Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, a collection of poignant vignettes about one summer in the life of 12-year old Douglas Spaulding, is a powerful mirror into childhood, growing up, and life in general. Bradbury, generally considered one of the Grand Masters of science fiction, did not in fact write science fiction. While his books and stories had some of the overtones of science fiction, their themes went much deeper than simple space opera or shoot-'em-up action. His books were often quite surrealistic and were very emotional. (Wolfheim 42) Critiquing Bradbury is difficult as it dulls the fantasy, and it is usually better to concentrate