* Fiction. By Ray Bradbury. William Morrow, $24.99. Grade: B

Book in a nutshell: Most of the 22 "never-before-published" brief tales in this collection deal with relationship problems and obviously were written decades ago. So why were they never published? The answer is that, for the most part, they're not the author's best work. Nevertheless, a few stand out.

The title story smacks of autobiography as the narrator tells of a chance meeting in Paris that might have led to an extramarital encounter, but did not. In Ma Perkins Comes to Stay, a man comes home from work to find that iconic figure from radio soap opera sitting in his kitchen. The husband wants her to leave, but his wife likes her company. The result is Bradbury at his comic best.

Sports are featured in several stories: In The Twilight Greens, men who are unhappily married find solace in playing golf by themselves, and in Un-Pillow Talk, a man and woman discover that sex can spoil things for tennis doubles partners.

Fly Away Home tells about the first expedition to Mars and may have been intended to be included in Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles. Though not as strong as the tales in that classic, it's an interesting addition to the canon.

Sample of prose: As Fly Away Home begins, Corporal Anthony Smith and the other men on the first expedition to Mars step out onto the bottom of a desolate, dry sea after the long, tedious journey from Earth. "(Smith) was looking at the heavens. They looked where he looked and saw Earth, infinitely removed over a distance of six months of time, and millions fired upon millions of miles in the distance. Their thoughts whirled. Long years ago, men went to the arctic regions of Earth in boats, ships, balloons, and airplanes, took with them the bravest men, handpicked, psychologically clean, alert, the non-crackables, the well adjusted. But pick as they would, some men cracked . . . It was so alone. It was so alone. And herd-man, cut off from life from women, from homes and towns, felt his mind melt away."

Pros: Even when not at his best, Bradbury is a great storyteller.

Cons: There are many better Bradbury collections out there.

Final word: This is a great time for readers who can't get enough Bradbury, as the author seems to be emptying his files. In November, Subterranean Press released Summer Morning, Summer Night, a collection with 17 previously unpublished stories.