Tag Archives: Fredric Brown

Retro Hugos: Final Thoughts on the Short Stories

So just to recap, here is the shortlist in the short story category for the Retro Hugos:

  • The Wedge”, Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction 10/44)
  • I, Rocket”, Ray Bradbury (Amazing Stories 5/44)
  • And the Gods Laughed”, Fredric Brown (Planet Stories Spring ’44)
  • Desertion”, Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction 11/44)
  • Huddling Place”, Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction 7/44)
  • Far Centaurus”, A.E. van Vogt (Astounding Science Fiction 1/44)

Links are to the posts of the individual stories. While I enjoyed all of these stories and will probably reread them at some future date, I didn’t find them all equally good. This is simply my not so humble opinion; your mileage may vary.

“The Wedge” was the weakest of the stories here. In part, I think, that’s because it’s part of a bigger story arc. I suspect it’s on the final ballot in part due to the reputation of the Foundation series and the author. Ditto for the Bradbury minus the series angle. I could say the same about the two Simak stories as the Asimov except that these are in my mind the two strongest tales on the list.

As for the Brown and Van Vogt entries, they are both examples of their author’s best work at this length. I tend to favor the Brown a bit over the Van Vogt, but that might be because it was one of only two stories (the other being “I, Rocket”) that I hadn’t read before and was therefore fresher.

As for which which of the Simak I think was the strongest, that’s a tough call. I would probably go with “Huddling Place”, although I can easily convince myself that “Desertion” is the better of the two. Some I’m going to compromise and declare a tie.

And just a sidenote of possible interest.  DAW books began publishing a series of anthologies in somewhere around 1980 (I’m too lazy to look it up) entitled Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories. Each volume collected what Asimov , with the assistance of Martin H. Greenberg, considered the best stories of the year.  The first volume covered 1939, and the series ran for 24 volumes, with a 25th published by NESFA Press and edited by Robert Silverberg after Asimov’s death. The sixth volume covers 1944, the year of the current Retro Hugos.

That volume contains 13 stories, Eight of them are on the Retro Hugo ballot. One which isn’t is Leigh Brackett’s “The Veil of Astellar”, which should be on the novelette ballot. Don’t get me started. After the Retro Hugos have been awarded, I will probably reread the rest of the stories. I read this book in high school, and I don’t remember some of the stories.

I’ll start on the novellas I haven’t already covered in the next post. The story will be “Killdozer!” by Theodore Sturgeon. That story was revised for book publication, so I’m reading it in, you guessed it, The Great SF Stories 6,

Retro Hugos: “And the Gods Laughed” by Fredric Brown

So the next few Retro Hugo posts are going to be focusing on the short stories that I haven’t already looked at.  I covered “Far Centaurus” for A. E. van Vogt’s birthday, and a scheduling slip-up resulting in my post on “The Wedge” by Isaac Asimov going live before I finished the novelettes.

Today we’re looking at “And the Gods Laughed” by Fredric Brown. It was first published in the Spring 1944 issue of Planet Stories.  It is currently available in hardcover in From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown from NESFA Press and in electronic format in The Second Fredric Brown Megapack from Wildside Press.

Planet stories is remembered today as a pulp with lots of sword and planet tales and space opera from the likes of Leigh Brackett and Poul Anderson, full of exotic adventure. But it also published more laid back stories as well, albeit usually at shorter lengths.

“And the Gods Laughed” is one of these. Continue reading

Retro Hugos: Final Thoughts on the Novelettes

The Retro Hugo nominees for best novelette are (links are to reviews):

  • “The Big and the Little”, Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction 8/44)
  • Arena”, Fredric Brown (Astounding Science Fiction 6/44)
  • No Woman Born”, C.L. Moore (Astounding Science Fiction 12/44)
  • The Children’s Hour”, Lawrence O’Donnell (C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science Fiction 3/44)
  • When the Bough Breaks”, Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science Fiction 11/44)
  • City”, Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction 5/44)

All of these stories are strong contenders. There isn’t a bad one in the bunch. but they aren’t all equal. With the exception of “Whent he Bough Breaks” and “The Children’s Hour”, I’ve not read any of them since high school. Continue reading

Retro Hugos” “Arena” by Fredric Brown

Of all the stories on the Retro Hugo ballot, “Arena”  by Fredric Brown is probably the most familiar to readers, for no reason other than it was adapted as an episode of the original Star Trek series.  (They changed the ending.)  Published in the June 1944 issue of Astounding, the story is currently available in The Fredric Brown Megapack. The price as of this writing is 99 cents.  Plus tax, of course.

The plot is pretty straight forward. Mankind has begun to spread out into the galaxy.  Before too long, it encounters another sentient species. At first, the Outsiders commit a few raids. No one survives, so the appearance of the Outsiders is a mystery.

The two species seem fairly evenly matched. The Outsiders’s ships are a little faster and more maneuverable. The humans are slightly better armed. A showdown is inevitable, and mankind builds a fleet in preparation. At last the day comes. Continue reading

“Rustle of Wings” by Fredric Brown

“Rustle of Wings”
Fredric Brown
First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1953

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

Brown was probably the only writer to be equally regarded in both the science fiction & fantasy and mystery fields. He’s experiencing something of a renaissance in the mystery field right now. He deserves to be rediscovered as a writer of science fiction and fantasy. His only science fiction in print that I’m aware of are the two Fredric Brown megapacks from Wildside Press. Continue reading

Cross Genre-ing

I got into a conversation on Twitter this morning with PC Bushi that grew to include several other individuals. Mr. Bushi initiated things by saying Leigh Brackett’s short story “The Woamn From Altair” demonstrated her range as a writer because it was a well-written story that wasn’t an adventure story.  I agreed. (If you’re interested, my review from a couple of years ago is here.)

Early in the course of the conversation, he linked to a post he had written about Jack Vance and Andre Norton, discussing their versatility as writers.  He says some good stuff, and you should check it out.

The conversation moved onto to all the genres Brackett wrote in.  In addition to space opera and science fiction, she also wrote detective stories (which is what got her the job writing for Howard Hawks on The Big Sleep) and westerns. This discussion got me to thinking… Continue reading