The Martian Chronicles / The Illustrated Man / The Golden Apples of the Sun

Ray Bradbury's writing style is truly unique among writers of Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror/Dramatic Fiction. I think of him as the Norman Rockwell of story writing. Even when writing about adventures in space, life on other planets or the diabolical deeds of aliens and humans, there is a kind of Americana homespun feeling to the stories. While keeping the reader riveted with a story's subject matter, at the end a story often leaves the reader with a melancholy ache for times and places lost and pondering one's own brief existence in this thing called a human lifetime.