In Zero Hour, children call on the fourth dimension to destroy the adult world. Quantum mechanics and metaphysics meet when childhood goes beyond preconceptions. Child abuse here allegorizes anti-war messages. There is also a reference to Henry James’ novel The Turn of the Screw, which tells of the extreme actions of minors when their bodies are taken over by insidious spirits.

For Ray Bradbury, the megacosm of the Cosmos is made up of various microcosms: romance, childhood, ambiguous robots that can be replicas of humanoids, gifted exiles. As he says in his preface, he is interested in presenting “what if” without strict identification of his works with science fiction.