Tom O'Bedlam's Night Out and Other Strange Excursions is a collection of dark fantasyshort stories by American writer Darrell Schweitzer. It was first published in hardcover and trade paperback by W. Paul Ganley in November 1985.[1] An electronic edition was published by Necon E-Books in December 2012 as no. 20 of its Necon Classic Horror series. The copyright statement of the Necon edition states that it "incorporates the author's final revisions and should be regarded as definitive."
Summary
The collection consists of nineteen early works of the author; three tales about legendary madman Tom O'Bedlam followed by two in the far future setting of his novel The Shattered Goddess and collection Echoes of the Goddess and thirteen other stories (one a collaboration with John Gregory Betancourt) and a poem. Most of the pieces were originally published from 1973-1985 in various speculative fiction magazines and anthologies; the remainder are original to the collection.
Contents
"Tom O'Bedlam's Night Out" (from Fantastic v. 26, no. 3, September 1977)
"Raving Lunacy" (from Amazing Stories v. 55, no. 2, July 1981)
"The Game of Sand and Fire" (revised from "A Part of the Game" from The Dragon no. 51, 1981)
"The Wings of the White Bird" (from Myrddin no. 4, 1978)
Reception
The collection was reviewed by William F. Touponce in Fantasy Review, June 1986, Neal Wilgus in Science Fiction Review, Winter 1986, John Gregory Betancourt in Fantasy Book, March 1987, and Stefan Dziemianowicz in Crypt of Cthulhu no. 48, St. John's Eve 1987.[1]