The Worlds of Fritz Leiber

by Fritz Leiber

THE WORLDS OF FRITZ LEIBER is a brand new collection of some of the finest SF, Fantasy and Horror stories produced by the internationally acclaimed author of THE BIG TIME.

It is a collection handpicked by the author and contains two Change-War stories, a Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tale, Catch That Zeppelin (the winner of the 1976 Nebula Award) and eighteen other outstanding stories.

But no one could describe this book better than Fritz Leiber "I believe this collection represents me more completely, provides a fuller measure of the range of my creative efforts, than any other. Welcome to my worlds!"


Hatchery of Dreams (1961)
The Goggles of Dr. Dragonet (1961)
Far Reach to Cygnus (1965)
Night Passage (1975)
Nice Girl with Five Husbands (1951)
When the Change-Winds Blow (1964)
237 Talking Statues, Etc. (1963)
The Improper Authorities (1959)
Our Saucer Vacation (1959)
Pipe Dream (1959)
What's He Doing in There? (1957)
Friends and Enemies (1957)
The Last Letter (1958)
Endfray of the Ofay (1969)
Cyclops (1965)
Mysterious Doings in the Metropolitan Museum (1974)
The Bait (1973)
The Lotus Eaters (1972)
Waif (1974)
Myths My Great-Granddaughter Taught Me (1963)
Catch That Zeppelin! (1975)
Last (1957)

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Collections

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Fritz 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

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leiber was the only writer to have books in Ace's "Worlds of," DAW's "Book of," and Ballantine/Del Rey's "Best of" series, and, amazingly, he managed to avoid any overlap in the contents. (He also neglected to include a number of stories that I would have numbered among his best, but that's a separate kettle of fish.) This is the longest of the bunch, and in many ways the best. None of his earliest works are included; the earliest stories are from the late 1950s and run up to the year prior to the book's publication in 1976 with the inclusion of Catch That Zeppelin!, which won the Nebula Award for best short story of the year. (Which is a fine story, though I would've picked Benford's Doing Lennon or Ellison's Shatterday had I been a voter.) There's a very short Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser story (The Bait), a Change War tale or two (When the Change-Winds Blow), a cat story (The Lotus Eaters), a theatre story (237 Talking Statues, Etc.), some very humorous stories especially the two Dr. Dragonet stories), etc. My favorites in this one are The Nice Girl with Five Husbands and most especially Our Saucer Vacation.

[Jean-marcel · Rating 4 out of 5]

if you don't have fun reading this, I'm not sure what to say to you, but I probably won't like you very much. While this book is missing some of the existential pain and horror that leiber was certainly capable of delivering, this is a fine showcase of the man's more light-hearted, grinning and playful side. We have stories about wily cats, stories about mysterious and adorable space babes, stories about talking statues delivering theatrical Shakespearean poses, stories about marriage and all its gifts and awkwardnesses, and stories about times that didn't come to pass and nations that never existed, but perhaps ought to have done. The book isn't all light and breezy, either. "Catch that Zeppelin!" is here, and it's a surprisingly touching glimpse at the alternate life of an Adolf Hitler who never lived. This is a remarkable story because it stays largely subtle throughout, and by the time you realise who this man is really supposed to be, you already sort of feel for him even though many of the real Hitler's character traits are still rather in place, but rendered harmless and in a sense even charming.

"The Bait" seems a strange inclusion; while it's nice to see Fafhrd and Mouser here, I would have certainly picked something else, like "Lean Times in Lankhmar", which would probably have fit well with some of the themes present here. Still, this is a great set of stories; as good a showcase of what Leiber could do as many out there. I gave this book to one of my work colleagues who had never heard of Fritz Leiber before, and she loved it so, as I knew she would. Get this book, and give it to your friends, too!

[Robert Zoltan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good collection, but not as good as some others. It's hard to find a collection with all great work by Leiber. He wrote for a very long time and most anthologies choose a real mixed bag of stories, genre-wise and sometimes quality-wise. This collection has some fantastic tales. Reading the first one right now, Hatchery of Dreams, a really strong story.

If you haven't read Leiber and get a chance to pick this up, read:
Hatchery of Dreams
The Goggles of Doctor Dragonet
Far Reach to Cygnus
Night Passage (a personal favorite of mine)
When the Change-Winds Blow
The Bait
Waif
Myths My Great Granddaughter Taught Me
Catch That Zeppelin! (won the Nebula award)

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've encountered Fritz Leiber in many SF anthologies and generally enjoy his writing. I don't remember where I picked up this paperback, but it's a nice addition to my collection overall.

I find Leiber to be a bridge between the Golden Age and the New Wave, leaning perhaps more towards the former (a point in his favor in my book). This collection seems to be a good overview of his work - it includes a Fafhrd & The Grey Mouser story and Doctor Dragonet appears in 2 stories. I particularly liked "Our Saucer Vacation", "The Girl with Five Husbands" and "Catch that Zeppelin". The last 2 stories feature characters becoming "unstuck in time", a theme of several of his short stories. There's some nice touches of humor, but he can go dark as well.

There are elements that feel a bit dated, but I've come to expect that -- writers can't help but bring elements of their own here and now into their work, I think - no matter when it is set. It's even harder to project societal expectations into the future; we at least have ample examples of human behavior from the past.

Recommended to readers of late Golden Age SF - it's a collection I'll probably revisit from time to time.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

First read: * * * * *

REREADING: A lot of fluffy stuff throughout. I definitely got the feeling it was a "previously uncollected" project for the most part, despite the inclusion of a few well-known ones (as well as the powerful "Waif").

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the 22 short stories included in this collection, exactly zero are also in The Best of Fritz Leiber. That’s pretty amazing. The only story I’d already read was “Myths My Great-Granddaughter Taught Me”, and that’s pure chance: of the five issues I have of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, one is the January 1963 issue where the story was first published.

As I noted for the earlier volume (from a different publisher), Leiber’s work is as much or more slice-of-life than narrative.

One, “Bait” is a very short Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story. Two are Dr. Dragonet stories, “The Goggles of Dr. Dragonet” and “Far Reach to Cygnus”.

Warning: A weird amount of the stories involve thoughts of sex with children, from “Bait” to “Waif” (which also invokes probable incest). The latter is a potentially great story that just glosses over too much of the real story to ascend.

The highlights all involve the weird and unusual that Leiber is great at. “Pipe Dream” opens up with:

It wasn’t until the mermaid turned up in his bathtub that Simon Grue seriously began to wonder what the Russians were doing on the roof next door.

And only gets stranger from there. It’s basically a family of Slavic superheroes, escaping Soviet oppression, doing experiments on their own family in the midst of New York City.

The stories contain the combination of amazing optimism and nuclear-war pessimism that seems to permeate stories of the era. In the 1957 “Friends and Enemies” there’s been a nuclear semi-apocalypse around 1994. People live in enclaves, hate the physicists who they believe caused the war, and yet continue to feed off of the output of Hollywood, which has moved from talkies through 3Ds and into feelies. Among the other technologies almost taken for granted in this dying world are jet automobiles that were introduced in 1980. In the midst of pessimism, Leiber could not jettison all of his optimism. I find that these types of stories are pessimistic now not because of the pessimism on their surface that never came true, but because of the optimism they still retained that never came true.

Besides “Pipe Dream”, the second highlight is “When the Change-Winds Blow” about a man living on the Martian frontier (also after a nuclear holocaust).

Other highlights include “237 Talking Statues, Etc.”, about a man living with his mother—and with 237 statues haunted by his dead father; “Cyclops”, about a far expedition to Jupiter and speculation on the most alien of alien races; “Night Passage”, about a chance meeting with an alien in Las Vegas that fits the Las Vegas mystique exactly; and “What’s He Doing In There?” which could just as well have been titled “Whose taboo are we talking about, anyway?” about an alien going to the bathroom immediately after first contact. The scientist initiating the first contact has no idea how to interact with an alien on the other side of the bathroom door.

[Viktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not to get all *-bitchy, but I was about to give this 2 *'s. But going over the TOC, I bumped it up quite a bit.

To get what this collection is, let's start here:
"I believe this collection represents me more completely, provides a fuller measure of the range of my fictional efforts, than any other. I've tried to make it that way, without repeating stories from other collections, especially the ones currently in print. There's no overlap with those whatever. (Overlapping collections are an annoyance to readers and author alike.)"

itals are mine.

So, while it's easy to say "it's a round-up-the-sad-sisters" book, because at the time of it was published, there was "Best Of FL", "Book of FL", "2nd Book of FL" and others in print. One might think that. And, yeah, Fritz can qualify. Still, there are some top-notch stories here, as well as stories that aren't "best" but "yeah, that was cool". I'll admit that there are a couple stories here that I had no idea what was going on. "Friends And Enemies" is one. "5 Husbands" is another. And there are also a couple stories where it's too damned clear that FL likes him some 12 yr old girls.

Eesh.

Knowing how creepy that is, FZ tries to rationalize it. "Other countries hundreds of years ago did such and such.... blah blah blah." And to be fair, "Waif" is a terrific story.

Despite all of that, it's a helluva fun collection. You'll want to read all of the Dr. Dragonet stories. Is there a book of them? Only 2 are here.

The Fahfrd story here is barely a story.

"Endfray of the Ofay" is some effed-up weirdness like only FZ can do. And then he does an even more effed-up "Catch That Zeppelin".

It's a full 4*.

[Johnny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quite entertainingly well written but also containing many un-interesting short stories. The one about witches is very fun