NOW AND FOREVER: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99
Ray Bradbury
Harper
Fantasy
Hardcover: 0061131563
Paperback: 9780061131578

• Read an Excerpt

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bearing birthdates but no mortal dates, an existence with no children, of long-lost stories of history that have been archived for all eternity.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 smooth and hypnotic, Bradbury never loses an audience or leads them to believe they are reading --- they experience the story. Were it that more writers could be so brilliant. Then again, that would only serve to undermine what an exquisite storyteller Bradbury has always been and continues to be.

    --- Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard

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