The Second Fritz Leiber MEGAPACK®

by Fritz Leiber

The Second Fritz Leiber MEGAPACK(r) collects 14 more stories (plus a poem) by the acclaimed creator of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Here are adventures in the future, through other dimensions, and across parallel worlds -- with plenty of humor, cats, and fun! Included A PAIL OF AIR
WHAT'S HE DOING IN THERE?
APPOINTMENT IN TOMORROW
KREATIVITY FOR KATS
A BIT OF THE DARK WORLD
THE DREAMS OF ALBERT MORELAND
COMING ATTRACTION
NICE GIRL WITH HUSBANDS
YESTERDAY HOUSE
A BAD DAY FOR SALES
TIME IN THE ROUND
THE LAST LETTER
BULLET WITH HIS NAME
THE BIG ENGINE
RECOGNITION OF DEATH (poem)

If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 280+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy

243 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 23, 2016

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

[Peter Carrier · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bad:

Formatting and grammar is wanting in a few of the stories; "Appointment In Tomorrow" and "A Bit Of The Dark World" are the worst offenders. While infrequent, the ocasionel misspeling, lackofspacing or odd
placement of words or breaks are hard to miss and somewhat distracting. Complaints should be kept to a minimum given the price of the material, however: $.55 is hard to beat.

The Good:

The content, while not always first-rate, is always entertaining. This collection contains several short works from the period when Leiber was at the height of his powers. "A Pail of Air" is original if implausible; "Appointment In Tomorrow" is fun as well as predictive; "Kreativity For Kats" is a welcome change of pace; "Bullet With His Name" is appropriately thoughtful while still being somewhat absurdist and tongue-in-cheek; the last entry, the poem "Recognition of Death," is contemplative and altogether different in terms and tone from anything else in the book.

The Takeaway:

At $.55, this book is a steal. Have to pass some time on a flight or long ride? Pick it up.

Recommended for: fans of Leiber; those who enjoy cheeky, not-always-serious sci-fi; lovers of tales from an era of 'classic' sci-fi

"She was the sort of girl Ernie dreamed about, improperly."

"Among other things, his drinking eventually completely confused his memories of abnormal personal powers with his entirely normal illusions of alcoholic ones."

"I'm not sure you'd like England," I said. "The austerity's altogether different from your American brand of misery."

"Besides, that's not the way power is seized. New ideas aren't useful to the man bargaining for power- only established facts and lies are."

"Courage is like a ball, son. A person can hold it only so long, and then he's got to toss it to someone else. When it's tossed your way, you've got to catch it and hold it tight- and hope there'll be someone else to toss it to when you get tired of being brave."

[M.H. Thaung]

I've read most of the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, but nothing else by Fritz Leiber. So I was pretty curious to see the range of his other works offered in this collection. Although parts are dated as we might expect, this is a pretty interesting mix of speculative fiction.

Even if the characters aren't fully fleshed out, the author takes interesting speculative concepts (bearing in mind these were published around 1950) and has the characters do something interesting with them. Some of the stories feel like social satire, while others I found quite disturbing. I'm thinking particularly of Coming Attraction, which has rather different associations for face masks than we do currently. The Last Letter gave me a wry smile, with its portrayal of (paper) junk mail permeating society.

A good mix of stories, some of which are still quite thought-provoking.

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a decent set of stories. They're not as good as the first collection of stories. These are mostly earlier in his career and they're more sexist than the later tales. It's nice to see that growth. Brief reviews of each story below.

Pail of Air: 3 Stars
A beautiful little story, about the last survivors on a snowball earth.

What's He Doing in There?: 2 Stars
A quite short story about the first martian visitor and cultural differences.

Appointment in Tomorrow: 2 Stars
A story of the future. Toward the beginning it's wordy and hard to read. It gets easier in the middle but it doesn't really get much of anywhere.

Kreativity for Kats: 3 Stars
I think I'll give them all 3 stars actually though the first story was the best.
A story from a cats perspective. I think Irene would really enjoy this one.

A Bit of the Dark World: 3 stars.
If I was rating the beginning it would be 3 stars. The middle 2, the end 4.
The horror really does hit nicely at the end. It's just a little boring to get to it.

The Dreams of Albert Moreland: 3 stars
I have dreams like this some times and it's very frightening. I've never seen it described before. If the story went anywhere and didn't just stop it would have a higher rating.

Coming Attraction: 4 stars
I really enjoyed the world building in this one. As often happens with Leiber I found the ending quick and unsatisfying.

Nice Girl with 5 Husbands: 3 stars.
A fun little time travel story. No complaints.

Yesterday House: 3 stars.
An interesting sci-fi tale about biology, with horror vibes.

A Good Day for Sales. 3 stars
Robie the robot is cute, and functions about as well as modern AI.

Time in the Round: 2 stars
A time story. I wasn't a big fan of the world portrayed in this one.

The Last Letter: 3 stars
A fun little romance story that takes place in the same world as the floating bread.

Bullet With His Name: 3 Stars
One of the best stories in the book. A tale of alien civilizations.

The Big Engine: 2 stars.
A short piece on nihlism

Recognition of Death: 1 stars
A poem about the difficulties of life, and the usefulness of death.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect going in. I last read Leiber over 40 years ago, and it was fantasy, it sci fi. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing and the story concepts.

All in all, it was an entertaining read.

[Elle]

Definitely worth the price for the stories you get. Leiber is consistently amazong