The Secret Songs

by Fritz Leiber

Eleven classics from a master.Here are eleven outstanding short stories from Fritz Leiber, a master of the genre who has won two Hugo Awards and countless accolades in the 30 years he has been writing top science fiction. The Secret Songs represents the best of Leiber's work - ranging in style from from sophisticated hardcore SF to fantasy and horror in the classic style. It is a tribute to Leiber's versatility and permanence, and a must for any science fiction bookshelf.Cover illustration by Anthony Roberts.- The Winter Flies- The Man Who Made Friends With Electricity- Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-Tah-Tee- Mariana- Coming Attraction- The Moon is Green- A Pail of Air- Smoke Ghost- The Girl with Hungry Eyes- No Great Magic- The Secret Songs

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories, Vampires

229 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1968

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

[Bjørnar Tuftin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories, which makes it a bit hard to give a rating. All of the stories are rather dated, which sometimes make them more interesting, and sometimes less, and they represent a variety of genres, some that I like more than others. All in all I'm going to give it four stars as I really enjoyed at least a couple of the stories and didn't hate the others.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of Leiber’s short stories. I came to him due to a Night Gallery adaptation of his short story “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (included in this collection). If I hadn’t seen this episode of that TV series, I don’t think I’d have liked the story too much. It’s not as developed, although the kernel of the story is 100% there, and I enjoyed finally reading it.

“Mariana” is a beautifully done story in just 5½ pages. Perfection. “The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity” was also a perfect little horror/SF story. No wasted words, no wasted feelings. I really liked it.

There were three post-apocalyptic stories, “Coming Attraction", “The Moon Is Green” and A Pail of Air". The first was interesting with a slight exploration of toxic masculinity. The second, “The Moon is Green” was a much better story. It blew me away. “A Pail of Air” was interesting but felt rushed at end.

Of the other stories, I liked “The Winter Flies”. It started slowly, but in a weird way, I liked how it speed up and careened into the end. I didn’t like “Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee”, “Smoke Ghost”, “No Great Magic”, or “The Secret Songs”.