Monthly Archives: October 2018

Happy Birthday, Fredric Brown

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Fredric Brown was born on this date, October 29, in 1906.  He passed away in 1972.

Brown was equally adept at both science fiction and mystery.  In the SF field, he was regarded as a master of the short-short.  His Mystery novel The Fabuloous Clip Joint won an Edgar Award for Best First Novel.  His best known SF novels are What Mad Universe and Martians, Go Home.

I’ll be raising a toast to his memory this evening and reading some of his short fiction.  I don’t  know if I’ll read sf or mystery, since he was great at both.  Maybe I’ll read some of each.

If you’ve not read him, check his stuff out.  Brown is worth reading.

Two Shorts by Frank Herbert

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So I actually had some time last night to sit and read.  I read two short stories by Frank Herbert since yesterday was his birthday.

The first one I read was “Encounter in a Lonely Place”.  The ISFDB lists it as having first been published in The Book of Frank Herbert.

It’s short tale about a man who gets into a conversation with the village bachelor.  The bachelor had looked over the man’s shoulder and seen him reading an article on ESP.  (This was published in the 70s, remember.)

The bachelor tells the man about his ability to read minds, or rather one mind, that of the woman he loves.  This freaks her out, and she flees.  Of course she turns up before the story ends, but as to whether the ending is happy, well, that I ain’t gonna tell.

I quite enjoyed this tale.  There’s not a lot to it, but it was well done.  I have a fondness for science fiction that takes place in ordinary settings and involves ordinary people.

The other story I read was “Operation Haystack”, the third of four about a special agent named Lewis Orne.  He’s an operative for the Bureau of Investigation and Adjustment.  It was published in 1959.

In other words, he tries to help the government control things from behind the scenes.  In this story, he’s not the only one manipulating things.  Orne has only a few hours to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the stability of the galactic empire.  It’s not called an empire, but that’s essentially the role of the government in this story.

This one had some gender politics in it that would be politically incorrect today.  (No, that’s not the reason I enjoyed it.  Well, not the only reason.)

I enjoyed this story enough to want to give the other Lewis Orne stories a try.

Herbert also has a short series about a government agency that is sanctioned on sabotaging other government agencies.  This series is set in a multi-alien galaxy.  It consists of the short stories “A Matter of Traces” and “The Tactful Saboteur” and the novels Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment.  I’m looking forward to reading them as well.

Frank Herbert at 98

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Frank Herbert was born on this date, October 8, in 1920.  He passed away in 1986.

Herbert was the author of Dune and a number of sequels.  (Note to self:  reread Dune and read the sequels written by Herbert.)

But he wrote a number of other novels, including The Santaroga Barrier, The Dosadi Experiment, and Under Pressure, to name a few.  His collected short fiction was published about five or six years ago.

Today, though, Herbert is remembered primarily for Dune.  I suspect that’s because Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson have turned it into a franchise.

The influence of Dune cannot be overstated.  If it’s been out of print since it was first published, I’m not aware of it.  The book is rightly considered a classic.

Herbert should be remembered for the other work he did, though.  I’ve only read a few of his other books, and those were years ago.  I enjoyed them and have several novels of his novels that I haven’t read sitting on the shelves.

In honor of Herbert’s birthday, I’ll try to read a short story this evening.  I’ve been reading some older science fiction over the last few months, although I’ve not blogged about any of it.  I’ll try to include one of Herbert’s novels in the mix.