Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402076 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 640 pages

From Booklist
One of the best pulp writers, Brown (1906-72) wrote much sf and more mysteries (he was better at mysteries: see his Ed and Am capers, collected in Hunter and Hunted, 2002). His good sf--all faulty as prophecy--includes two fine, quirky novels; since he wrote just five sf novels, that gives him Ted Williams' batting average. The five as well as two stories he combined to make up one of the novels are in this companion to From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown (2001). The classics are What Mad Universe (1949), an alternate-reality romp featuring some great scary scenes and lots of laughs, and Martians, Go Home (1955), in which the little green men are all lethal wisecrackers. Less impressive but worthwhile are Rogue in Space (1957), in which the disillusioned tough-guy hero gets his own world, and The Mind Thing (1961), a deliciously low-key variation on the alien-invasion theme. The Lights in the Sky Are Stars (1953) is a snooze because, whereas Brown always tacked on a happy ending, it's all happy ending. Ray Olson
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Customer Reviews

Invites both newcomers and prior fans
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.

Not up to the level of his short stories
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

A treasure
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.