From These Ashes

The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown

Edited by Ben Yalow. The NESFA Press, Farmington, MA. 2000. Hardcover in dust jacket. Blue boards with silver lettering on the spine. 693 pages.

Brown was the master of "flash fiction;" that is, very short stories that magazine editors could use as one or two page fillers. Some of these are much longer, but all of them have Brown's trademark "surprise" style of writing.

There are more than 100 stories in this volume. Some are obviously better than others, but I have to say that I almost always came away happy that I read one. And some of them are nothing short of magnificent. It's a rare experience to know in advance that there's going to be a quirky ending, and then still being surprised when you get there.

This is a great companion book to Miss Darkness, which I review in the "Pulp Mystery Anthology" section.