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Espectros de la noche
Cuentos incluidos:
Fantasma de humo (Smoke Ghost, 1941)
La pistola automática (The automatic Pistol, 1940)
La herencia (The inheritance, 1942)
La colina y el agujero (The hill and the Hole, 1942)
Los sueños de Albert Moreland (The dreams of Albert Moreland)
El sabueso (The hound, 1942)
Diario en la nieve
El hombre que nunca rejuveneció (The man Who Never Grew Young, 1947)
Fantasma de humo (Smoke Ghost, 1941)
La pistola automática (The automatic Pistol, 1940)
La herencia (The inheritance, 1942)
La colina y el agujero (The hill and the Hole, 1942)
Los sueños de Albert Moreland (The dreams of Albert Moreland)
El sabueso (The hound, 1942)
Diario en la nieve
El hombre que nunca rejuveneció (The man Who Never Grew Young, 1947)
149 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
5 people are currently reading
554 people want to read
About the author
Fritz Leiber
1,337 books1,051 followersFritz 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
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
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
January 6, 2016
If I had to choose just one single-author horror collection to keep forever (not counting "greatest hits"-type retrospectives), Night's Black Agents would definitely be in the top 3 or 4. You get prime early examples of urban horror from the 40s with "Smoke Ghost" and "Girl with the Hungry Eyes," and two of my all-time favorite Lovecraftian tales, "Diary in the Snow" and "A Bit of the Dark World." The latter is one of the most unsettling pieces of cosmic horror I've ever read, concerning a group of friends staying in an isolated cabin up in the Santa Monica mountains, where something beyond human comprehension awaits. There are even a couple Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories if sword and sorcery is your thing.
A must for any and all horror fans.
5 Stars
(FYI: The earlier editions do not contain "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" or "A Bit of the Dark World," so make sure you get the 1978 or later editions, as these are essential stories.)
A must for any and all horror fans.
5 Stars
(FYI: The earlier editions do not contain "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" or "A Bit of the Dark World," so make sure you get the 1978 or later editions, as these are essential stories.)
March 12, 2020
Estupenda antología de relatos del estadounidense Fritz Leiber, un maestro todoterreno, ya sea en ciencia ficción, fantasía o terror. En este caso nos encontramos con ‘Espectros de la noche’ (Night’s Black Agents, 1947), donde Leiber da una vuelta de tuerca a algunos de los temas clásicos de terror, fantasmas, objetos diabólicos, sueños de otras dimensiones, llevándolos a la modernidad.
Fantasma de humo (1941). El protagonista vive aterrorizado, obsesionado por una sombra que le acecha entre toda la tecnología, modernidad y contaminación de la ciudad. Genial relato, una obra maestra.
La pistola automática (1940). La historia está narrada por Desnarigado, un integrante de una banda de traficantes durante la Ley Seca, que nos habla de Negro Kozacs y la pistola de la que nunca se separaba. Otra maravilla de relato.
La herencia (1942). El narrador, tras la muerte de su tío, acaba de trasladarse al apartamento que tenía alquilado. Poco a poco irá descubriendo los secretos que esconde. Muy bueno.
La colina y el agujero (1942). Tom Digby está midiendo la altitud de ciertas colinas, hasta que encuentra una incongruencia. Este es el relato que más me ha gustado del libro.
Los sueños de Albert Moreland (1945). El protagonista nos narra lo que le sucedió en 1939, inició de la segunda guerra mundial, y que está íntimamente relacionado con su amigo Albert. Este es un gran jugador de ajedrez, y le cuenta el extraño sueño que tiene cada noche, donde juega una partida quizá decisiva. Gran relato.
El sabueso (1942). Al joven David le acecha algo sucio y perturbador. De nuevo, gran relato.
Diario en la nieve (1947). Un escritor en ciernes se traslada a la cabaña de su amigo John. Este ya ha escrito diversos relatos, pero para el narrador, que lo ha dejado todo, será el momento de poner por escrito sus ideas fantásticas. Estupendo relato metaficcional.
El hombre que nunca rejuveneció (1947). Relato de ciencia ficción histórica, donde el protagonista recorre la Historia hacia atrás. Original y disfrutable.
Fantasma de humo (1941). El protagonista vive aterrorizado, obsesionado por una sombra que le acecha entre toda la tecnología, modernidad y contaminación de la ciudad. Genial relato, una obra maestra.
La pistola automática (1940). La historia está narrada por Desnarigado, un integrante de una banda de traficantes durante la Ley Seca, que nos habla de Negro Kozacs y la pistola de la que nunca se separaba. Otra maravilla de relato.
La herencia (1942). El narrador, tras la muerte de su tío, acaba de trasladarse al apartamento que tenía alquilado. Poco a poco irá descubriendo los secretos que esconde. Muy bueno.
La colina y el agujero (1942). Tom Digby está midiendo la altitud de ciertas colinas, hasta que encuentra una incongruencia. Este es el relato que más me ha gustado del libro.
Los sueños de Albert Moreland (1945). El protagonista nos narra lo que le sucedió en 1939, inició de la segunda guerra mundial, y que está íntimamente relacionado con su amigo Albert. Este es un gran jugador de ajedrez, y le cuenta el extraño sueño que tiene cada noche, donde juega una partida quizá decisiva. Gran relato.
El sabueso (1942). Al joven David le acecha algo sucio y perturbador. De nuevo, gran relato.
Diario en la nieve (1947). Un escritor en ciernes se traslada a la cabaña de su amigo John. Este ya ha escrito diversos relatos, pero para el narrador, que lo ha dejado todo, será el momento de poner por escrito sus ideas fantásticas. Estupendo relato metaficcional.
El hombre que nunca rejuveneció (1947). Relato de ciencia ficción histórica, donde el protagonista recorre la Historia hacia atrás. Original y disfrutable.
October 11, 2024
Night’s Black Agents was Fritz Leiber’s first published book (1947), and it was an impressive debut. Its original publisher was Arkham House, appropriate, as several of these tales show a distinctive Lovecraftian influence (though in service to Leiber’s own clear style). Leiber excelled at bringing weird, Cosmic Horror into the gritty urban landscapes of mid century, post war America. Most of the tales in this collection are of that ilk, but also included are two early sword and sorcery tales of Leiber’s heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
I’ve posted this review under the 1977 Sphere Books edition, the edition I read my first two times through it. The cover art (monster tentacles emerging from a street grate) nicely illustrates the tone of the majority of these tales. But this time through I read the 1978 Berkley Books edition (with Fafhrd and Gray Mouser cover art). It contains two additional tales not in any of the earlier editions, and you definitely want these extra stories, so be cognizant of which edition you pick up.
The Sunken Lands: An excellent Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tale. As the hero companions sail a sloop across sea, Fafhrd is drawn into a chain of mysterious events that find him with a ship of Northmen, then delving into the towers of ancient Simorgya, a sunken land mysteriously re-emerged from the depths. Good exciting adventure with a decidedly creepy, Lovecraftian edge.
5 ⭐️
Adept’s Gambit: In this novella length tale, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are cursed —when they try to be intimate, their paramours turn into either a huge sow or a slimy snail. Their complex quest to lift the curse leads them first to the Gossiper of the Gods, Ningauble, then through many lands to collect necessary items, and finally to an accursed lost city and a mist wreathed castle to battle a strange, hermaphrodite-like adept. Humor, adventure, and eldritch magic mingle in this tale but it is much too long.
”Material related to them has, on the whole, been scanted by annalists, since they were heroes too disreputable for classic myth, too cryptically independent ever to let themselves be tied to a folk, too shifty and improbable in their adventuring to please the historians, too often involved with a riff-raft of dubious demons, unfrocked sorcerers, and discredited deities — a veritable underworld of the supernatural.”
3 1/2 ⭐️
The Man Who Never Grew Young: A truly odd tale about time running backwards. It presents an uncanny, disconcerting description of the life cycle running backwards, beginning with disinterment from the grave, then aging backwards from sickly old age to youth. Civilizations role backwards and disappear in their beginnings. Eventually the pyramids come down, block by block, and mankind retreats completely from civilization. The story hints that a final, catastrophic war may have set the reverse time in motion. This one is haunting.
3 1/2 ⭐️
Smoke Ghost: A brilliant, terrifying capturing of the grimy ghost of the benighted 20th century.
”Unconsciously it came to symbolize… certain disagreeable aspects of the frustrated, frightened century in which he lived, the jangled century of hate and heavy industry and total war.”
”Have you ever thought what a ghost of our times would look like?…A smoky composite face with the hungry anxiety of the unemployed, the jerky tension of the high-pressured metropolitan worker, the uneasy resentment of the striker, the callous opportunism of the scab, the aggressive whine of the panhandler, the inhibited terror of the bombed civilian, and a thousand other twisted emotional patterns.”
5 ⭐️
The Automatic Pistol: A chilling little tale about small time gin runners (Inky, Glasses, No Nose), obsession, murder, revenge, and a haunted gun.
4 ⭐️
The Inheritance: A claustrophobic urban tale of a man alone and lonely in a strange city, staying in the rented room of his recently deceased uncle, a retired policeman he had never met. After discover some clippings about some gruesome, unsolved murders, he has an uneasy sleep full of ominous nightmares triggered by what he found in his uncle’s room.
3 ⭐️
The Hill and the Hole: A surveyor finds a troubling anomaly when his instruments indicate a pit where his eyes show him a hill. He’s determined that there’s a problem with his instrument, despite being warned against danger at that spot, and discovering that a previous surveyor had mysteriously died there. Classic tale of a man of science rejecting alternative possibilities to his detriment. Shades of M.R. James.
3 ⭐️
The Dreams of Albert Moreland: This is the story that sticks with me from my first reading of this book over thirty years ago. It has elements of Leiber’s alienated in the city motif, combined with distinct Lovecraftian elements. On the eve of World War II, an unambitious chess genius who ekes out a living playing chess in an arcade spends his nights in disturbing dreams of playing a far more complex game with disturbing, alien pieces, in a vast and distant place, and with Cosmos shattering stakes. The game continues in his dreams, night after night, and he is beginning to fear he is losing.
5 ⭐️
The Hound: Leiber’s cityscapes are bleak, grimy, and alienating. His mid twentieth century urban werewolf is a unique, terrifying beast that personifies his unforgiving urban environment.
”The supernatural beings of a modern city? Sure, they’d be different from the ghosts of yesterday. Each culture creates its own ghosts. The Middle Ages built cathedrals and pretty soon there were little gray shapes gliding around at night to talk with the gargoyles. Same thing ought to happen to us, with our skyscrapers and factories…Our culture suddenly spawns a horde of demons…They’re unique. They fit in. You wouldn’t find the same kind any other time or place.”
3 1/2 ⭐️
Diary in the Snow: A would be writer isolates himself in a friend’s remote mountain cabin to work on his book of SciFi horror. But as blizzards isolate him even further, strange lights, markings in the snow and frost, and disturbing dreams and sleepwalkings begin to blend eerily with his bursts of inspiration in creating the cold, cosmic monsters of the story he’s working on.
3 1/2 ⭐️
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes: A chilling tale, told by a photographer, about America’s advertising It Girl and the dark secret behind her hungry eyes.
”But the Girl isn’t like any of the others. She’s unnatural. She’s morbid. She’s unholy.
Oh it’s 1948, is it, and the sort of thing I’m hinting at went out with witchcraft? But you see I’m not altogether sure myself what I’m hinting at, beyond a certain point. There are vampires and vampires, and not all of them suck blood.”
4 ⭐️
A Bit of the Dark World: Friends spending a weekend in a cliff side cabin outside of LA first lament the absence of the supernatural in the modern world, then ponder its possibilities, and finally encounter its as terrifyingly ineffable. Cosmic horror at its finest.
”Then the mood darkened and the beings fell apart into a trillion trillion trillion lonely motes locked off forever from each other, sending only bleak meaninglessness in the cosmos around them, their eyes fixed foreword only on universal death.
Simultaneously each dimensional star seemed to become for me the vast sun it was, beating incandescently on the platform where my body stood and on the house behind it and being led in it and on my body too, aging them all to dust in one coruscatingly blinding instant.”
4 1/2 ⭐️
I’ve posted this review under the 1977 Sphere Books edition, the edition I read my first two times through it. The cover art (monster tentacles emerging from a street grate) nicely illustrates the tone of the majority of these tales. But this time through I read the 1978 Berkley Books edition (with Fafhrd and Gray Mouser cover art). It contains two additional tales not in any of the earlier editions, and you definitely want these extra stories, so be cognizant of which edition you pick up.
The Sunken Lands: An excellent Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tale. As the hero companions sail a sloop across sea, Fafhrd is drawn into a chain of mysterious events that find him with a ship of Northmen, then delving into the towers of ancient Simorgya, a sunken land mysteriously re-emerged from the depths. Good exciting adventure with a decidedly creepy, Lovecraftian edge.
5 ⭐️
Adept’s Gambit: In this novella length tale, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are cursed —when they try to be intimate, their paramours turn into either a huge sow or a slimy snail. Their complex quest to lift the curse leads them first to the Gossiper of the Gods, Ningauble, then through many lands to collect necessary items, and finally to an accursed lost city and a mist wreathed castle to battle a strange, hermaphrodite-like adept. Humor, adventure, and eldritch magic mingle in this tale but it is much too long.
”Material related to them has, on the whole, been scanted by annalists, since they were heroes too disreputable for classic myth, too cryptically independent ever to let themselves be tied to a folk, too shifty and improbable in their adventuring to please the historians, too often involved with a riff-raft of dubious demons, unfrocked sorcerers, and discredited deities — a veritable underworld of the supernatural.”
3 1/2 ⭐️
The Man Who Never Grew Young: A truly odd tale about time running backwards. It presents an uncanny, disconcerting description of the life cycle running backwards, beginning with disinterment from the grave, then aging backwards from sickly old age to youth. Civilizations role backwards and disappear in their beginnings. Eventually the pyramids come down, block by block, and mankind retreats completely from civilization. The story hints that a final, catastrophic war may have set the reverse time in motion. This one is haunting.
3 1/2 ⭐️
Smoke Ghost: A brilliant, terrifying capturing of the grimy ghost of the benighted 20th century.
”Unconsciously it came to symbolize… certain disagreeable aspects of the frustrated, frightened century in which he lived, the jangled century of hate and heavy industry and total war.”
”Have you ever thought what a ghost of our times would look like?…A smoky composite face with the hungry anxiety of the unemployed, the jerky tension of the high-pressured metropolitan worker, the uneasy resentment of the striker, the callous opportunism of the scab, the aggressive whine of the panhandler, the inhibited terror of the bombed civilian, and a thousand other twisted emotional patterns.”
5 ⭐️
The Automatic Pistol: A chilling little tale about small time gin runners (Inky, Glasses, No Nose), obsession, murder, revenge, and a haunted gun.
4 ⭐️
The Inheritance: A claustrophobic urban tale of a man alone and lonely in a strange city, staying in the rented room of his recently deceased uncle, a retired policeman he had never met. After discover some clippings about some gruesome, unsolved murders, he has an uneasy sleep full of ominous nightmares triggered by what he found in his uncle’s room.
3 ⭐️
The Hill and the Hole: A surveyor finds a troubling anomaly when his instruments indicate a pit where his eyes show him a hill. He’s determined that there’s a problem with his instrument, despite being warned against danger at that spot, and discovering that a previous surveyor had mysteriously died there. Classic tale of a man of science rejecting alternative possibilities to his detriment. Shades of M.R. James.
3 ⭐️
The Dreams of Albert Moreland: This is the story that sticks with me from my first reading of this book over thirty years ago. It has elements of Leiber’s alienated in the city motif, combined with distinct Lovecraftian elements. On the eve of World War II, an unambitious chess genius who ekes out a living playing chess in an arcade spends his nights in disturbing dreams of playing a far more complex game with disturbing, alien pieces, in a vast and distant place, and with Cosmos shattering stakes. The game continues in his dreams, night after night, and he is beginning to fear he is losing.
5 ⭐️
The Hound: Leiber’s cityscapes are bleak, grimy, and alienating. His mid twentieth century urban werewolf is a unique, terrifying beast that personifies his unforgiving urban environment.
”The supernatural beings of a modern city? Sure, they’d be different from the ghosts of yesterday. Each culture creates its own ghosts. The Middle Ages built cathedrals and pretty soon there were little gray shapes gliding around at night to talk with the gargoyles. Same thing ought to happen to us, with our skyscrapers and factories…Our culture suddenly spawns a horde of demons…They’re unique. They fit in. You wouldn’t find the same kind any other time or place.”
3 1/2 ⭐️
Diary in the Snow: A would be writer isolates himself in a friend’s remote mountain cabin to work on his book of SciFi horror. But as blizzards isolate him even further, strange lights, markings in the snow and frost, and disturbing dreams and sleepwalkings begin to blend eerily with his bursts of inspiration in creating the cold, cosmic monsters of the story he’s working on.
3 1/2 ⭐️
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes: A chilling tale, told by a photographer, about America’s advertising It Girl and the dark secret behind her hungry eyes.
”But the Girl isn’t like any of the others. She’s unnatural. She’s morbid. She’s unholy.
Oh it’s 1948, is it, and the sort of thing I’m hinting at went out with witchcraft? But you see I’m not altogether sure myself what I’m hinting at, beyond a certain point. There are vampires and vampires, and not all of them suck blood.”
4 ⭐️
A Bit of the Dark World: Friends spending a weekend in a cliff side cabin outside of LA first lament the absence of the supernatural in the modern world, then ponder its possibilities, and finally encounter its as terrifyingly ineffable. Cosmic horror at its finest.
”Then the mood darkened and the beings fell apart into a trillion trillion trillion lonely motes locked off forever from each other, sending only bleak meaninglessness in the cosmos around them, their eyes fixed foreword only on universal death.
Simultaneously each dimensional star seemed to become for me the vast sun it was, beating incandescently on the platform where my body stood and on the house behind it and being led in it and on my body too, aging them all to dust in one coruscatingly blinding instant.”
4 1/2 ⭐️
December 29, 2024
The collection Night's Black Agents was Leiber's first book and was published by fabled Arkham House in 1947 in an edition of 3084 copies. (I wonder how they arrived at that number?) It's been reprinted a number of times over the years; my 1978 Berkley mass market release adds two stories to the original, A Bit of the Dark World and The Girl with the Hungry Eyes, both great stories, the latter being one of the best vampire stories ever published. The contents include two of the first adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, The Sunken Land and Adept's Gambit. Most of the stories were first published in either Unknown Worlds or Weird Tales during the Second World War, though several were original to the book. The majority of the stories are labeled "Modern Horrors," and are among the best you'll read from the era between Poe and King. My favorites are Smoke Ghost, The Automatic Pistol, and The Hound, one of the best all-time werewolf stories. Altogether, it's a truly classic volume.
July 9, 2018
'Smoke Ghost' and 'The Girl with the Hungry Eyes' are among Leiber's absolute best horror tales. I own the superior 1978 reprint, and it must be noted that the original printing didn't include the latter tale or the fun pulpy Lovecraftian yarn 'A Bit of the Dark World', though it did still include 'The Hill and the Hole' and 'The Dreams of Albert Moreland' – each an effective horror story in the style of M. R. James and H. P. Lovecraft respectively – along with the charming gangster romp 'The Automatic Pistol' and potent werewolf urban horror 'The Hound'.
June 17, 2019
La primera incursión de Leiber en el relato weird resulta un tanto decepcionante, ya que por lo general los finales tiran abajo todo el ambiente logrado en el desarrollo de cada cuento. Sin embargo, rescato tres relatos que me gustaron: "Fantasma de humo", sobre los terrores nocturnos de las grandes ciudades, "El sabueso", también sobre los horrores intuidos que no podemos ver, y finalmente "La pistola automática", cuento sobre objeto maldito al estilo del primer King.
August 8, 2024
Smoke Ghost 4/5
The Automatic Pistol 5/5
The Inheritance 5/5
The Hill and the Hole 5/5
The Dreams of Albert Moreland 4/5
The Hound 4/5
Diary in the Snow 3/5
The Man who Never Grew Young 2/5
The Sunken Land 4/5
Adept's Gambit 3/5
The Automatic Pistol 5/5
The Inheritance 5/5
The Hill and the Hole 5/5
The Dreams of Albert Moreland 4/5
The Hound 4/5
Diary in the Snow 3/5
The Man who Never Grew Young 2/5
The Sunken Land 4/5
Adept's Gambit 3/5
September 13, 2011
Odd collection of the great Fritz Leiber's short stories, featuring first a couple of sword and sorcery stories starring his popular characters Fafhrd and The Grey Mouser, then an odd dreamy fantasy called "The Man Who Never Grew Young." The book's final half is devoted to nine tales of Leiber's peculiar brand of supernatural/weird/speculative fiction, including his classics "Smoke Ghost" and "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes." I generally hate sword and sorcery so after forging through the first tale "Sunken Land" I could only take about 10 pages of the "Adept's Gambit" - it's 78 pages long, ugh! - before giving up to move on to what I got the darn book for, the spooky stuff. Most of these were written in the 40's and still hold up pretty well; in addition to the superlative "Smoke Ghost" and "Hungry Eyes," the main highlights for me are "Diary in the Snow" and "A Bit of the Dark World," both imaginative and scary and beautifully written (Leiber was a wonderful prose stylist). For fans of the old school.
March 20, 2020
«¿Ha visto alguna vez a un fantasma, señorita Millick? No me refiero a esa clase de fantasma sacada de los libros, sino a uno surgido del mundo actual, con el hollín de las fábricas en el rostro y el ruido de la maquinaria en el alma.»
En línea general, todos los relatos están muy bien. Los viejos monstruos abandonan sus cuevas y fortalezas y comienzan a habitar la urbe, en la que adquieren formas nuevas y modernas. Hay que tener en cuenta que se trata de relatos escritos en los años 40, pero aún así, como casi todo lo que he leído de Leiber, se conservan muy bien. Mis cuentos favoritos, sin embargo, han sido los que tratan temáticas más cósmicas y clásicas dentro del género: "La herencia", "Diario encontrado en la nieve" y "Los sueños de Albert Moreland". Muy recomendable para los fans de los relatos de terror y gran acompañante para la novela corta del mismo autor "Nuestra Señora de las Tinieblas".
En línea general, todos los relatos están muy bien. Los viejos monstruos abandonan sus cuevas y fortalezas y comienzan a habitar la urbe, en la que adquieren formas nuevas y modernas. Hay que tener en cuenta que se trata de relatos escritos en los años 40, pero aún así, como casi todo lo que he leído de Leiber, se conservan muy bien. Mis cuentos favoritos, sin embargo, han sido los que tratan temáticas más cósmicas y clásicas dentro del género: "La herencia", "Diario encontrado en la nieve" y "Los sueños de Albert Moreland". Muy recomendable para los fans de los relatos de terror y gran acompañante para la novela corta del mismo autor "Nuestra Señora de las Tinieblas".
January 9, 2020
We read this as a "spooky" bedtime book. Veronica and Dianne both rate it a 3. I thought 2.
My primary motivation for wanting to read this was because of the inclusion of the first two Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, along with a bit of the letter in which Leiber revealed his plans for the rogues to a friend, Harry Otto Fischer. It's amazing that this initial letter mentions pretty much every long Fafhrd and Gray Mouser adventure written by Leiber over the next 40 years. These first two stories were just OK, meaning Leiber became a better writer over time.
The flap of the jacket announces two more Leiber books to be published by Arkham House, but that never happened.
My primary motivation for wanting to read this was because of the inclusion of the first two Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories, along with a bit of the letter in which Leiber revealed his plans for the rogues to a friend, Harry Otto Fischer. It's amazing that this initial letter mentions pretty much every long Fafhrd and Gray Mouser adventure written by Leiber over the next 40 years. These first two stories were just OK, meaning Leiber became a better writer over time.
The flap of the jacket announces two more Leiber books to be published by Arkham House, but that never happened.
April 2, 2012
My first taste of Leiber was pretty sweet. The stories in this collection are grouped into three sections ('Modern Horrors', 'Transition', and 'Ancient Adventures'), with the latter two containing only one story each; later editions have added several tales. Of course, some are better than others ('Smoke Ghost', 'The Hill and the Hole'), but they're all vintage creepiness. More Fritz in my future.
June 16, 2013
Some very well written stories dealing with urban encounters of the paranormal. I especially like "The Man Who Never Grew Young," "The Automatic Pistol," and "The Hill and the Hole." Unfortunately, I could not get into the first two tales dealing with Leibers's popular fantasy characters The Gray Mouser and Fafhrd. I feel as though I should read some of his longer works dealing exclusively with these characters before attempting the novellas printed in this volume.
August 3, 2011
A classic. Hard to find, but worth it. I found this gem in a basement sale, and I will never give it away nor lend it to anyone.
January 22, 2019
Diario en la nieve, el hombre que nunca rejuveneció, el sabueso son excelentes cuentos. Si se lo topan agarrenlo ;)
July 22, 2018
Leiber è noto per aver saputo lasciare un segno in tutti e tre i generi del fantastico popolare: fantascienza, fantasy, horror. Quest’ultimo meno frequentato, ma con risultati davvero significativi; d’altronde parliamo di uno degli scrittori che da giovanissimi furono in contatto con Lovecraft.
Come evidenzia però Gianni Montanari nell’acuta introduzione, il bello di questa raccolta è proprio l’aver creato un orrore urbano, del tutto nuovo, dove la violenza dei gangster, il lerciume dell’inquinamento, la noia e le frustrazioni delle masse coagulano formando orrori del tutto nuovi, anche se le loro manifestazioni ricordano quelle antiche: così nella “Pistola automatica” l’arma di un gangster si comporta come lo “spirito familiare” di una strega del passato; nel “Cane” un mostro lascia olio di macchina come traccia e ha gli occhi come fanali industriali; nell’ “Eredità” un povero vagabondo eredita i pochi beni di uno zio pooliziotto in pensione, ma insieme ereditrerà ben altre manifestazioni di squallore urbano.. il “Fantasma di fumo” del racconto forse più bello di questo gruppo nasce dai tetti di tela incatramata delle case popolari e arriva a possedere una segretaria zitella per perseguitare il protagonista lungo il tragitto della metropolitana.
In tutti i racconti spicca la raffinatezza letteraria di Leiber, che i vari traduttori riescono a mantenere (anche il titolo, “Night’s black agents”, dal Macbeth, è una delle citazioni scespiriane dall’autore): e protagonista vero rimane sempre la metropoli, una New York degli anni ’40 che era ancora città industriale e portuale senza il glamour che le attribuiamo oggi.
A dire il vero, altri racconti della raccolta sono decisamente lovecraftiani, dove entità esterne giocano come pedine con l’umanità, aprendosi la strada attraverso il sonno e i sogni: così nel “Diario nella neve” lasciato da un aspirante scrittore che si è ritirato nella baita isolata di un conoscente; e soprattutto nel magnifico “I sogni di Albert Moreland”, dove torna il tema degli scacchi così caro all’autore; infine “La collina e il buco” offre il tema non solo degli “antichi dormienti” ma anche della “geometria spaziale alterata”, oltre a una ragazzina ritenuta minorata ma in realtà veggente.
Chiude la serie “L’uomo che non divenne mai giovane”, presente anche nella raccolta “Il meglio di F.L.”, brillante fantasy che ha probabilmente aperto il tema del “tempo alla rovescia”, poi sfruttato da Dick e Ballard.
Peccato solo che alla raccolta manchino non solo racconti come “L’uomo che si fece amica l’elettricità”, decisamente a tema ma presente anch’esso nel “Meglio di F.L.”, ma anche racconti aggiunti all’edizione rinnovata nel ’78 di questa raccolta (dopo tutto l’edizione italiana è del ’79) e molto apprezzati dai lettori anglofoni, come "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" e "A Bit of the Dark World" (non so se siano tradotti in italiano in altre edizioni).
Per rimpolpare il volume (che in originale comprendeva anche racconti del ciclo di Newhon), Montanari ha deciso di includere “Lupi delle tenebre”, un bel romanzo breve di Jack Williamson di epoca pulp (1931!): anche qui paesaggi innevati e atmosfere horror che alla fine si rivelano in realtà piuttosto fantascientifiche (e i lupi in realtà c’entrano marginalmente); uno scienziato intrepido e una fanciulla da salvare.. tutto il meglio e qualcosa del peggio dell’epoca pulp, sicuramente una lettura avvincente che anticipa i racconti di Stephen King su Salem dopo l’epidemia di vampirismo!
Come evidenzia però Gianni Montanari nell’acuta introduzione, il bello di questa raccolta è proprio l’aver creato un orrore urbano, del tutto nuovo, dove la violenza dei gangster, il lerciume dell’inquinamento, la noia e le frustrazioni delle masse coagulano formando orrori del tutto nuovi, anche se le loro manifestazioni ricordano quelle antiche: così nella “Pistola automatica” l’arma di un gangster si comporta come lo “spirito familiare” di una strega del passato; nel “Cane” un mostro lascia olio di macchina come traccia e ha gli occhi come fanali industriali; nell’ “Eredità” un povero vagabondo eredita i pochi beni di uno zio pooliziotto in pensione, ma insieme ereditrerà ben altre manifestazioni di squallore urbano.. il “Fantasma di fumo” del racconto forse più bello di questo gruppo nasce dai tetti di tela incatramata delle case popolari e arriva a possedere una segretaria zitella per perseguitare il protagonista lungo il tragitto della metropolitana.
In tutti i racconti spicca la raffinatezza letteraria di Leiber, che i vari traduttori riescono a mantenere (anche il titolo, “Night’s black agents”, dal Macbeth, è una delle citazioni scespiriane dall’autore): e protagonista vero rimane sempre la metropoli, una New York degli anni ’40 che era ancora città industriale e portuale senza il glamour che le attribuiamo oggi.
A dire il vero, altri racconti della raccolta sono decisamente lovecraftiani, dove entità esterne giocano come pedine con l’umanità, aprendosi la strada attraverso il sonno e i sogni: così nel “Diario nella neve” lasciato da un aspirante scrittore che si è ritirato nella baita isolata di un conoscente; e soprattutto nel magnifico “I sogni di Albert Moreland”, dove torna il tema degli scacchi così caro all’autore; infine “La collina e il buco” offre il tema non solo degli “antichi dormienti” ma anche della “geometria spaziale alterata”, oltre a una ragazzina ritenuta minorata ma in realtà veggente.
Chiude la serie “L’uomo che non divenne mai giovane”, presente anche nella raccolta “Il meglio di F.L.”, brillante fantasy che ha probabilmente aperto il tema del “tempo alla rovescia”, poi sfruttato da Dick e Ballard.
Peccato solo che alla raccolta manchino non solo racconti come “L’uomo che si fece amica l’elettricità”, decisamente a tema ma presente anch’esso nel “Meglio di F.L.”, ma anche racconti aggiunti all’edizione rinnovata nel ’78 di questa raccolta (dopo tutto l’edizione italiana è del ’79) e molto apprezzati dai lettori anglofoni, come "Girl with the Hungry Eyes" e "A Bit of the Dark World" (non so se siano tradotti in italiano in altre edizioni).
Per rimpolpare il volume (che in originale comprendeva anche racconti del ciclo di Newhon), Montanari ha deciso di includere “Lupi delle tenebre”, un bel romanzo breve di Jack Williamson di epoca pulp (1931!): anche qui paesaggi innevati e atmosfere horror che alla fine si rivelano in realtà piuttosto fantascientifiche (e i lupi in realtà c’entrano marginalmente); uno scienziato intrepido e una fanciulla da salvare.. tutto il meglio e qualcosa del peggio dell’epoca pulp, sicuramente una lettura avvincente che anticipa i racconti di Stephen King su Salem dopo l’epidemia di vampirismo!
December 21, 2022
Knowing Leiber mainly for his sword and sorcery, I was interested to checkout some of his contemporary horror. Some of the tales here are a bit slight, and as is often the case with older horror probably a bit predictable for contemporary audiences. That said, they're all well-done and crisply written, and 'The Smoke Ghost' and the 'The Hound' are particularly good, creating industrial city atmospheres full of supernatural malevolence and uncanny haunters.
The Fafhrd and Mouser stories at the end feel a bit out of place, but they're enjoyable as ever - 'The Sunken Land' is tight and efficient and packed with atmosphere, while 'Adept's Gambit' is loose and indulgent and lots of fun, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense.
The Fafhrd and Mouser stories at the end feel a bit out of place, but they're enjoyable as ever - 'The Sunken Land' is tight and efficient and packed with atmosphere, while 'Adept's Gambit' is loose and indulgent and lots of fun, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense.
November 14, 2023
Es una recopilación de cuentos de terror y de fantasía que se sitúan a mediados del siglo XX, los cuales van desde monstruos, alienígenas y otras situaciones oníricas.
En su estilo me recordó mucho a Lovecraft, con claras referencias a entes fuera del mundo y de la comprensión humana. Sin embargo, me parece que no logra imitarlo en cuanto al establecimiento del contexto y la descripción de los horrores.
A mi parecer a la mayoría de los relatos les faltaron unas cuantas páginas de desarrollo, ya que simplemente se acaban y aún no habían logrado establecer el terror que buscaban.
Tiene un par de relatos muy buenos, sobre todo los que les da más tiempo de describir las acciones de sus personajes, pero lamentablemente en general queda a deber.
En su estilo me recordó mucho a Lovecraft, con claras referencias a entes fuera del mundo y de la comprensión humana. Sin embargo, me parece que no logra imitarlo en cuanto al establecimiento del contexto y la descripción de los horrores.
A mi parecer a la mayoría de los relatos les faltaron unas cuantas páginas de desarrollo, ya que simplemente se acaban y aún no habían logrado establecer el terror que buscaban.
Tiene un par de relatos muy buenos, sobre todo los que les da más tiempo de describir las acciones de sus personajes, pero lamentablemente en general queda a deber.
July 26, 2024
The first half of this book consists of seven short horror stories set in modern times. These were mixed. In general, Leiber is good at evoking atmosphere but not good at creating a surprising horror plot. I thought "The Automatic Pistol" stood out mostly for its characters. The second half includes one short fantasy mood piece about time running backwards, followed by two sword and sorcery stories. Those two stories show Leiber at his best, where Leiber lets his imagination run wild, sets his inspired heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to deal with the nightmares he comes up with, and describes it all in wonderfully evocative language.
May 17, 2017
An exceptional collection, and one of the best volumes Arkham House put out. From the opening story, 'The Smoke Ghost'. you know you are in for something quite unique. Lieber's 'modern horrors' almost all use the modern industrial city as a central motif from which to weave a series of claustrophobic, dystopian fables which explore the existential dread lurking in the twilight of urban existence. At the other end of the spectrum are the two Fafhrd and Gray Mouser tales, both of which are exceptionally entertaining sword and sorcery yarns. Overall, a brilliant book. Brilliant cover too.
May 24, 2023
Everything written in this book is written down wonderfully. The author writes with amazing prose and wording bringing his scenes to life. I love the first two stories about two adventurers. The other stories each had am awesome build up to something which ended quite flat. But Fritz Leiber describes all the characters in a way with vivid realism and detail which saved them for me. But the endings all felt weak for me. And great book regardless
For the writing this book deserves a high rating
For the writing this book deserves a high rating
August 23, 2024
Recopilación de relatos de terror de 149 páginas, publicada en 1947. Podría englobarse más en el horror o en el misterio que en el terror. Su lectura es ágil y amena, y me ha encantado disfrutar del sentido del terror de los años cuarenta, con ciertas reminiscencias a la novela negra. Muy bien escritos, aunque, para un lector actual, pueden resultar desarrollos algo lentos. De todas formas recomiendo su lectura.
August 29, 2017
Loving the haunting inagery of 'The man who never grew young'
November 21, 2023
En realidad un 3.8, todos los relatos muy entretenidos salvo uno que no fue de mi total agrado: "La pistola automática".
December 24, 2023
Entretenida antología de cuentos
March 31, 2024
Leiber does every genre right. Excellent, as always.
March 7, 2020
Un excelente libro de terror.
January 12, 2022
Primero no podía dormir, luego me puse a escribir; primero quería escribir una reseña de este libro, pero luego me di cuenta de que ya no recordaba demasiado bien los cuentos, así que entonces decidí meterme con los escritores que no saben renunciar al lustre de su completo árbol genealógico; pero enseguida resultó meridiano que a través de aquella invectiva tampoco iba a llegar demasiado lejos, así que decidí cambiar radicalmente de estrategia y opté por marcarme un ataque suicida de caballería por el flanco izquierdo: y fue así cómo me acabó saliendo un cuento... O parecido:
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September 23, 2016Night’s Black Agents published in 1947 is a collection of ten short stories by Fritz Leiber. Two of the ten featured the scoundrels Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser.
Many more about the two followed, and were anthologized in a sensible order beginning with Swords and Deviltry first published in 1970.
For me, however, by then I had already taken the bait. I got it that all likable protagonists do not have to come from the same mold that produced Horatio Hornblower.
Many more about the two followed, and were anthologized in a sensible order beginning with Swords and Deviltry first published in 1970.
For me, however, by then I had already taken the bait. I got it that all likable protagonists do not have to come from the same mold that produced Horatio Hornblower.
October 27, 2021
Leiber is perhaps best known now, by those who still remember him, as the author of a series of fantasy tales about two rogues named Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, as well as for is science fiction. He had, however, a profound effect on the horror genre, particularly through the stories collected in this book. Leiber brought a modern sensibility to his stories, replacing old castles and small towns cursed with Elder Gods with stories set in cities and other recognizable environments. His “Smoke Gost,” collected in this book as well as any decent reprint of his sorter horror works, is a chilling story about a man haunted by a feeling of being watched as well as by the sight of ragged shape moving across the rooftops of Chicago. This story is often cited as the first real urban scary story and it is still effective. Also included in this collection are a story about a model that touches on themes of celebrity worship and other tales that helped set the stage for authors like Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, and T. E. D. Klein. What you should really do is find a copy of his novella “Our Lady of Darkness,” a story that hit me hard when I was a teen and changed my conception of what a monster could be.
I reviewed this book for my list of subtle, creepy horror story collections. If you’re interested in similar titles, check out some of my favorites:
https://matthewpridham.wordpress.com/...
I reviewed this book for my list of subtle, creepy horror story collections. If you’re interested in similar titles, check out some of my favorites:
https://matthewpridham.wordpress.com/...
February 26, 2025
The first two short stories are entirely different from the rest of the collection. I have never read any of Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books and I found myself pretty lukewarm about them -- the first felt like a halfhearted scrap version of the Voyage of Mael Duin, and the second I couldn't finish, and almost gave up on the whole book. Fortunately, I was convinced to keep going.
The Man Who Never Grew Young was decent, but I didn't get into the book until I started on the horror stories. The Automatic Pistol, the Inheritance, and the Hill and the Hole were my favourites; I wonder if Jeff Vandermeer of the Southern Reach books was influenced by the general concept in the latter for the Tower. The prevailing feeling in the stories is of loneliness and sooty cities of the 40s or so, with a dash of Lovecraftian influence, though Leiber definitely has his own horror mythology -- modern ghosts and werewolves of the industrial era, that sort of thing. Smoke Ghost and the Hound are very similar to each other, and I couldn't keep my attention very well on A Bit of the Dark World, but overall I really enjoyed these.
The Man Who Never Grew Young was decent, but I didn't get into the book until I started on the horror stories. The Automatic Pistol, the Inheritance, and the Hill and the Hole were my favourites; I wonder if Jeff Vandermeer of the Southern Reach books was influenced by the general concept in the latter for the Tower. The prevailing feeling in the stories is of loneliness and sooty cities of the 40s or so, with a dash of Lovecraftian influence, though Leiber definitely has his own horror mythology -- modern ghosts and werewolves of the industrial era, that sort of thing. Smoke Ghost and the Hound are very similar to each other, and I couldn't keep my attention very well on A Bit of the Dark World, but overall I really enjoyed these.
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