Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury Episode #113

Ray Bradbury | October 6, 2023

Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury Episode #113
Ray Bradbury

JONAH OF THE JOVE–RUN

Episode #113 · Written by Ray Bradbury · Narrated by Scott Miller

A washed-up old spacer with a strange gift may be the only hope for a ship trying to reach Jupiter through a lethal storm of asteroids. But trusting him means gambling lives, loyalty, and the future of an entire colony on a man everyone believes is finished.

Jonah of the Jove-Run is a tense, character-driven space drama from a young Ray Bradbury, written long before he became a literary icon. Jupiter’s colony is running out of time, and the crew of the rocket Terra must deliver food, machinery, and hope—before the families waiting on the giant world die. But between Mars and Jupiter lies the asteroid belt, a shifting minefield of rock and metal that no ship can cross without a fully functioning radar computator. The backup unit is gone, shot down in space, and the Terra is grounded unless someone can do the impossible.

Enter Nibley—an old man every pilot, engineer, and officer dismisses as a washed-up drunk. Once, he could out-calculate machines and chart the impossible in his head, but the years have not been kind, and the universe has moved on without him. Yet Nibley still insists he can take the ship through the asteroids using nothing but instinct, experience, and something that feels a little too close to psychic math. Nobody wants him. Nobody trusts him. But there may be no other choice.

Bradbury turns what could have been a simple space-run into a story about dignity, redemption, sacrifice, and the fine line between genius and madness. The tension builds not through lasers or aliens, but through human fear, stubbornness, and the terrible weight of responsibility when lives depend on a single decision. And when sabotage is uncovered aboard the ship, the danger becomes more than meteors—there’s a traitor on board who wants the mission to fail.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This is Bradbury before the fame, before the awards, before Fahrenheit 451—a writer already obsessed with the human heart inside the machine. His early work shows how science fiction could be emotional, personal, and deeply dramatic, and Jonah of the Jove-Run stands as one of his strongest stories from the 1940s magazine era.

If you love classic science fiction built on character, tension, and humanity instead of tech jargon and explosions, this is a story worth rediscovering.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Jonah of the Jove-Run by Ray Bradbury — a vintage sci-fi short story of danger, sabotage, and a risky run through the asteroid belt.

RAY BRADBURY SHORT 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.

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 3.8 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:

★★★★★ “I love this podcast!! I especially like being introduced to all the sci-fi writers that I never knew about. The narrator is great and his read brings a lot of character and life to these stories! Keep em coming.”
— Metal Wizard of Doom

★★★★★ “Golden Age Sci-Fi shorts on audio. Anyone who’s ever enjoyed a collection of sci-fi short stories published in the Golden Age of science fiction magazines will enjoy this podcast. Some stories are well-known classics, many are not, and are more enjoyable for being fresh discoveries. Like every collection of stories, some are standouts and some are duds, depending on your taste, but Scott Miller’s soothing voice makes even the ’bad’ stories not a terrible listening experience.”
— Tinkeration

Vintage science fiction. Professionally narrated. Carefully curated.