The Second Book of Fritz Leiber

by Fritz Leiber

Contents:

· Foreword · fw
· The Lion and the Lamb · nv Astounding Sep ’50
· The Mighty Tides [“What Makes the Mighty Tides”] · ar Science Digest Apr ’61
· Trapped in the Sea of Stars [Fafhrd & Gray Mouser] · ss *
· Fafhrd and Me · ar, 1963
· Belsen Express · ss *
· Ingmar Bergman: Fantasy Novelist · br Fantastic Mar ’74
· Scream Wolf · ss Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine Feb ’61
· Those Wild Alien Words: II · ar *
· The Mechanical Bride · pl Science Fiction Thinking Machines, ed. Groff Conklin, Vanguard, 1954
· Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin · ar The Dark Brotherhood and Other Pieces, Sauk City: Arkham House, 1966; revised from Shangri-L’Affaires, September 1963.
· A Defense of Werewolves [“Fantasy on the March”] · ar Arkham Sampler Spr ’48

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

204 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

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

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

DAW Collectors #164

Cover Artist: Jack Gaughan

Name: Leiber, Fritz Reuter, Jr.,Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA, (24 December 1910 -05 September 1992)

Alternate Name: Maurice Breçon.

Contents:

002 - The Second Book of Fritz Leiber (frontispiece) interior artwork by Jack Gaughan
007 - Foreword (The Second Book of Fritz Leiber) - essay by Fritz Leiber
013 - The Lion and the Lamb • (1950)
067 - The Mighty Tides • (1961) - essay by Fritz Leiber
074 - Trapped in the Sea of Stars - [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser]
092 - Fafhrd and Me • (1963) - essay by Fritz Leiber
115 - Belsen Express
130 - Ingmar Bergman: Fantasy Novelist • (1974) • essay by Fritz Leiber
134 - Scream Wolf • (1961) • short story by Fritz Leiber
153 - Those Wild Alien Words: II • essay by Fritz Leiber
162 - The Mechanical Bride - (1954)
182 - Through Hyperspace with Brown Jenkin • (1963) - essay by Fritz Leiber
198 - A Defense of Werewolves • (1948) - essay by Fritz Leiber (variant of Fantasy on the March)

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Second Book of Fritz Leiber appeared in 1975 from DAW, a year after they printed The Book of Fritz Leiber. 1974 also saw the publication of The Best of Fritz Leiber from Ballantine, and 1976 would see The Worlds of Fritz Leiber from Ace, and the amazing thing is that this book, just like the first one, contains only material that was previously uncollected and that there's no duplication amongst them. There are a dozen pieces included here, about equally split between fiction and non-fiction. Two of the stories are original to the book, a Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser story and the chilling Belsen Express, which won the World Fantasy Award for the best short fiction story of the year. The other fictions include Scream Wolf (a detective story from Mike Shayne's mystery magazine), The Lion and the Lamb from a 1950 issue of Astounding SF, The Mechanical Bride from an obscure Groff Conklin 1954 anthology, and A Defense of Werewolves from a 1948 August Derleth publication, which has actually been published in different versions as both fiction and as an essay. The nonfiction pieces cover a variety of topics, from Ingmar Bergman, the mechanics of tidal forces, H.P. Lovecraft, the nuances of language, etc. Like the first book, it's a good sampler that demonstrates his range and longevity... maybe not a good starting point for him, but great for his fans. The cover painting is by Jack Gaughan, usually one of the best artists in the field, but this one is kind of unfortunate.

[Murphy C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this one years ago. I think this was my first or maybe second Fritz Leiber, and I loved every story and essay herein!

[Daniel Polansky]

I picked this one off a rack at Space Cowboy in Joshua Tree partly because I have kind of a soft spot for Leiber but mostly because the cover art was just so insanely bad (what is going on with the proportions to those arms, man? Fafhrd looks like Mr. Fantastic). It's fine, the short stories are clearly not his best stuff but some of the essays were thoroughly enjoyable.

[Viktor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a grab bag of stories and articles to showcase Leiber's wide ranging interests.
"Fahfrd and Me" is greatly expanded from its initial publication. A couple stories were published here for the first time, but both are available elsewhere now. There's a deep dive into HPL's contributions to SF, but it was too deep for me.

[Steve Boyko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely love Fritz Leiber’s writing. He was a great storyteller and he could write wry humour, exciting swords & sorcery, and urban horror with the best of them. This collection isn’t his best but it is worth it for “Trapped in the Sea of Stars” alone. Some of the essays are excellent (the autobiographical “Fafhrd and Me” is the best) but the remainder of the fiction is mixed at best.