"Fritz Leiber - Best of Fritz Leiber" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

Gather, Darkness! it has built a neo-medieval world of ignorant commoners dominated by a hierarchy
that really can invoke тАЬsupernaturalтАЭ sanctions in the name of its God. A liberation movement finally
does start. But in this environment it calls itself тАЬwitchcraftтАЭ and claims to serve the Devil! There are
many magnificently funny details (e.g., since the priesthood rides around in aircraft built to look like
angels, the aircraft of the opposition are bat-winged and horned) but the story isnтАЩt simply a romp. Its
account of brainwashing by chemical and electronic means is fast becoming a foul reality.

Gather, Darkness! was followed by a swarm of dull imitations. But surely, hi due course, it partly
inspired Philip Jos6 FarmerтАЩs seminal work The Lovers. ThatтАЩs what I mean by a landmark work.

I wonder how WomenтАЩs Lib would react to a reissue of the fantasy novel from this period, Conjure Wife,
with its assumption that all women are witches but they donтАЩt tell their men. Probably thereтАЩd be general
pleasure. It was popular enough to get two filmed versions; and I know several ladies hi the movement
who still love the original story. As often elsewhere, Leiber doubled his strength by combining dazzling
imagination with unsparing realism. The principal setting is a small college community, and I have since
observed for myself how vicious the infighting can get in such a place. By the way, the hero, Norman
Saylor, reappears in this collection. Leiber likes to interconnect tales whenever possible.

Likewise, several of LeiberтАЩs stories are part of a series incorporating the many-branched time-lines
whose origins were described hi the short novel Destiny Times Three. Ranging from a placid Utopia
through a cruel dictatorship to a freezing ruin of an EarthтАФand beyondтАФthis novel is more than a fast-
paced chase story; it is a vatic study of power over nature and over man, so easy to misuse and so nearly
impossible to use rightly.

Similarly, Leiber wrote a number of stories hi what has come to be known as the Change-War cyclesтАФ
this series has rather overshadowed the one mentioned above. A couple of the Change-War stories are
reprinted here. The heart of the cycle is in another novel, The Big Time. Few comparable tours de force
exist anywhere in literature. The action takes place continuously in a single setting, a station outside the
cosmos to which half-crazed soldiers from all time and space are sent for a little rest and recreation.
Beneath the flamboyancies, tension racks up notch by notch toward a breaking-point climax followed by

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 best of fritz leiber

an ironic denouement. ItтАЩs fantastically good theaterтАФ literally. How I wish to see it staged!

Being such a virtuoso performance, The Big Time doesnтАЩt seem to have had any followers. I admit to
keeping it in mind while writing my own A Midsummer Tempest, but cannot claim that that employs the
dramatic unities as the former book did. Evidently nobody in our field can match Fritz Leiber here.

He went on to a different technique, the out-and-out satirical, hi The Silver Eggheads. This account of an
ultra-mechanized future lacks the misanthropy of a Swift but bites just as hard. I really think its blend of
sardonicism, earthy (even slapstick) mirth, and underlying compassion is best likened to Aristophanes.
For instance, consider what might be done with pseudo-female robotsтАФ

тАЬCan you imagine, Flaxy, having it with a girl who is all velvet or plush, or who really goes all hot and
cold, or who can softly sing you a full-orchestra symphony while youтАЩre doing it тАШt or maybe RavelтАЩs
Bolero, or who has slightlyтАФnot excessively тАФprehensile breasts or various refreshingly electric skin
areas, or who has some of the featuresтАФnot overdone, of courseтАФof a cat or a vampire or an octopus, or
who has hair like MedusaтАЩs or ShambleauтАЩs that lives and caresses you, or who has four arms like Siva,