“Nethergrave” and “A Sound of Thunder” are both interesting science fiction stories. In my opinion, “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury was the more exciting story compared to “Nethergrave” by Gloria Skurzynski. “A Sound of Thunder” had me hanging on the edge of my seat, anxious to find out what they might’ve done to alternate the future. “Nethergrave” was more of a slow story, not as exciting.
Both of the authors had an incredible imagination while writing these stories, and in some ways a bit of insight to the future. The way Bradbury described the time machine was, for me, easily imaginable because of how he described it. When Eckels first sees the time machine, “he looks and sees a mass of tangle, a snaking and humming of wires and steel boxes. He also sees an aurora that flickered orange, silver, and blue.” (pg. 288).
In “A Sound of Thunder” you can almost feel Eckels fear when he finally sees the massive TRex. He was so excited to get to go back in time and hunt the dinosaurs, but when he actually came facetoface with one, he wimped out and became overly afraid, almost killing himself and the other guys in the hunting group. The sound of thunder is a great description of the boisterous TRex. At the end, the sound of thunder is left to our own interpretation. “Nethergrave” didn’t seem to have much emphasis on technology. This story wasn’t very interesting to me, and throughout the story.
