NOW AND FOREVER; Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99, by Ray Bradbury (212 pgs., 2007). These are two never before published novellas by the author. Bradbury is now in his 80's & not only is he still writing, but he's producing top-quality work. I admire him & am envious of him at the same time.
This collection of two novellas in another wonderful addition to this already long oeuvre. The first novella, Somewhere a Band Is Playing, is my favorite of the two in this volume. It's not that Leviathan '99 is of a lesser quality of writing & storytelling. It isn't. The latter is a very original retelling of the Moby Dick story, except it takes place in the future, in outer space & the whale is replaced by a gigantic, planet eating comet. We have an obsessed captain of a space ship who has been blinded in a prior encounter with the comet, a first mate who tries to change the captain's obsession, & crewmates loyal to the captain & willing to risk all in the hunt for the comet. Toss in an alien spaceman from a far distant galaxy & some time shifting & you have the story. It's exciting & unique, but I'm less of a science fiction fan than a fan of fantasy & alternative world possibilities. The first novella encompasses more of the latter.
Somewhere, in the middle of nowhere Arizona, is a place called Summertown. The train doesn't even stop there. It simply races through it & if you want to visit the town, you must jump off the train. If you long for an Eden-like utopia, you've stumbled upon the right place. This story takes place in modern times. Apparently, all throughout human history there have been people who outlive the normal span of life by many years. Some people live for 150 or more years. Some are almost immortal. They find this out when they outlive loved ones & even their own children. Eventually, they become loners, moving from place to place, so others won't learn their secret. Not only do they live much longer lives, but, they don't seem to outwardly grow older, once they reach a certain age. By some sort of internal radar these people are able to find each other. Eventually communities are formed, where they can live in peace among their own kind. They also apparently have green thumbs when it comes to vegetation, as they can grow trees, flowers, grasses, & vegetables in the most inhospitable of place, such as the Arizona desert. They build entire towns with false courthouses, town halls, & schools so that the occasional accidental visitor won't stumble upon their secret. There is even a hotel. They are also able to move their entire town from one isolated place to another without leaving a trace of their existence, if & when such a move becomes necessary. How do they get money? They are all writers! Ha, is this a utopian dream for writers, or not!? I loved this story. They use the postal service & live off their royalty checks. They write under various pen names. Into this utopia stumbles a newspaperman, intent on telling the story of this town & perhaps exposing it to the world. Instead, he falls in love with a woman as old as an Egyptian Queen (or is she?) & wants to protect this town from being exposed. He is able to thwart nefarious schemes of a rival newspaperman & brings the town warning of a new interstate highway that is being planned to go right through the town. James Cardiff is the good guy who must decide whether to stay or leave or move with the town, when it moves. I identified with James in this novella. I wished such a place & such a group of people really did exist & I wished that if I dreamt them, they would be true & I could journey to such a place & join the people & live in that type of bliss for all the years that would be granted to me.

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.

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.

This two-novel volume is a quick, light and enjoyable read but doesn't reach the standard of quality one would expect from Bradbury. The first story is rather nebulous and never really grabs you. The second story, a futuristic repackaging of "Moby Dick," is the stronger of the two stories; but even this tale isn't on par with the rest of Bradbury's writings. The characters and plot don't stick with you or have that memorable quality of so many of Bradbury's works. Even the style lacks his usual flair. An enjoyable read for Bradbury fans, but not recommended if you aren't already on the Bradbury bandwagon.

NOW AND FOREVER is a collection of two novellas, "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" and "Leviathan `99", from American master-writer Ray Bradbury. The stories are not actually new stories by Bradbury because as he explains in the introduction, he has been working on them in one form or the other for nearly 40 years.

In "Somewhere a Band Is Playing", a newspaperman named James Cardiff, from out East, travels to the mystical town of Summerton, Arizona. He brings with him news of the small city's impending doom with the recent approval of a new interstate schedule to be built right through the middle of the town. Summerton is a quaint, quite, and peaceful place and as Cardiff soon finds out the people there are full of mysteries of their own. He becomes torn between the people he grows to love there and of his former life back East. The story evokes memories of a more simple time and era and is full of threads of nostalgia. As Bradbury explains in the introduction, the story was originally begun as a project for Katherine Hepburn, but he never was able to get the proposed stage play or screenplay adapted before her death.

Whereas "Somewhere a Band Is Playing" evokes warm memories of the past, "Leviathan `99" is a story that looks to the future when humankind has conquered parts of space and is actively engaged in exploring more. Originally intended as a radio play and conceived while Bradbury was writing the screenplay for MOBY DICK, "Leviathan `99" is set in the year 2099 and is told by astronaut Ishmael Jones. Jones is assigned to the jewel starship Cestus 7. The ship is captained by a veteran commander who went blind many years ago while trying to capture a great white comet called Leviathan. Long after the journey begins and while the crew has been in space, the Captain ignores his orders and sets out on a mad quest to meet the comet once again. He convinces most of his crew that this is a necessity because the comet is on a course to destroy Earth, but they later learn that this is not true. Mutiny is threatened as the Captain still sets course to meet the great comet once and for all.

I'm a big fan of Bradbury's writings, especially his short stories. Both tales in NOW AND FOREVER are good examples of Bradbury's simple writing style. Of course, like many of Bradbury's tales, they also include somewhat supernatural events that sometimes confuse casual readers. They aren't necessarily great stories and they don't deal with any pressing issues, but they are easy and fun to read. I read the book in two nights (one for each novella). Recommended for fans of Bradbury or for people just looking for a very light and quick read.