Ship of Shadows

by Fritz Leiber

Fabulous Voyager...

Fritz Leiber, America's finest fantasist, is the winner of six Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. In this award-winning new collection you can be transported to a shadowy alternate reality where Germany won the Second World War; watch a man play dice with the devil; sail in the farthest realms of dark imagining, or observe a war being fought back and forth across time on a shuttle of shifting and uncertain reality...

These are tales of humour and horror, invention and enchantment, conjuring us into the incomparable world of his own imagining.

Cover illustration: Fred Gambino

Contents:
Ship of Shadows (1969)
Catch That Zeppelin! (1975)
Gonna Roll the Bones (1967)
Belsen Express (1975)
The Big Time (1958) novel

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Novella, Speculative Fiction, Hugo Awards, Collections

256 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1969

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

[Althea Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review only of the title story:

Ship of Shadows came out in 1969, and it's got a slightly trippy feel that might be associated with that era. On a decaying, aimless generation ship, the inhabitants are focused on booze and drugs... when they're not worried about being attacked by "witches" or "vampires." Our protagonist, Spar, is the janitor at a 'moonmist' bar frequented by addicts, whores and low-lives. He's toothless, half-blind, and seems generally confused and possibly mentally disabled. He's got a goal to get a doctor to help him, but along the way ends up getting caught up in a bizarre criminal conspiracy, and discovering that not all is as it might seem.
It's a weird one - interesting, but I didn't love it.

[Karl]

Contents:

007 - Ship of Shadows - 1969
050 - Catch That Zeppelin - 1975
069 - Gonna Roll the Bones - 1967
090 - Ill Met in Lankhmar - 1970
135 - Belsen Express -1975
149 - The Big Time - 1961


This hardcover edition is numbered 373 of 500 individually numbered copies, has been specially printed for Seacon '79 and is signed by Fritz Leiber.

[Alexander Theofanidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Μαγική η πένα του Leiber (όπως πάντα) ακόμα και σε μικρές νουβέλες και διηγήματα και ένα μεγάλο ευχαριστώ στις εκδόσεις Μέδουσα που έφεραν ποιοτική λογοτεχνία του φανταστικού (και Ε.Φ.) στην Ελλάδα, με αξιοπρέπεια, πολύ πριν άλλοι οίκοι μάς κατακλύσουν με φαντεζί σκουπίδια.

[Jlawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leiber's sci-fi and fantasy stories in this collection are compelling, but also manage to trip themselves up. For instance, 'Ship of Shadows' features the interesting point-of-view of a half-blind protagonist, with the story's environment an intriguing puzzle to be figured out. But it ends awkwardly with a bunch of rushed exposition, as if Leiber ran out of time writing it. Likewise, novella-length 'The Big Time' has an interesting set-up of a war between two time time-traveling societies that constantly alter history, but weighs itself down with too much talkiness.

Most successful is 'Ill Met in Lankhmar', from the 'Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser' series. Even though it turns a little more gruesome than its mostly light-hearted tone would indicate, it is great, classic fantasy fun, vividly told.

[Julieta Steyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ese gato Kim es un felino sumamente amoroso y encantador *risas*.
En cuanto al relato en sí, creo que Fritz podía haber corregido un poco más la historia para que comprendamos dónde nos situábamos exactamente. Me costó bastante entender de qué hablaba cuando se refería al entorno y no fue sino hasta la visita al doctor que comencé a darle sentido. Igual, he de admitir que el gato fue un gran motivador a que continuara a ver qué sucedía, no lo voy a negar.
El final, creo, no se siente tanto como un final pero no deja de ser una historia interesante, muy de fantasía pero ambientada para ciencia ficción.

[Paul Trembling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading a lot of these stories years back. Some aren't as good as I remember - maybe I've become more critical with age! - but most have aged well - still exciting, thought-provoking, even mind boggling! Classic SF from one of the great names.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man, I just don't groove to this 60's scene of drug trippin space cadets on a derelict "yellow submarine" cruisin the outer limits. I was weirded out by the space vampires! Just don't dig it, baby.

[Covadonga B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le pongo sólo tres estrellas, creo, injustamente. Leyéndolo he tenido la sensación de ver una peli de ciencia ficción sesentera, que diera mucha importancia (y con un estilo muy de la época)al contexto, pero poco la argumento. Además, la narración me resultaba confusa, como si la traducción la hubiera hecho una persona que no dominara del todo el español.
Al acabar de leerlo he buscado info del autor que contrasta mucho con mi experiencia. Así que dejo por aquí este análisis(sí, de ChatGPT, a quien le planteé mi sensación tras leerlo), que explica mejor que yo por qué puede haberse dado esa sensación de...historia mediocre, sin pena ni gloria, ya que parece que con una buena traducción sí merece la pena la lectura: "...lo que describes le pasa a muchos lectores con “Nave de sombras”, sobre todo si se la lee hoy o en una traducción antigua (las españolas de los 70 y 80 a veces eran muy literales o tenían problemas de tono). En el original, Leiber tiene un estilo muy atmosférico, casi barroco, lleno de juegos de palabras, ritmos internos y ambigüedades que una mala traducción puede convertir fácilmente en una prosa confusa".
Oyendo esa descripción hace que entren ganas de buscar otras ediciones para leer otras de sus historias. Eso sí, los personajes de mujeres: simples complementos de los personajes masculinos, sin trasfondo ni profundidad más allá de su aspecto físico y las reacciones que provocan en los personajes masculinos; y esto no creo que se le pueda achacar a la traducción(ojalá equivocarme).

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides "Ship of Shadows" and "Catch That Zeppelin!", I have read the other stories before. They're all great. I believe they all won Hugos, Nebulas, World Fantasy Awards, etc and they're largely from Leiber's later career.

"Ship of Shadows" reminds me of a gothic novel and an old bar all while being vaguely similar to Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun and may include bloodsucking NAZIs.

"Catch That Zeppelin!" involves an alternate timeline and a much nicer 1930s. American Reconstruction went better and so too did the Weimar Republic. Look out for Adolf Hitler, he may just be a bloke from Chicago.

"Gonna Roll the Bones" is a sci-fi game of playing against death. Intense even though the action is quite minimal.

"Ill Met In Lankhmar" is the meeting of the Twain, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Such a roller coaster of emotions. It will make you cheer and might even make you cry.

"Belsen Express" is someone paranoid of NAZIs that is really no better than them. It's good horror.

And The Big Time is a play as a novel. Set in one room it involves cosmic happenings and time travel and I once heard it pitched as "A tentacled alien from the moon, a Roman centurion, and a literal NAZI walk into a bar."

[Drew Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caveat to this review: I only read the title novella. There isn't an option for just that, so this is the closest I could get. I have not read the other stories.

Ship of Shadows was a pretty unique work, a science fiction book taking place on a spaceship where we follow our protagonist, Spar, a bartender in part of the strange society that has evolved. Without giving too much away, this is a story that hints at a lot about what goes on within the ship and the way the people are controlled, as well as what's going on outside in the galaxy at large.

Read Ship of Shadows if you like pulp writing, but what something that goes a bit deeper than most other similar works.

[Eric Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just about the best thing Leiber ever did in my opinion-- I came across this in a second hand copy of Anthology or Isaac A's Science fiction - some monthly collection in about 1974-75 ----my mother was always picking up used Sci-Fi "pulp" type monthly or quarterly magazines and digests -(they were always about the size of a TV guide)- and I'd stumble across them and sit in the bathtub for hours reading them. I was 9 -10 yrs old. Stuff like this cursed me with intellect and intelligence, I re-read this story every six months or so.

[Wouter Bjerg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really puts you in a very different society, to the point that you start with some vertigo for the first ~20%. Bat rack, vomit tubes, hardened gums, sitting upside down on the torus bar. After that you kind of get a grip on what is going on, but still feel like a tourist rather than a native. Are the vampires real, or just a space society term? The plot ends up being quite mid, but the imaginative writing is stratospheric.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh man, pretty inventive ideas but really hard to read and understand what the hell was happening in some stories.

[Spad53 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to love this book, I admit that only two of the stories were really good, those were Ship of Shadows and Gonna Roll the Bones, but wow, were those two good.

[Jonathan Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty strong collection. At his best, Lieber was a remarkable stylist.

[Skuli Saeland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ég var dálítinn tíma að ná áttum í þessari framtíðarnóvellu. Sögupersónan er aumkunarverður starfsmaður á bar í geimskipi þar sem glæpir og ýmsar aðrar hættur virðast á hverju strái. Ég var í raun jafn utangátta og aðalsöguhetjan þar til að lokum sögunnar kom, sem var raunar ágætis trikk. Hins vegar féll mér ekki endirinn og fannst hann full fljótfærnislegur og ekki svara þeim spurningum sem vöknuðu.