Fritz Leiber

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dude coined the term "sword & sorcery," and some of his fafhrd & gray mouser stories are priceless, especially the novel, where the mouser turns mouse-sized. but some of those stories are turgid exercises in elizabethan prose in which nothing much happens.

anyways, my specific issue: i'm reading "gather darkness" and having trouble getting into as it all seems so allegorical. any advice?

― hop frog, Thursday, 12 January 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

I haven't read that one. I've only read his Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories, and not even all of those.. just a handful. They struck me as typically pretty good, moreso when there's witty banter (which may, this day in age, come across as trite or silly.) Overall I was more of a Conan fan, though.

― Special Agent Gene Krupa (orion), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:05 (nineteen years ago)

He was born on Christmas Day.

― the snowfox, Tuesday, 17 January 2006 21:42 (nineteen years ago)

What was that much anthologized short story called- "A Pail of Air" was it? I liked that one.

I remember having the beejezus scared out of me by some novel about everyone in the whole world being automata manipulated by Magritte-attired functionaries in bowler hats- everyone except the narrator and a few others, who had "woken up."

Didn't he have some stories about some warring time-travelers that were pretty good?

I hated the book about the novel-writing brains-in-vats.

So obviously it was a long time ago but yeah, I agree, he was hit or miss.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 21:59 (nineteen years ago)

Blowing through the jasmine and cobwebs of my mind is the memory that I had trouble with Gather, Darkness and Conjure Wife, both of which were heavy-going.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 23:11 (nineteen years ago)

Didn't he have some stories about some warring time-travelers that were pretty good?

Wasn't this The Big Time, which I owned and got rid of a long time ago? I vaguely remember its premise including something about physical laws of conservation of events that allowed him to write a time travelling story that dodged the butterfly effect.

― Chris F. (servoret), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 01:07 (nineteen years ago)

Was that the novel? I remember liking the stories much better. I think he wasn't really good at the long form.

I was trying to remember the names of the two tribes of time-travelers. I was thinking Ants and Wasps, but Google tells me Spiders and Snakes.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 03:33 (nineteen years ago)

Was there a set of stories separate from the novel, or was the novel one of those patch-jobby paperbacks? I really can't remember any other details at all, except that I thought that the cover was ugly.

― Chris F. (servoret), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 04:20 (nineteen years ago)

the big time feels not like a patch-up: the action is all in one setting, and it's a closed-room mystery, sort of. it's quite good! i think. ... i have 'silver eggheads' around here, and the tremendously titled 'a spectre is haunting texas', maybe one of which i should look at on my current SF jaunt thingy.

also: 'the wanderer' and 'the best of fritz leiber'. i don't know where all of these came from...

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 04:32 (nineteen years ago)

i want a general SF thread so i can periodically refresh it with "so which should i read next: mission of gravity or the languages of pao?" type questions

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 04:34 (nineteen years ago)

"A Pail of Air" is great fun. Here's a copy.

― Paul Eater (eater), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 04:43 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, but man did I hate The Silver Eggheads. I think, and the web confirms, that the stories about the Spiders and Snakes usually involved one clever changing-history gimmick each, whereas The Big Time was a more 'ambitious' work, a behind-the-scenes look at the characters of the time-travelers.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 05:05 (nineteen years ago)

It sure was cold in "A Pail Of Air"- about as cold as "The Cold Equations" or Gary Wright's "Mirror of Ice"- but with a nice cozy fire to warm you back up.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 05:12 (nineteen years ago)

that one is in my best of!

anyway right now i'm reading and shaking my head over mission of gravity.

― tom west (thomp), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 15:53 (nineteen years ago)

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