Gummitch and Friends

by Fritz Leiber

Book by Fritz Leiber

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

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

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for the Gummitch stories and the novella, Ship of Shadows, 3 stars for the rest of the stories, and we shall never speak of the poems again.

I first read "Space Time for Springers", the best Gummitch story, back in the 80s, in a collection of cat SF/F stories called Magicats. I had no idea there were more Gummitch stories until Andrew Cartmel (author of the highly enjoyable Vinyl Detective series) mentioned them, and this collection, in an online conversation. This book is hard to find and expensive when you can find it so I had to wait to move to a new city before I could find a library that had it in its holdings. Thank you, Andrew!

The stories are definitely old school (50s-70s) science fiction, with all the charms and occasional now-cringey bits emblematic of the time and genre. Ship of Shadows took a bit to get going and make sense but once it does, it's a ride well worth taking, as the Hugo it won attest to.

[Nancy Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag of stories & poems with the unifying theme characters based on cats the author and his wife have known. Some real standouts and others more a premise in search of a plot.

Written during that period of the sexual revolution when sci-fi got freaky, so be prepared for many gratuitous descriptions of breasts (not that there's anything wrong with that).

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been adding read books to my shelves and when I added this I was amazed to find zero reviews. This book is the definitive collection of all of Leibers cat fantasy stories, the most famous of which is 'Spacetime for Springers' about a brilliant kitten who saves his family. I read Spacetime way back in the dark ages and several of the other stories also as they appeared in fantasy anthologies. The book printed only two editions and that may be why it has a low profile here. I have read that it was a personal project for Leiber as he loved cats and like T.S.Eliot wanted to make them part of his art. At any rate, I would recommend this book to anyone who a) loves short fantasy stories with a hook b) loves cats and c) has a fondness for the type of writing that was so popular in the 60's and 70's. Here is the opening from Spacetime.
"Gummitch was a superkitten, as he knew very well, with an I.Q. of about 160. Of course, he didn't talk. But everybody knows that I.Q. tests based on language ability are very one-sided. Besides, he would talk as soon as they started setting a place for him at table and pouring him coffee."

[B. Barron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories:
Space-Time for Springers
***** - IMOP the best short story ever written, but for some
reason this version felt truncated.
Kreativity for Kats
***** - Excellent!
Cats Cradle
**** - Good story.
The Cat Hotel
*** - Meh!
Thrice the Brinded Cat
*** - Last of the Gummitch stories.
The Lotus Eaters
*** - Okay.
Cat Three
** - Did NOT like it!
The Bump
*** - Good story. Not great, but good.
The Great San Francisco Glacier
**** - Fun.
Ship of Shadows
*** - Good, but a little off.

Poems: (I rate each, but the whole section counts as 1 **** story)
Earthbound - ***
God and the Cat - ****
A Sinister of Siamese - ***
Lullaby for a Cat - ***
Origin of the Species - ****
Sestina of the Cat in the Doorway - ****

So overall it gets a 3.54, so we always round up.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Call this at 4.5 stars.
A collection of Lieber's stories on cats over his life...
If you are a fan of Lieber's and love cats this book is just short of irresistible. Overall, the Gummitch stories are the best. While there are a few stories that are more commonplace (hence 4.5 stars), many are excellent, full of cat whimsy and some feel somewhat auto-biographical. Lieber was one of the best writers of mid-to late 20 century horror/SF.
A couple of the stories have a bit of sexiness to them.