Publisher's Weekly
Fredric Brown (1906-72) is generally recognized as one of the foremost practitioners of the science fiction short story, though most of his work has been allowed to go out of print. His short-short stories in particular are classics of compression, irony and wit. Most of these were collected in two long-unavailable volumes, Honeymoon in Hell and Nightmares and Geezenstacks. This new collection reprints the contents of those books, as well as a number of previously uncollected stories, including two tales of an intelligent talking rodent, ''The Star-Mouse'' and ''Mitkey Rides Again,'' that demonstrate Brown's sense of humor at its wildest, and several macabre mystery tales, including ''Granny's Birthday'' and ''The Joke.'' SF author Richard Lupoff's introduction is both an appreciation and a memoir. These 72 stories amply demonstrate that Brown's other work should be brought back into print.