ultrawave's Blog

Fredric Brown awarded Rediscovery Award
Date: Jul 20th, 2012 10:56:11 am - Subscribe
Mood: genki


SFScope reports that Fredric Brown (1906-1972) has been awarded this year's Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.

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As Van Gelder said in his announcement, Brown is at the very least a, and possibly the, master of the science fiction short-short story, though he also wrote three classic novels: What Mad Universe (1949), The Lights in the Sky are Stars (1952), and Martians, Go Home (1955). Most of the classics of the short-short sf subgenre are Brown's, including "Arena" (filmed several times, including as a classic Star Trek episode) and the evergreen "Knock". In 2001, NESFA Press published From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF (Science Fiction) of Fredric Brown; the following year, they published Martians and Madness: The Complete SF Novels of Fredric Brown.

Van Gelder also noted that Brown wrote straight mystery. His first mystery novel, The Fabulous Clipjoint, won the Edgar Award.

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I'm glad to see awards like this intended to prevent sf authors from sinking into obscurity. My personal favorite of Brown's short fiction is his novelette, "Star Mouse" (1942), which recounts the humorous adventures of Mitkey Mouse.

Several of his stories have entered the public domain so if you haven't had the pleasure of reading any of Brown's fiction now would be a good time to treat yourself.
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