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The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years Of Fritz Leiber
A collection of stories brings forth sorcerers and wizards, ghosts, aliens, and mythical kingdoms
601 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1990
2 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Fritz Leiber
1,193 books1,018 followersFritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was one of the more interesting of the young writers who came into HP Lovecraft's orbit, and some of his best early short fiction is horror rather than sf or fantasy. He found his mature voice early in the first of the sword-and-sorcery adventures featuring the large sensitive barbarian Fafhrd and the small street-smart-ish Gray Mouser; he returned to this series at various points in his career, using it sometimes for farce and sometimes for gloomy mood pieces--The Swords of Lankhmar is perhaps the best single volume of their adventures. Leiber's science fiction includes the planet-smashing The Wanderer in which a large cast mostly survive flood, fire, and the sexual attentions of feline aliens, and the satirical A Spectre is Haunting Texas in which a gangling, exo-skeleton-clad actor from the Moon leads a revolution and finds his true love. Leiber's late short fiction, and the fine horror novel Our Lady of Darkness, combine autobiographical issues like his struggle with depression and alcoholism with meditations on the emotional content of the fantastic genres. Leiber's capacity for endless self-reinvention and productive self-examination kept him, until his death, one of the most modern of his sf generation.
Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー
Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 25, 2010
4.0 to 4.5 stars. I have only read one story from this collection: the classic short story "Coming Attraction" which was excellent. I intend to read more.
October 2, 2017
This hardcover is copy 332 of 500 and is signed by Fritz Leiber on limitation page.
August 13, 2024
It's short stories, I don't know why I thought I would like it.
May 1, 2012
I play Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve played Dungeons & Dragons since I was knee high to a duergar. If you don’t know what a duergar is, you probably don’t play Dungeons & Dragons; if you do know what a duergar is and you don’t play Dungeons & Dragons, you are either well-versed in the world’s mythologies or wikipedia. All of this to say that my introduction to Fritz Leiber’s work was the “Nehwon Mythos” section of TSR’s Deities & Demigods (later Legends & Lore; and yes, I have at one time or another owned both versions of this book. AND I had the rare printing of Deities & Demigods with the Cthulu and Melnibone mythos, which I got rid of. So what.)
I always thought that Lankhmar was a good name for a fantasy city, but never delved into it through D&D or otherwise until recently, when I picked up The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber edited by Martin H. Greenberg and published by Dark Harvest Press in 1990. The fact that this anthology, which is riddled with typos like “spaceshit” (I kid you not; it’s somewhere in the mediocre story “Endfray of the Ofay”), made it onto the shortlist for the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection, must reflect the importance of Fritz Leiber to the genre, because anything that goes to press with this number of errors should only be on the shortlist for Shit.
All of this to say that, as my non-D&D introduction to Fritz Leiber, this volume quickly moved from being outrageous to fairly amusing as an exercise in smug derision, all the way to just a fucking chore to get through. Six hundred and one pages of words, with a guesstimated average of one typo every three pages equals WAY TOO MANY for any published work. You can do the math.
Despite the typos, the stories I’d recommend in this volume, besides the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales, are: “The Automatic Pistol”, “Smoke Ghost”, “Sanity”, “Alice and the Allergy”, “Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-Tah-Tee” (probably not about what you think it’s about, you dirty dirty dirtmonger), “The Beat Cluster”, and “Gonna Roll the Bones”. The ones that I would unread if I could: “Endfray of the Ofay” (over-the-top with both the neologisms and the inversion of social oppression) and “The 64-Square Madhouse” (a tedious story about chess and a dated story about supercomputers).
All in all, it’s a bad collection only because of the irresponsible job that the editor, Martin H. Greenberg, executed on the text. Would I finish this book if it wasn’t plagued with inexcusable errors? Maybe, but it is a bit long. It’s not really intended as an introduction, I realize now, too late (what’s that? Yes, yes, I know, the subtitle does say Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber. Leave me alone.), but was more likely intended for collectors and dedicated Leiber fans. Will I finish it as it is, with its written stuttering, word salads, and dyslexia? I doubt it. If I do, it will be less from enjoyment than from stubbornness; however, I’m only two-thirds of the way through this travesty and have already started reading another book, a book which has reminded me that reading should be pleasurable and rewarding, not an exercise of will.
Yeah, I probably won’t move past “Endfray of the Ofay”. I blame Martin H. Greenberg and whatever lazy sack he hired as a copy-editor.
I always thought that Lankhmar was a good name for a fantasy city, but never delved into it through D&D or otherwise until recently, when I picked up The Leiber Chronicles: Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber edited by Martin H. Greenberg and published by Dark Harvest Press in 1990. The fact that this anthology, which is riddled with typos like “spaceshit” (I kid you not; it’s somewhere in the mediocre story “Endfray of the Ofay”), made it onto the shortlist for the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection, must reflect the importance of Fritz Leiber to the genre, because anything that goes to press with this number of errors should only be on the shortlist for Shit.
All of this to say that, as my non-D&D introduction to Fritz Leiber, this volume quickly moved from being outrageous to fairly amusing as an exercise in smug derision, all the way to just a fucking chore to get through. Six hundred and one pages of words, with a guesstimated average of one typo every three pages equals WAY TOO MANY for any published work. You can do the math.
Despite the typos, the stories I’d recommend in this volume, besides the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser tales, are: “The Automatic Pistol”, “Smoke Ghost”, “Sanity”, “Alice and the Allergy”, “Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-Tah-Tee” (probably not about what you think it’s about, you dirty dirty dirtmonger), “The Beat Cluster”, and “Gonna Roll the Bones”. The ones that I would unread if I could: “Endfray of the Ofay” (over-the-top with both the neologisms and the inversion of social oppression) and “The 64-Square Madhouse” (a tedious story about chess and a dated story about supercomputers).
All in all, it’s a bad collection only because of the irresponsible job that the editor, Martin H. Greenberg, executed on the text. Would I finish this book if it wasn’t plagued with inexcusable errors? Maybe, but it is a bit long. It’s not really intended as an introduction, I realize now, too late (what’s that? Yes, yes, I know, the subtitle does say Fifty Years of Fritz Leiber. Leave me alone.), but was more likely intended for collectors and dedicated Leiber fans. Will I finish it as it is, with its written stuttering, word salads, and dyslexia? I doubt it. If I do, it will be less from enjoyment than from stubbornness; however, I’m only two-thirds of the way through this travesty and have already started reading another book, a book which has reminded me that reading should be pleasurable and rewarding, not an exercise of will.
Yeah, I probably won’t move past “Endfray of the Ofay”. I blame Martin H. Greenberg and whatever lazy sack he hired as a copy-editor.
December 21, 2016
3.5* I enjoyed much of Mr. Lieber's earliest work, but the later stories faded for me. The later stories, while engaging, seemed to bog down in details that just didn't move the stories forward.
March 23, 2013
His greatest hits. Has "A Pail Of Air," "Girl With the Hungry Eyes," "The Man Who Never Grew Young," "Morphy Watch," "Belsen Express"--and perhaps the greatest science fiction story ever written: "Coming Attraction." I did skip all the Gray Mouser things because I'm not really into that stuff. Unfortunately he got more indulgent later on (like with Salinger)--with windy, wordy, parenthesis-laden tendencies (although "The Button Molder" does somehow work for me) or pointless Lafferty knockoffs, like "A Rite Of Spring," "The Inner Circles" or "237 Talking Statues." Otherwise I'd've given the whole shebang a 5-spot.
REREADING: An atrocious number of typos sprinkled throughout (seriously, you guys, get yourself a proofreader!). In later years he got increasingly verbose and rambling, and relentlessly autobiographical. Anyway, some of this stuff is kinda pulpy and paying the bills, but lots is wonderful fun to reread (I especially found "Mariana" to be a marvelous fable). And "Horrible Imaginings" (despite the goofy title) was fun. Have no idea though what that 7's thing was doing in here. Read everything but the Grey Mouser stuff (I've never been into that).
REREADING: An atrocious number of typos sprinkled throughout (seriously, you guys, get yourself a proofreader!). In later years he got increasingly verbose and rambling, and relentlessly autobiographical. Anyway, some of this stuff is kinda pulpy and paying the bills, but lots is wonderful fun to reread (I especially found "Mariana" to be a marvelous fable). And "Horrible Imaginings" (despite the goofy title) was fun. Have no idea though what that 7's thing was doing in here. Read everything but the Grey Mouser stuff (I've never been into that).
July 30, 2012
Recommended, both for content and for a historical taste of sci fi/horror spanning the 1940s-1970. Folks really believed psychology applied en masse would save us all, or change us utterly. I still prefer his horror/thriller/sci fi short stories to the Grey Mouser series of shorts.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews