Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Some good short fiction of Fritz Leiber

Jonathan Strahan, currently in the process of compiling ToC for a "best of Fritz Leiber" title for Night Shade Books, lists his current favorites - longer list from which he intends to choose (but presumably the stories that made some impression on him). List is near the bottom of his article.

I haven't read many stories of Leiber - probably just about a half dozen. Among the ones I've read, there are two on his list:

  1. "A Pail of Air" is very good post-apocalypse survival story, & is online as text, MP3 reading, & MP3 dramatization.
  2. "Coming Attraction" is very famous, but I've never been able to figure out what makes it special. Its text, audio or comic book adaptation might be online (but I don't have a link handy).
Others I can recollect but that are not on Strahan's list:
  1. "Wanted - An Enemy" probably does belong to his "best of" list. A pulp era story with an interesting proposal to stop wars - a man is trying to convince apparently peaceful Martians to raid & loot earth...
  2. "Sanity": Appears to have been anthologized often enough, but I found it an ordinary tale. Premise is interesting, though: the definition of "normal" human behavior depends on the society within which the actors live.
Related: "best of" lists.

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