The Fritz Leiber MEGAPACK ®

by Fritz Leiber

Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. (1910-1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theater and films, playwright and chess expert. With writers such as Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, Leiber can be regarded as one of the fathers of "sword and sorcery" fantasy (in fact, he coined the term). Moreover, he excelled in all fields of speculative fiction, writing award-winning work in fantasy, horror, and science fiction. This volume assembles 10 classics, including the novel THE BIG TIME. Here

Later Than You Think
The Wolf Pack
The Moon Is Green
The Big Time
Bread Overhead
The Night of the Long Knives
The Creature from Cleveland Depths
The Snowbank Orbit
No Great Magic
Spider Mansion

If you enjoy this volume of classic stories, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see the 270+ other entries in this series, including science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, adventure, horror, westerns -- and much, much more!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories, Horror

420 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2015

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

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good read.

I was pleasantly surprised by the prominence of women in these stories. Sci-fi women from this time period tend to be there mostly as sex objects. Lieber's women were far more complex than that. In "The Moon is Green" our POV character is a woman, who is yearning for beauty, and the outside world. in "The Big Time," and "No Great Magic" our POV character is an entertainer, which yes can include sex, but she's far more complex than that. We see her fears, her desires, her intelligence. My favorite stories "Night of the Long Knives," and "The Creature From Cleveland Depths" also feature prominent female characters who are more than one dimensional beings.

There are racist and sexist elements in some of these stories

Below are individual ratings for each story.

Later than you think: 2/5
A little stiff, and a pretty normal subverting expectations story.

The Wolf Pack: 3/5
An interesting tale about distopian utopia. War, War never changes.

The Moon Is Green: 3/5
A beautiful little story about family and cabin fever. It's a very poetic thought provoking little story,

The Big Time: 2/5
I didn't really like the beginning of the story, but started to get into it toward the middle, and then it lost me again at the end.
The relationships are just too gritty for me I think.

Bread Overhead: 3/5
A fun little story about marketing.

Night of the Long Knives: 3/5
this post apocalyptic story is my favorite in the book so far.
The world it depicts is interesting and feels full. All the characters are great.

The Creature From Cleveland depths: 4/5
A fantastic story. I loved the characters and the world.
Daisy is really fun, and she's portrayed as being sexy without being sexualized.
Gus is a great character too. I love his creativity, and empathy.

The Snowbank Orbit: 1/5
This is a number heavy space flight story. It's not very interesting.

No Great Magic: 3/5
A Shakespearean play. If not for the return of familiar characters I would not have known that it was science fiction until the end.

Spider Mansion: 3/5
An interesting little horror story. I wish I knew the reason for the visit.

[Viktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kind of a mish-mash -- it's a blend of his "Night of the Wolf" collection and his Change War stories, with some added spice. Yes! it's a terrific FL collection, which is redundant. This has the entire "The Big Time" Hugo winning novel. Folks, don't focus on that tale's solution. It's in its telling. It's amazing. A sort-of followup to that tale is here as well.

And only FL would find some humor in the Cold War in the particular way he does here in "Bread Overhead".

Lots of great stuff.

This all ends with a pastiche (?) of H L Lovecraft. Which made me wince more than once. Not for good reasons.

[Elle]

Definitely worth the price for the Change War stories alone. I love Greta so much, she's one of Leiber's best creations. Also the story about the Deathlands is a fascinating, thought-provoking look at post-apocalyptic America.

[Michiel ...moved to StoryGraph! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic SF, starting from the 1940s, 3.75 stars. In some stories, the (slow) pace didn't age well, but the brilliant ideas (some which eerily resemble today) and plot twists are great for those who are not afraid of reading many pages.

[Evander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe 3.5.

[Brian Watling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of short stories and early material

[Carol Keller]

DNF