THE GHOST LIGHT

By Fritz Leiber

Fritz Leiber was one of those freight trains, not easy to start, possible to derail, but hard as hell to stop. This collection showcases some of his best stories, reaching back to work he did in the 1950s and sweeping forward to "The Ghost Light", written in 1984.

The collection is really a curio cabinet of Leiber’s idiosyncrasies, hobbies, and nightmares. His world was part funhouse, part haunted mansion, with large suites dedicated to cats, chess, acting, sex, and alas, alcoholism.

"Space-Time for Springers" is a science-fiction cats & chess fantasy (it won a Hugo, deservedly) featuring Gummitch the kitten (who merited his own series). "A Deskful of Girls" from the Changewar series provides the sex with a creepy scientist who uses the soul-stealing technology of the Spiders and Snakes (mysterious, time-spanning enemies) to create his own personal collection of girlfriends. "Midnight by the Morphy Watch" tells the secret history of why chess-masters are really nuts (Bobby Fischer notwithstanding. Yes I know, playing chess is not really a crime.) Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser have their home at "Bazaar of the Bizarre", one of their best tales ("Lean Times in Lankhmar" edges "Bizarre", IMHO, but isn’t the most typical F&GM story).

The title story is the hardest hitting of the bunch. I believe it is deliberately the opening in order to balance the autobiographical essay "Not Much Disorder and Not So Early Sex" which closes the book.  While I have seen many writers place themselves into stories, I have seen none who did so with such brutal effect. There are tragedies and there are tragedies, and many writers seem better able to express themselves in fiction than is bare, reductive fact. Leiber’s autobiography, while very revealing in mnay ways leaves much left unsaid. I'm not at all claiming that "The Ghost Light" is autobiographical, but I do beleive it is an act of exorcism, chilling and redemptive in its own way. I am left hoping that Leiber’s brilliant, tormented self found some pain-ease, at a price that could be borne.
 

-Dave Hardy

 

CHANGEWAR

By Fritz Leiber

This collection of short stories is a sequel of sorts to Fritz Leiber’s landmark novel The Big Time. The stories are set in the Changewar, a secret battle that spans all space and time. The rivals are the Spiders and Snakes, though all we really learn of them is through the mercenaries they recruit from all of history. Their mode of battle is to change the past in order to promote an advantageous outcome at some point in the unimaginably distant future.

These tales break out and explore some (a very tiny fraction!) of the immense ramifications of the Changewar. “Try and Change the Past” explains with a grimly humorous example just why altering the path of time is a job for intergalactic empires. “The Oldest Soldier” lets a regular guy meet a Changewar soldier, with some dramatic results. “A Deskful of Girls” shows just how a renegade could exploit Changewar technology: the factions don’t use a person’s physical form, they use a sort of psychic impression. In an attenuated form, it creates a spiritual zombie. Don’t try it at home folks, the Spiders and Snakes don’t like it. The collection winds up with “No Great Magic” bringing us full circle to the characters from The Big Time and showing a bit of Changewarfare in process. As always, Leiber’s quirky humor and quirkier word-play is in evidence.

While I definitely recommend this book, you should read The Big Time first. The stories here are good, but perhaps are too mystifying without the background from the novel.

-Dave Hardy

 

 

BLOOD IS NOT ENOUGH

Edited by Ellen Datlow

This collection of vampire tales was issued by Berkley in 1990 and edited by Ellen Datlow. The goal here seems to be to cast as wide a net as possible and sample every possible variation on the vampire tale one can find. There are blood drinking vampires and emotion drinking vampires and time wasting vampires and kids who think they are vampires, etc…

Some of these tales just misfire for me. Tanith Lee’s “The Janitha Tree” is a good example of her subtle and enigmatic style of weird tale that is so subtle and enigmatic I’m not too sure what happened. Other tales here just aren’t my cup of tea, “A Child of Darkness” by Susan Casper is a decent portrait of a young woman who believes she is a vampire, but ultimately the character comes across as more a pathetic loony than someone interesting in her own right.  

On the other hand there are some true standouts. Fritz Leiber’s tale of blood-sucking advertising “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” appears here. It is subtle and enigmatic, but not too subtle. The best in the collection is Scott Baker’s “Varicose Worms”. This is a tale full of surprises! It tells of a Romanian immigrant in Paris who discovers the secret magic world of Shamanism and his epic battle to hold his place in it. Along the way Baker satirizes psychiatrists, politicians, Mircea Eliade, and homeless beggars, not necessarily in that order. I finished that one and was left begging for more, though I daresay Mr. Baker knows how to wrap up a yarn. If you ever run across this book, read “Varicose Worms”!

-Dave Hardy

 

 

THE BIG TIME

By Fritz Leiber

The Big Time is a masterpiece of contradiction. It is set in a dazzling science fiction universe of limitless possibility, yet the tale itself is one of claustrophobic confinement. The fate of all time and space itself hangs in the balance, armies battle on all fronts, yet the characters are the most minor of rear-rank spearholders. And they are all the more fascinating for it. 

If you are unfamiliar with the premise, The Big Time tells of the Changewar between the Spiders and the Snakes, two mysterious factions battling for control of space and time. Their mode of battle is to change history, their foot-soldiers are agents recruited from all of history and every planet in the universe.

But forget all that, Leiber never tells you what any of the missions mean, only that faceless, nameless commanders say it’s important. And if they order a British WWI vet to help the Nazis win WWII, he just has to assume they know what they're doing. The central character is not a soldier, but an entertainer at a trans-tempoal USO station. Tangled webs of love, jealousy, and mutiny swirl through the lives of the entertainers and the time-soldiers they care for.

The Big Time is all Fritz Leiber, starting with his love of the theater. In fact The Big Time is written much like a play, with a very rigorous observance of Aristotle’s unities (I’m not being very original in noting that). Indeed, the one place, one time approach is perhaps the only way to make sense of a concept as big as the Changewar. Leiber’s love of word-play and his interest in Germans and Shakespeare are very much in evidence.

The Big Time is a science fiction novel you can recommend to people who don’t read science fiction.

-Dave Hardy

THE GREEN MILLENNIUM

By Fritz Leiber

If there’s any creature that could break down the mental barriers of a repressed, death-oriented, and relentlessly conformist society, I suppose it would be cats. That seems to be Fritz Leiber’s opinion anyway.

The Green Millennium is about Phil Gish and his America. The Bureau of Loyalty keeps the population on the straight and narrow under its dimwitted, bible-spouting president. Fun Incorporated makes sure the citizens have funless fun. America’s real business is the permanent war against its enemies.

So far you may be wondering where exactly the SF comes in since that describes the current world. When Phil meets a friendly green cat called Lucky, all of the sudden his wretched life is full of joy. All his difficulties disappear, that is until the cat scampers away. Phil is not alone in his pursuit of the cat. Lucky is being chased by a shady scientist called Dr. Romadka, a group of wrestlers, Dr. Romadka’s daughter, and the Bureau of Loyalty. There’s also the question of whether Phil’s neighbor is human from the waist down.

The opposition of an anarchic love of life to oppressive conformism is one of Leiber’s favorite motifs. The Green Millennium has that opposition in its most anarchic form. The revolution isn’t brought about by conspirators or even beatniks, but adorable space-cats. One would be forgiven for finding it all a bit too cute. The hard edges have rubber bumpers. Not that this is all bad. Sometimes a little untrammeled optimism in the face of bad news is called for.

If only we had some green cats…

-Dave Hardy

THE KNIGHT AND KNAVE OF SWORDS
By Fritz Leiber

The final volume of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series finds our heroes in semi-respectable retirement. You knew that couldn’t last!

Death and the gods are still out to kill and otherwise torment Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Meanwhile the heroes are now leaders on Rime Isle. They have settled down with local women, Cif and Afreyt. They are formidable ladies of keen and subtle intellect (which helps them keep out light-minded heroes on track). They have deputy heroes in Skor and Pshawri and a gaggle of youngsters who are no end of trouble and relief.

The centerpiece of Knight and Knave is “The Mouser Goes Below”. This tour de force sends the Mouser on a subterranean tour of Nehwon, a review of his life and a “where are they now” of long-ago loves and foes. While there is some very strange sorcery, there is little sword here. It’s a summing up, but the Falstaffian touches are still here. We learn the shocking truth about cabingirls and have a fond tribute tot he shaving fetish that marks Fafhrd and the Mouser’s adventures.

The Knight and Kanve of Swords is a strange and elegant farewell to two of sword and sorcery’s greatest heroes from one of sword and sorcery’s greatest writers.

-Dave Hardy

SWORDS AND ICE MAGIC
By Fritz Leiber

This is the sixth and penultimate volume of the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series. The heroes have adventured in just about every corner of Nehwon and they’ve made piles of enemies. In particular they’ve made an enemy of someone who is out to get us all, sooner or later, Death himself.

While that is nothing special, one must admit that when Death gets personal it’s a very serious matter. “The Sadness of the Executioner” opens the book with a tale of how Death decided it was time to let go of his two most effective servants. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s problems get bigger, the gods themselves take a hand in “Under the Thumbs of the Gods”.

The stories build to the heroes’ fateful decision to venture to Rime Isle. In the climactic tale (titled “Rime Isle”) the twain confront the old and new enemies in a complex multi-cornered struggle to destroy the heroes and their new home.

Swords and Ice Magic is fun and thrilling sword and sorcery adventure. It is also fiction that reflects on itself. Leiber looks at where his heroes have been and where they are going. He has a fine time reviewing his heroes past loves (sort of a sword and sorcery psychoanalysis) as if to ask how they developed such idiosyncratic sexual preferences. In “Rime Isle”, Leiber confronts the death-wish that lies at the heart of adventure fiction. This is fiction that is almost painful in its self-awareness. Fritz Leiber helped create sword and sorcery as a genre. In Swords and Magic he managed to transcend his own creation.

-Dave Hardy

THE SWORDS OF LANKHMAR
By Fritz Leiber

The one true novel of Fafhrd and the Gray Mousesr, Swords of Lankhmar brings our heroes into conflict with their most determined foes. At stake is nothing less than the Queen city of Nehwon, Lankhmar itself.

After a convocation of the twain’s creditors fails to arrange a mutually satisfactory payment schedule, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser go to sea. Wile acting as guards for Lankhmar’s grain fleet, they meet the delectable Hisvet and her dour but lovely maid Frix. Aside from an invasion of Mingol Hordes and an eruption of the skeletal, flesh-eating ghouls, Lankhmar has some real problems. An enemy within, dwelling alongside humanity is finally making its power manifest. I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you who they are.

Fritz Leiber is undoubtedly one of the three best sword and sorcery writers ever. In the author’s note, he compares his heroes to Robin Hood. There’s quite bit of truth to this, not that the twain are champions of the poor who steal from the rich in some Marxist tract. Rather they are trickster heroes as much as battlers, much like the legendary Robin Goodfellow. Leiber’s heroes are as uproariously funny as Falstaff and as dashing as Douglas Fairbanks.

-Dave Hardy

SWORDS AGAINST WIZARDRY
By Fritz Leiber

Swords Against Wizardry is the fourth book of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Fritz Leiber’s unparalleled sword and sorcery heroes. Fafhrd is a tall, Northern warrior and sometime singing bard. The Gray Mouser is a short, slender thief (in the Douglas Fairbanks tradition) and sometime sorcerer. The twain are not exactly inseparable, Leiber enjoyed splitting them up so he could bring them back together in ways that delight and amaze his readers.

The pals seek a legendary treasure on top of Nehwon’s (the imaginary land where their adventures take place) tallest peak, Stardock. After much stern mountaineering they arrive, though Stardock is anything but a barren wilderness. A race of invisible folk make an entrance thus thematically linking this tale to a number of others involving the semi-invisible ghouls (their skeletons are visible, see Swords of Lankhmar) as well as women who are bald or completely hairless (see “The Sadness of the Executioner” in Swords and Ice Magic). Which is to say that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s somewhat fetishistic relations with women is of increasing import here.

Balancing out the journey to the highest peaks is “The Lords of Quarmall” where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser find themselves gainfully employed on opposite sides of a dynastic war in Quarmall. That Quarmall is an entirely subterranean kingdom ruled by wizards of formidable power only makes the twain’s sojourn there more interesting.

From mountain climbing to subterranean wizards, Swords Against Wizardry is an eccentric travelogue from Nehwon, the imaginary world where Fahrd and the Gray Mouser, two of sword and sorcery’s most eccentric heroes dwell.

-Dave Hardy

SWORDS IN THE MIST
By Fritz Leiber

Swords in the Mist is the third and shortest volume in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. I believe it is also the first one I ever read, so it has a special resonance for me. First impressions count for a lot, Fritz Leiber’s first impression on me was very favorable.

Swords in the Mist follows Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in more of their swashbuckling adventures. “Lean Times in Lankhmar” actually splits them up. Fafrhd gets religion and becomes a hymn singer (he was going to be a singing skald before he left home abruptly) and the Gray Mouser joins an organized crime outfit. When the gangsters start taking an interest in the prophets to be made in the Street of the Gods, the pals are on a collision course. “Lean Times” is one of the funniest sword and sorcery tales I’ve ever read.

The other bookend for this set is “Adept’s Gambit”. This story blends fantasy with a historical setting (a very happy mix). The twain find they’ve wandered out of the fantasy world of Nehwon into the 3rd century BC Seleukid Empire. After a strange curse afflicts the heroes, they undertake a strange journey to lift it. Leiber has returned to the coming of age story, only this time it is about a sorcerer (no Harry Potter) and the pain he inflicts on those who love him. While still filled with the absurd humor that characterize the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tales, “Adept’s Gambit” is also truly creepy, a good reminder that sword and sorcery has its roots in the horror genre.

Swords in the Mist is a true feast of sword and sorcery. A remarkable set of tales by any standard, it is part of one of the best s&s series of all time.

-Dave Hardy

SWORDS AGAINST DEATH
By Fritz Leiber

Swords Against Death is the second volume of the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. There are ten tales of marvels, mourning, comedy, and derring-do. Fafhrd is a tall Northern barbarian, serious and introspective, his comrade in arms, the Gray Mouser is a small, lighting quick fellow who specializes in theft and dabbles in sorcery.

Leiber wanted to create sword and sorcery heroes on a human scale. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser have any number of fantastic adventures, but they always keep an ironic distance from “heroism”, avoiding any hint of self-importance. Sometimes they even mourn when they kill an enemy. These guys are Conan with empathy, Elric with a sense of humor.

Leiber introduces the twain’s sorcerous mentors: Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. While trying to maintain symmetry (two heroes, two wizards), really Ningauble is the prize. Ning matches the pair in outlandishness, whimsicality, and erratic behavior. He’s Gandalf on cough syrup.

The stories here are good, but the final two are the crown jewels: “The Price of Pain-Ease” and “Bazaar of the Bizarre”. Images from those weird and wonderful tales still flash in my mind’s eye, some decades after first reading them. “Pain-Ease” involves the theft of a vacation cottage, a journey to confront old sorrows, and a duel with Death. It is a look into the subconscious of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and sets a pattern for their peculiar choices of female companionship. “Bazaar of the Bizarre” tells of a heroic battle against an alien invasion of corporate strip malls (for lack of a better expression). It’s a good story to keep in mind when you’re shopping, though Leiber does make the goods on sale awfully tempting.

Swords Against Death is part of one of the greatest sword and sorcery series of all time. Read it and you’ll see it’s greatness first-hand!

-Dave Hardy

SWORDS AND DEVILTRY
By Fritz Leiber

Here are three novelettes that tell of the origins of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, sword and sorcery’s most raffish and charming rogues who ever to cut a purse or battle a demon.

We meet Fafhrd as a callow youth, not yet quite a man among his tribe. But he has a very fine singing voice and girlfriend who has a little surprise for him. When a troupe of traveling performers show up, Fafhrd starts to take an interest in the outside world. “The Snow Women” is a witty tale of coming of age, in an age-old war of the sexes, with a little swordplay between men as well.

“The Unholy Grail” tells of how Mouse, the timid youth, became the Gray Mouser, swordsman, thief, and occasional sorcerer. It is a fine, dark tale of loss and revenge, a fitting companion to “The Snow Women” as a sword and sorcery coming-of-age story.

“Ill Met in Lankhmar” brings the two heroes together in the City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes. Leiber is at his best mixing comedy with tragedy as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser initiate their long war with the Thieves Guild. While too many fantasy settings seem to be little more than routine backdrops, Leiber invested Lankhmar with a fantastic solidity, making its wonders and horrors seem very real.

There are only a few sword and sorcery series that reach this level of excellence. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are dashing scoundrels, outlandish and heroic, but with a human dimension too. Leiber’s great acheivement was to bring that into a genre dominated by supermen, and he brought it in with a song and a laugh!

-Dave Hardy