Fritz Leiber

[benedictjjones]

I read 'Smoke Ghost' earlier today and found it a revelation, something that I really 'connected' with.

i was hoping someone could suggest a collection of his that has stuff in a similar style to 'smoke ghost', i would like to check his fantasy stuff as well but would prefer to start with the 'horror'.

[dem]

Here you go, Ben.

Night's Black Agents is the best place to start ....

[doug]

Black Gondolier is a good Leiber horror collection still in print.

www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Gondolier-Fritz-Leiber/dp/0759252793/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1289681835&sr=8-6

Doug

[benedictjjones]

cheers lads, those both look excellent i'veot an ebay bid on another leiber but i'l try and grab the 'gondoliers one asap and the other when i find it!)

[cw67q]

Hi Benedict.

I know you asked for collections, but here are some stories to look out for (I cheated and had a quick look at a bibliography):

the Hill and the Hole (unmissable!)
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes
The Smoke Ghost
the hound
Diary in the snow
The Dreams of Albert Moreland
The Black Ewe
I'm Looking for "Jeff
A Visitor from Back East
A Bit of the Dark World
The Black Gondolier
Midnight in the Mirror World
To Arkham and the Stars
Belsen Express
Catch That Zeppelin!"
Dark Wings
The Terror from the Depths
The Button Molder
Horrible Imaginings
The Ghost Light
Replacement for Wilmer: A Ghost Story

As suggested Night’s Black Agents, a collection of early tales, is a good place to start as mostly horror. My favourites are the Midnight House collections as they are entirely horror based, unfortunately these are out of print. Of the MH I think the best is “Smoke Ghost” with “Horrible Imaginings” not far behind, “the Black Gondolier” is also good, but IMHO, more uneven. The good news is that, for some odd reason, BG is the only MH book that subsequently became available as a PoD paperback and so is easy to find.

“Fritz Leiber Selected Stories” from Night Shade books is a good collection, but it includes SF and fatasy alongside horror/ghost stories. I’m not a great fan of S&S fantasy, but Fritz Leiber is an exception. His Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tales of low life fantasy as very worthwhile reads. I enjoyed them as a child/teenager, and approached a rereading some years back with some trepidation, but they held up well for my adult (well ok debatably adult) self.

Also don’t miss the two horror novels: “Conjure wife” and “Our Lady of Darkness”. The first is an early tale that deals with traditional magic and the semi-comic notion that *all* women are witches. It was filmed, very successfully as “the Night of the Eagle” (UK) or “Burn witch Burn!” (US). OloD is a much later tale by the mature writer. This one is more subtly dark and very dense with allusions to the old pulp writers of the Lovecraft Circle, and particularly to Clark Ashton Smith. Both are fine reads, despite the very different approaches of the writer, most people seem to prefer the later story, and I agree that it is the bettre written, but I have a soft sopt for the pulpier tale by the younger Leiber. Both novels appear to be in print separately, but unfortunately there is no combined edition currently in print (there have been a couple of such in the past)

- chris

[benedictjjones]

^thanks very much. i managed to pick up 'night monsters'

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/fritz-leiber/night-monsters.htm

for a couple of quid off ebay and will keep my eyes peeled.

i was talking to my brother earlier and it turned out he had read some of the grey mouser stuff and said he had enjoyed thm.

[hugegadjit]

I have a Panther anthology called Night Monsters, pretty good stuff

[hugegadjit]

Oh sorry, you'd already got to that one... what did you think?