Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber [Hardcover]

America of the future where madness is accepted and nurtured - or, alternatively, repressed through steamroller conformity...a man plagued by the memories of his famous father - and 237 of his talking likenesses... music more addictive than any drug... garbage and refuse than obtains a malign ghostly power... homicidal allergies... vampiric supermodels... derelict spaceships... beatniks in orbit... These and many more witty fictions are what made Fritz Leiber one of the founding fathers of modern SF&F and horror. However, no matter what your genre preference is, HERE ARE 44 STORIES THAT WILL STICK TO YOUR RIBS.

Of course, this does not in any way mean that every story in this half-century retrospective is exceptional. The exact opposite is true: many of the stories in this impressively large and heavy book are dull and unexciting. There is a definite impression that they were written by an undisputed master of the genre - but no rerader involvement. However, some of the better stories present make this mammoth anthology a joy to read.

As far as the genres represented in this volume, one can't but admit that Leiber has an undeniable gift for blurring the lines of separation: rather than being strictly science fiction or fantasy, the wide majority of stories are ridiculous fictions, absurd juxtapositions of totally unrelated elements (for example, "Endfray of the Ofay" is an alternate history combining magic and nuclear weaponry). Certainly, there are some recurring themes - nuclear devastation and the continuing Cold War are especially common. In their ultimate form, these "idea-stories" can be extremely funny, adventuresome, and provocative.

Interestingly, the author's style - and its evolution - adds a layer of depth and variety to the anthology: the shock-pulp of the thirties gives way to the somber fictions of the fifties and the uproarious fantasies of the sixties and seventies. The progression is completed with the excellent, unique semi-autobiographical novelettes of the eighties, which combine Leiber's personal experiences of apartment-living with some supernatural undercurrents.

Those looking for Fafhrd/Gray Mouser stories will be sorely disappointed - there are only five (compare to the two about chess), and they are not at all interesting. As for myself, I was disappointed by the inordinate number of typos - of the sort that evade spell-check software and confuse readers ("closet" instead of "closest").

A very good restrospective anthology honoring one of the founding fathers of SF&F.

In his writing career of over fifty years, Fritz Leiber made major contributions to the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In sf, Leiber was one of the first writers (along with Alfred Bester) to depict futures in which high technology coexisted with cultural decadence, thereby blazing the trail to what is now called "cyberpunk". His stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser helped set the formula for heroic fantasy. The horror genre owed Leiber the most, for his ideas of what forms nightmares would take in a modern, urban environment. Finally, much of Leiber's work is so individual that it demands new genre classifications; for example, the many autobiographical fictions he published toward the end of his life. Leiber's impact on genre literature has been consistently underestimated, because it has been so varied and diverse. Fans of his work in one genre weren't necessarily aware of his work in others, and collections of Leiber typically stuck to one genre at a time. "The Leiber Chronicles" is the first book to do full justice to the variety of Leiber's output, including samples from all the genres in which he worked, as well as many that defy easy classification. This gives the reader an opportunity to study the themes that run through Leiber's work as a whole; his interest in cities, chess, cats, the "woman-as-other", and most of all the interaction between modern/rationalist and pre-modern/intuitive ways of thinking. My only regret is that one of my favorite Leiber stories, "Space-Time for Springers", was left out; fortunately it is widely available elsewhere. Sadly, this volume is out of print, but if you have any interest in sf, fantasy, or horror, you owe it to yourself to seek it out!

Harlan Ellison endorsed this man's work, so I had to investigate. He writes content like Ellison, but I find Leiber's writing style less hurried, with a mature resonance. This collection of fantasy and contemporary horror stories has whetted my appetite for more.