- which is a misguided belief. Both stories shine, and though so completely different in tone and setting, they bear the trademark Bradbury style. There is a simplicity to the tales, even where a more complex issue or thought is explored, and it permits the reader to just exist within the story. With a writing style so

The Band is still playing

Books should make us think and "Somewhere a Band is Playing" certainly invites the reader to think about life, death, eternity, choices, love etc. It's a novella that needs to be read a few times in order to not miss all that Bradbury is asking of the reader. I loved Chapter 14 which consists of two sentences. "Nef was not at breakfast, or lunch, or dinner. He went to bed hungry." You'll have to read the book to understand all that a fine writer like Mr. Bradbury conveys in those two sentences.

two fabulous novellas

"Somewhere A Band Is Playing". A suitcase is tossed off a moving train followed by James Cardiff jumping off next. He sees a perfect little town with buildings painted fresh, lawns mowed properly and everything seemingly built to perfection. However there are some strange things about the place including the fact there are no children while the cemetery's gravestones have dates of birth but no dates of death. The inhabitants don't age and come from different eras and places and stay forever young. Cardiff returns home with a decision about his future to make. This is a magical tale about a town where no body dies or grows ill. Readers will thoroughly enjoy the fully developed characters who befriend a wandering writer. "Leviathan '99". In the year 2099 Ishmael journeys to Cape Kennedy to become an astronaut on an interstellar flight. His roommate is the sentient like spider Quell who came from the far islands of the great Andromeda Nebula to learn. They board the ship Cetus 7 captained by a blind man. They are to go on a journey of years tracking and charting three comets. The comet Leviathan blinded the captain and now he intends to destroy the comet. He alone believes will hit earth and destroy it despite what the scientists say. His obsession makes him ignore a ship that escaped after being trapped in Leviathan and made him ignore a mother's plea to find her missing son on a space pod. This homage to Herman Melville is destined to be a classic. These two fabulous novellas show the vastness and the range of talent of this grandmaster as he scribes a whimsical fantasy and a science fiction version of Moby Dick in space. Harriet Klausner