Fredric Brown wrote SF and crime fiction. He wrote long and he wrote short and he wrote very short. This collection has 48 stories in it, so some of them are of the very short variety. As you can see from the ToC below, some of them are from SF magazines, some are from crime-fiction magazines, and some are from "men's magazines." The most famous story in the group is probably "The Geezenstacks," a horror story from Weird Tales with a strange and ambiguous ending. This one was adapted for an episode of Tales from the Darkside in the 1980s.
Some of the stories are very slight, not much more than jokes, some of which ("Cat Burglar") are vulgar jokes. Many of them have the snappy surprise endings that Brown could do as well as anyone and better than most. Some, like "The End," are just clever showing off. But they're all fun. It's an entertaining collection that shows off all sides of Fredric Brown, and it's too bad that he's a mostly forgotten writer.
Contents (lifted from Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections)
· Nasty · vi Playboy Apr ’59
· Abominable · vi Dude Mar ’60; Portfolio, gp
· Rebound [“The Power”] · vi Galaxy Apr ’60
· Nightmare in Gray · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
· Nightmare in Green · vi *
· Nightmare in White · vi *
· Nightmare in Blue · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
· Nightmare in Yellow · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
· Nightmare in Red · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
· Unfortunately · vi F&SF Oct ’58
· Granny’s Birthday · vi AHMM Jun ’60
· Cat Burglar · vi *
· The House · vi Fantastic Aug ’60
· Second Chance · vi *
· Great Lost Discoveries I - Invisibility · vi Gent Feb ’61
· Great Lost Discoveries II - Invulnerability · vi Gent Feb ’61
· Great Lost Discoveries III - Immortality · vi Gent Feb ’61
· Dead Letter [“The Letter”] · vi EQMM Jul ’55; Killers Three, gp
· Recessional · vi Dude Mar ’60; Portfolio, gp
· Hobbyist · vi Playboy May ’61
· The Ring of Hans Carvel · vi *; retold and somewhat modernized from the works of Rabelais.
· Vengeance Fleet [“Vengeance, Unlimited”] · vi Super Science Stories Jul ’50
· Rope Trick · vi Adam May ’59
· Fatal Error [“The Perfect Crime”] · vi EQMM Jun ’55; Killers Three, gp
· The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver I, II, & III [“Of Time and Eustace Weaver”] · ss EQMM Jun ’61
· Expedition · vi F&SF Feb ’57
· Bright Beard · vi *
· Jaycee · vi *; this story is given as being from F&SF 1955 in The Best of Fredric Brown and from F&SF Oct ’58 in bibliographies, but has not been found in F&SF.
· Contact [“Earthmen Bearing Gifts”] · vi Galaxy Jun ’60
· Horse Race · vi *
· Death on the Mountain · vi *
· Bear Possibility · vi Dude Mar ’60; Portfolio, gp
· Not Yet the End · vi Captain Future Win ’41
· Fish Story · vi *
· Three Little Owls (A Fable) · vi *
· Runaround [“Starvation”] · ss Astounding Sep ’42
· Murder in Ten Easy Lessons [“Ten Tickets to Hades”] · ss Ten Detective Aces May ’45
· Dark Interlude · Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds · ss Galaxy Jan ’51
· Entity Trap [“From These Ashes”] · ss Amazing Aug ’50
· The Little Lamb · ss Manhunt Aug ’53
· Me and Flapjack and the Martians · Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds · ss Astounding Dec ’52
· The Joke [“If Looks Could Kill”] · ss Detective Tales Oct ’48
· Cartoonist [“Garrigan’s Bems”] · Fredric Brown & Mack Reynolds · ss Planet Stories May ’51
· The Geezenstacks · ss Weird Tales Sep ’43
· The End [“Nightmare in Time”] · vi Dude May ’61; Five Nightmares, gp
6 comments:
I read this one years ago, then went on to read the huge collection of his short stories. You cannot go wrong with Brown's shorts. Excellent choice.
Jeff
Rereading some of these reminded me again of just how good Brown's stories are. Great stuff.
The Rabelais retelling is one of the randier ones that sticks in the mind...even as a sprat with no practical experience, I suspected "Nightmare in White" rather improbable in the sense of You Really Couldn't Tell?
I still have my copy, but I read it so long ago I remember little of it, in spite of your refresher and the TOC. At the time I was reading as much of his SF as I could lay hands on, but didn't start reading his mystery stuff until much later, except for the stories here.
Love "The Geezenstacks," and the Tales from the Darkside adaptation is among the best they've done; the music alone is worth the watch. Haven't read the others but will try to hunt them down. Thanks
Some of the others aren't up to "The Geezenstacks," but they're all fun.
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