Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury AKA The Long Years Episode #387
Ray Bradbury | June 10, 2025-
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Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury AKA The Long Years Episode #387
Ray Bradbury
DWELLERS IN SILENCE
Episode #387· Written by Ray Bradbury · Narrated by Scott Miller
Alone on a dead Mars after a ruined Earth, a brilliant man builds a life shaped by memory, hope, and unbearable silence. When a long-awaited visitor finally arrives from the stars, the truth behind that fragile existence is quietly revealed.
In the decades after Earth’s destruction and Mars’ abandonment, Dr. Walter Hathaway remains behind on a lifeless planet, sheltering himself from despair with work, memory, and carefully maintained routines. Within his stone hut near the ruins of an American city, he talks of the past, keeps warm against the relentless wind, and lives each day fueled by the faint hope that someone, someday, will come.
When a distant rocket finally appears in the Martian sky, the long wait seems over. But what that arrival uncovers reaches far beyond survival alone. With quiet precision and emotional weight, Ray Bradbury explores companionship born of necessity, love shaped by loss, and the delicate boundary between creation and comfort. Dwellers in Silence is not a tale of monsters or invasions—it is a deeply personal story about what it means to endure.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ray Bradbury was one of science fiction’s great humanists, writing stories that placed emotional truth at the center of speculative worlds. His prose was lyrical yet precise, often revealing profound ideas through simple, intimate moments rather than grand spectacle.
Across a career spanning more than seven decades, Bradbury produced timeless works including Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. His stories continue to resonate because they remind readers that imagination, memory, and empathy are humanity’s most powerful tools—even at the edge of extinction.
LISTEN TO THE STORY
Listen to Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury — a haunting work of vintage science fiction exploring isolation, memory, and survival on a forgotten Mars.
RELATED STORIES
Few writers shaped the emotional landscape of classic science fiction the way Ray Bradbury did.
Bradbury did not rely on hardware or technical spectacle to make the future feel real. He filled rockets with longing, placed ghosts in small towns, and turned distant planets into mirrors held up to the human heart. Whether he was writing about children seduced by virtual worlds, lonely travelers on Mars, or quiet suburban lives unraveling under strange pressure, his stories pulse with warmth, dread, nostalgia, and wonder.
On The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast we’ve explored Bradbury’s astonishing range. In The Veldt (also known as The World the Children Made), technology grants children terrifying power over their parents. Asleep in Armageddon traps a lone astronaut on a hostile world where even the wind seems alive. Dwellers in Silence carries us across the red deserts of Mars, where hope flickers against ancient ruins.
Then there are the quieter shocks: Referent, which exposes envy and obsession with razor precision. Defense Mech and The Monster Maker, where invention and ambition twist into unintended consequences. Even in collaborations like Final Victim (with Henry Hasse), Bradbury’s touch is unmistakable.
From the cold Martian well in The One Who Waits, where an ancient entity waits patiently beneath the sand for new flesh and new thoughts, to Martian longing in The Visitor, from the biting irony of Changeling to the haunting unease of Death Wish, these selections reveal a writer who could make a single image linger for decades. Explore the stories below and experience the voice that helped define vintage science fiction for generations.
- The Veldt (The World the Children Made) by Ray Bradbury
- Outcast of the Stars by Ray Bradbury
- The Creatures That Time Forgot by Ray Bradbury
- Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury
- Lazarus, Come Forth by Ray Bradbury
- It Burns Me Up by Ray Bradbury
- Defense Mech by Ray Bradbury
- A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury
- Asleep in Armageddon by Ray Bradbury
- The Monster Maker by Ray Bradbury
- Rocket Summer by Ray Bradbury
- The Visitor by Ray Bradbury
- Morgue Ship by Ray Bradbury
- The Shape of Things by Ray Bradbury
- Referent by Ray Bradbury
- Final Victim by Ray Bradbury and Henry Hasse
- Death Wish by Ray Bradbury
- Changeling by Ray Bradbury
- Undersea Guardians by Ray Bradbury
- The One Who Waits by Ray Bradbury
- Dwellers in Silence by Ray Bradbury
- And Then—The Silence by Ray Bradbury
ABOUT THE LOST SCI-FI PODCAST
The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast is the most listened-to vintage science fiction podcast in the world. Ranked the #1 Science Fiction Podcast in 34 countries and heard in more than 190 countries, the show has surpassed 3.7 million listens.
Each episode features carefully selected stories from the Golden Age of science fiction, professionally narrated. Timeless storytelling the way it was meant to be heard.
What listeners are saying:
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“Outstanding podcast. I am a huge fan of vintage science fiction and Scott Miller does a fantastic job on the narration.”
— Hamlinsw
★★★★★
“The Best Sci-fi podcast to date! I have listened to every sci-fi podcast I can find. This is by far the best and most consistent one I have come across. Great selection of stories and superb narration.”
— RLVader
Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.
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