THE BIG TIME Fritz Leiber A behind-the-scenes view of the time change wars as seen from a brothel/recuperation station in a timeless limbo. A short (too short!), extremely entertaining novel (and the 1958 Hugo Award winner). A
GATHER, DARKNESS! Fritz Leiber The story of a future 500 years hence where science has become institutionalized as mysticism for a populace kept ignorant by the ruling priesthood, Darkness hasn't aged very well. Its depth-psychological underpinnings seem simplistic and the several antagonists are more like cartoons than characters. On the other hand, Leiber always manages to pull a rabbi out of his hat, turning the trick of making fine entertainment out of what would be putty in anyone else's hands. B
THE GREEN MILLENIUM Fritz Leiber Millenium suffers from several of the same faults as the title story in You're All Alone, in that it's an epic-scale story narrowed through the eyes of a handful of colorful characters, but unlike that other tale these folks never become caricatures. This terrific book concerns Lucky, a green cat who brings hyperphoria to anyone with whom he comes in contact, and the madcap efforts of a rogues' gallery of would-be possessors of Lucky's virtues to get him away from the extraordinarily ordinary Phil Gish. How this one missed a Hugo Award I'll never know, but it's a gem from start to finish. A (Buy this book -- alas, only available in hardcover, with a 4-6 week delay, but it's so good, it's worth it....)
OUR LADY OF DARKNESS Fritz Leiber Interesting novel of modern horror by one of the Grand Masters of science-fiction. I have to confess my bias here -- I don't find Leiber's horror particularly horrifying; hardly the stuff to keep you awake at night while reading it. But he always constructs a fine story, and Our Lady is no exception. Set in 1970s San Francisco, this story combines a macabre form of geomancy with a cast of typically Leiberian (read: wonderfully idiosyncratic) characters and if it doesn't scare the pants off you, well, you're guaranteed to be entertained. B+ (Buy this book -- omnibus edition includes Leiber's Conjure Wife)
THE WANDERER Fritz Leiber Classic novel about an alien visitation, it's kind of the Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead of science-fiction: the heavyweight sci-fi story is one we barely see, about an intergalactic war. The novel focuses on the ramifications of this struggle on our little Earth, whose moon serves as a quick stop refueling station for aliens on the run. Numerous excellent characters make this novel a pleasure. (1965 Hugo Award winner). A-
YOU'RE ALL ALONE Fritz Leiber A short novel and two short stories, You're All Alone is not Leiber's best. The title story didn't grab me at all, actually; it's a "tale of horror" about a handful of people who are awakened from the machine life most humans are caught in; their freedom from the rat race gives them special powers (once off the track of where they're supposed to be in the world, they are all but invisible to all the other sleepwalkers) but from the grand premise of the first couple of chapters it becomes a very small-scale story of a few unpleasant individuals. In addition, it hasn't aged well (while published in the early 1970s, it reads like something from the 50s). In fact, both "Four Ghosts in Hamlet" and "The Thing From Cleveland Depths" are much more enjoyable stories, the former a charming tale of a traveling Shakespearean theatrical company cloaked as a ghost story, and the latter a punchy science-fiction/humor blend much in the vein of Henry Kuttner's short stories. The good rating is based on the strength of the latter stories alone. B+
THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS Stanislaw Lem Masterful examination of reality versus illusion as the delegates of a political convention are dosed with psychedelics. Where does the real world stop and the hallucinations begin? I wonder if Lem even knows. A- (Buy This Book?)