In these twelve stories we enter the darkest corridors of America s hospitals. Meet a scientist who discovers how to predetermine and alter the sex of a pregnant woman s fetus, and proceeds to contemplate his own gender...and a surgeon whose primary practice is removing organs and limbs from unwilling patients to redistribute them to unfortunate victims in impoverished countries. Filled with dark surprises, these splendid tales invite us to glimpse the world of high-tech medicine from a disturbing new angle.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
"There's a . . . detachment that happens as a physician when you're dealing with frightening, horrifying, or sad events that you maintain an objectivity that's required, and I do that also when I write." When so many tales of the dark fantastic are told as if with exclamation marks, Dr. Michael Blumlein's sonorous, objective voice is refreshingly chilly. This collection of 12 elegantly crafted stories (first published in 1990) displays a range of subject matter defying categorization as science fiction, horror, or fantasy. The title story, nominated for a World Fantasy Award, is a provocative thought experiment about gender identity. Other topics include radical surgery with political intent, a child's flight into another realm, a technopunk romance, and various surreal excursions into minds obsessed with family secrets, hauntings, madness, poverty.
From Publishers Weekly
The dozen stories in Blumlein's first collection signal the appearance of a major talent on the horror scene. Subtle and chilling in their spare suggestiveness, many of the short tales revolve around medical and surgical matters, but are not grossly gory. In "Tissue Ablation and Variant Regeneration: A Case Report," an extensive surgical procedure becomes a metaphor for Reaganomics at its cruelest. In a similar vein, "Bestseller" concerns a failed writer who is forced to sell off parts of his body to support his family. The title story, a 1987 World Fantasy Award nominee, examines the distress of a mad scientist torn by the contradictions of his own sexuality and by the amorphous nature of male and female sexual roles in general, for which he proposes a drastic solution.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing,
By
This review is from: Brains of Rats (Paperback)
I'd never heard of michael blumlein before I read The Brains of Rats. I picked a copy up at a local library - and i've never been so fascinated. Blumlein has a wonderful writing style and his stories are some of the most bizarre pieces of fiction ever. This is one of the best authors of dark fiction that I've ever found.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unsettling but engrossing,
By
This review is from: Brains of Rats (Paperback)
This is an extremely hard book to categorize; it's quite disturbing, teeming with unsettling visions of madness and aberration. That said, it's also quite engrossing, containing stories that worm their way into your brain, lingering in memory for quite some time.
Blumlein has a medical background, which is very evident in the work presented here. "The Brains of Rats" features a geneticist who holds the fate of the world in his hands. "Tissue Ablation" and "Best Seller" both deal with organ harvesting, but veer off in wildly different directions. "The Thing Itself" is a tragic story of love between a doctor and nurse, so full of physical and mental anguish you'll feel exhausted after finishing. But Blumlein's talent goes beyond this, as demonstrated by the other stories in this collection. Highlights include "Wet Suit", an intriguing look at fetishism, "Keeping House", which demonstrates that cleanliness is not always next to godliness, "Domino Master", a moving look at child abuse, and "The Promise of Warmth", which would have made a memorable "Twilight Zone" episode (the story did in fact first appear in the late, lamented Twilight Zone magazine). The estimable Harlan Ellison said of The Brains of Rats, "This is not a book for everyone. Only those who delight in splendid, original thinking and rich, pyrotechnical language need apply...Mr. Blumlein carves enigmas and fabulous dark surprises from the magic mountain of his imagination." I wholeheartedly agree.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing in a highly entertaining way,
By
This review is from: Brains of Rats (Paperback)
My dad picked this up at random from an MPH warehouse sale in Kuala Lumpur. I don't think he actually read any of the stories...I don't think he knew *I* read any of the stories, or he'd probably have given it away. The general impression one gets from these stories is like the Corinthian character in Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics: creepy but really cool.
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