Customer Reviews

Martians and Madness: The Complete SF Novels of Fredric Brown (Nesfa's Choice Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Martians And Madness is the second of a two-volume set gathering all of Frederic Brown's fine science fiction writings, and holds the complete novels What Mad Universe, Martins Go Home, Rogue In Space, Lights In The Sky Are Stars and The Mind Thing - plus the two novelettes Gateway To Darkness and Gateway To Glory, which were rewritten to become "Rogue In Space". Brown's satire, drama, and solid plots shine forth to invite both newcomers and prior fans.

Fredric Brown was a master of the short story, but his trademark wit and imagination often failed him when he turned to writing novels, where he did his best work in the mystery field rather than in SF. Two of the five stories here - Martians, Go Home and What Mad Universe - are considered classics. The Mind Thing is pretty decent also. But the remaining two stories are best skipped or forgotten. (And including the two shorter stories later forcibly fused together to create Rogue in Space was surely not worth the effort.) Also, the quality of the paper used in this book is noticeably worse than in three other NESFA offerings I own. The others are printed on high-quality paper; this one is on a softer, off-white stock -- almost "pulpy."

I'm giving this four stars, but it's a low four stars; really more like 3.5

This collection gave me the opportunity to reread the great Fredrick Brown novels, which I had not read since my youth 25 or 35 years ago. I always loved the better known works "What Mad Universe" and "Martians, Go Home," but I was surprised at how powerful and emotive "The Lights in the Sky are Stars" is.