What Mad Universe by Fredric Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This old classic SF deserves to be called a classic. :) Even now, it feels fairly unique and very interesting, a solid riff off of the golden age SF and a nearly seamless conjunction with alternate reality with all kinds of BEMs. (Bug Eyed Monsters).

SF in our universe, and Fact in the other. Aliens everywhere! War of the Worlds, Mars, Venus, Teleportation, Motherships, subjugation, it's all here.

So what is this professional in the SF field going to do when faced with a reality that is everything he'd been publishing?

Why not.... BE A HERO!?!

This happens to be one hell of a fun book! Full of low-types, shady individuals, telepathic entities, spaceships, and an infinity of universes.

I keep thinking that I should have read this EARLY EARLY in my first forays into SF. I would have immediately placed this one as one of my absolute favorites of all time if not just for nostalgia's stake, but because it's smooth and so cool. :)

As it is now, I'm just extremely happy to have finally gotten around to it and say to all of ya out there wishing you knew a very good early SF title to where you could dip your beak... This one is pretty damn fantastic and I think it holds up very well even now. There really isn't that many Golden Age SF I can truly say that about.

Or at least none that I can say that I unequivocally enjoyed from the first to the last pages without some sort of major or annoying complaint. :)

1949. Very impressive. :)

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