And the Gods Laughed · A Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy

This eBook was

created from a number of different sources:

 

scans of magazines, paperbacks, hardbacks

converted .pdf files

unformatted .rtf files

basic formatted .doc files

 

As

such, I took a little more liberties than usual with

the reformatting, editing of the spelling and the occasional “layout

design” question.  I absolutely believe it to be an imperative to preserve the

author's original text (i.e. words, spelling etc.); to help preserve the sense

and atmosphere of the time-period in which these works were written. 

On occasion, I did encounter some spellings inconsistent

with Brown's usual style and some that were both distracting and very

questionable as to whether they were the author's or misspellings/errors of

some proofreader overlooked during the original publication of the stories

contained within this eBook. As a result, I made some corrections to the

original text.  Please note, these adjusments were kept to a bare minimum.

I also re-formatted each story to be the best possible

reading experience on your eReader. No other adjustments of the author’s original

work have been made.

I present this eBook in two parts. Part One is a collection

of Fredric Brown’s science fiction stories, and Part Two is his crime stories. 

I based my classification of these stories in part, of William F Nolan’s

in-depth look at Fredric Brown’s work, published in 1984.

To give you a sense of who Fredric Brown was and the scope

of his talent, I include Robert Bloch’s very well written and

informative”essay” as an introduction; unedited and in its entirety.

For those interested in the source material from which

these stories were culled, please take a look at the “Source Material” I

included at the end of this eBook.

Finally, it is my sincerest desire for you to have an

enjotable reading experience of some of the best classic science fiction and

crime stories written.

 Flyboy707

September, 2011