As a home automation hobbyist, I have parts of this story playing in my head all the time.

My blinds open and close automatically with the sun, my coffee makes itself, my floors are robotically cleaned, my sprinklers know the weather, my garage door opens when I approach. Were I to disappear tomorrow, many of these things would keep right on going indefinitely as long as the house didn't lose power long enough to exhaust the battery backups.

Worth noting - the original WW1 poem written by Sara Teasdale with the same name that may have inspired Bradbury:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(po...

I’ll always upvote Bradbury; what a master. Isaac Asimov used to talk about “the big 3” of science fiction of his era: himself (natch), Arthur C Clarke, and Ray Bradbury. The more I read of all those cats, and boy have I read them, I came to see that Asimov was wrong, and that Bradbury was a different and better writer altogether.

Bradbury’s stories are about people, deeply real and deeply feeling people. This thread is young and already comments are about how Bradbury made folks feel. He was a humanist, like Ursula LeGuin, and less interested in exactly how the ray guns worked. Frank Herbert seems like this to me as well, very humane, opposite of Greg Bear and Kim Stanley Robinson and (later stage) Neal Stephenson.

If you love Bradbury then take a look at Ian McDonald. When I read “Rainmaker Cometh” for the first time I had to do a double-take, so sure I was that it was a new Bradbury story.

I read this recently and wanted to post it on August 4. You jumped the gun!

the soviet cartoon version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LNHYz89sNc

Text version: https://short-stories.co/@raybradbury/there-will-come-soft-r...

The paragraph about the stove making dozens of breakfasts as the house collapses at the climax of the story is what always stuck with me most. It would take a better writer than me to say why it works so well, I just know it does.

Poor dog. Depressive story from The Martian Chronicles with very futuristic smart home depiction. Not unusually dark for Bradbury though.

I read this in high school English class. It remains one of my favorites.

Selected Shorts had an episode where Kathleen Chalfant read this!

https://www.symphonyspace.org/selected-shorts/episodes/uncan...

I can't find the episode after a quick search... I wish there were an archive of their past episodes, but I imagine someone would have to pay extra to the performers for that right.

Soviet cartoon (1984) based on the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quyaaszg6jc

I upvote anything Bradbury or Teasdale.

For anyone interested, here's a short game I made in 2 days for Ludum Dare back in 2019, which was inspired by the original poem and Bradbury's short story.

I didn't have enough time to balance the gameplay and add more scenarios, but it's a neat experience and contains one of my favorite personal musical compositions.

https://badsoft.co/games/soft-rains/

wow

how dare you make my feel my own feelings