First Published: 1952

Rating: Great

"The sign on the wall seemed to quaver under a film of sliding warm water."

Time Safari, Inc. is in the business of sending hunters back in time to bag big game--the cold-blooded kind with little patience and large teeth. It's all very regulated thanks to the government--hunters are accompanied by Safari guides who have selected animals near death to kill, and everyone must stay on a path that hovers six inches above the ground so as to avoid touching even a blade of grass.

Still, it's the kind of thrill that attracts the likes of Eckels, a hunter who comes to Time Safari on the day after the 2055 presidential election in high spirits. With a guide, an assistant, and two other hunters, Eckels steps through time and into the days of the T-Rex. When the beast finally appears, the power of his presence overwhelms the hunters--but its his own power to change the past with a single misplaced step that should concern Eckels more.

A cautionary tale, Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder" explores the what-ifs of time travel, even going into depth about how accidentally killing a mouse in the past could affect the fate of mankind billions of years in the future. And while I like a good explanation of the science behind science fiction any day, it's the one thing that drags down the story for me.

That's because Travis, the Safari guide, gives an explanation that contradicts the way Time Safari operates. He says that brushing up against the grass only a little could add up to big changes in the future--but what happens when the dinosaurs are shot rather than dying "naturally?" They have to fall into a different position than the one they originally did; shouldn't these changes affect the past too?

Travis also explains that killing a single mouse might change the course of civilization by diminishing the food supply of other animals, but in doing so he ignores the idea that the species whose survival would be compromised in this situation could evolve to find other sources of food. It seems that the purpose of this explanation is to impress upon Eckels and the others that they'd better not screw up--the tiniest of mistakes could cost them the future. However, given the set-up at the beginning of the story, the conclusion doesn't seem to live up to its full potential.

That said, "A Sound of Thunder" is still an excellent story. Bradbury's description of the T-Rex in particular is grotesquely beautiful, and Eckel's perverse reverence for it equally so. Though I wonder what a change in setting could have done for the final scene, I absolutely love what Ray Bradbury did with the story plot-wise--the last line is both shocking and satisfying.

 "A Sound of Thunder" was made into a movie in 2005.

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