Customer Reviews

Nightmares and Geezenstacks

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It goes without saying that Fredric Brown is a master of the art when it comes to short stories, and if you love short short stories, the ones in this book are prime cut. The majority of these are 1 to 3 pages and nearly all have surprise endings. What amazes you most is how Brown can manage to top the story you just read, but a couple of stories later, it happens. Thought provoking to the max, his imagination seems to be completely unbound as you venture from one unbelievably profound situation to the next. How Brown manages to seize your total attention in 3 pages or less is a tribute to his craft of opening and perhaps even invading your thought process. I place this book on a pedestal of its own, a standout in the crowd. Read it, by all means, and at your own risk of becoming a deeper thinker.

Mr. Brown demonstrates his sense of the unusual and O'Henryisk manner in this can't put it down collection of stories and thought provocing what ifs. I read this collection for the first time in 1961, and have been haunted by it ever since. A delightful read.

This collection of short short stories-- many only a page or two long-- is worth tracking down. Brown's light touch and incisive instinct for the plot twist make this a can't-miss proposition. These are little bite-sized bonbons (many with acid centers) that will entertain, impress, and sometimes horrify. Brown is a master of brevity: study him to see how it's done.

This is a classic collection of clever, twisted s-f from Fredric Brown, master of the short-short story. If you like offbeat, mind-bending fiction, this is the book for you!

I first read a short story from this book when I was at high school and it gave me the wish to be fluent in English to appreciate the style. I have been searching for this particular book for 20 years and thanks to amazon.com at last I can find it back and read it entirely. And it's a chance since this book is no more edited and is quite impossible to find in Europe. But it's worth searching it.