Bread Overhead

by Fritz Leiber

Leiber slyly imagines a near-future when giant machines not only harvest the wheat field, but grind flour and bake bread on the spot -- the ultimate in big farming. In this toasted tomorrow, the highly-mechanized Puffy Products is bent on producing the supremely lightest loaf. The story is what happens if bread isn't just airy, but pumped full of lighter-than-air helium. Leiber ( Ships to the Stars ) didn't often bake up such a souffle of spoof, but he's a master in the kitchen. And "Bread Overhead" has just enough to say about human nature to be filling, besides.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Food

56 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

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

[Jeff Rudisel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old-Timey SF.

[Scott Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a simply comical short story, featuring an almost implausible obsession with "light bread". Compared however to the equally implausible trends we live through every day in our culture, it is not as absurd as we might like to think. Leiber's comic tone also softens the absurdity.

[Janelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short fiction story about bread. Totally weird, but fun.

[Akrabar]

available at
https://librivox.org/short-science-fi...

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satirical future look at corporate decisions and their consequences spun into positives. Puffyloaf is the future of bread (and I think we are almost there honestly, comparing bread from the 1950s when this was written to the Walmart bread of today would probably be sad) where their bread is lighter than air! Literally. In a quest to make it lighter and faster to bake, they skip the yeast and go right to carbon dioxide, and later to helium. But then once there was a helium shortage because of a conflict with Russia and Ukraine (🤔) one junior executive decides to use Hydrogen. Then the bread literally floats away and there is a short crisis until the company makes out like every kid wants one and they can attach strings and sell them like balloons.
It was pretty interesting, especially thinking of it being written at that time and what the author foresees of the future. It was a relatively short read, but longer than the 28 pages listed (it's digital but it took longer to read than 28 pages of print would). This is the second story by Fritz Leiber that I have read and while they aren't amazing, they are interesting reads.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Futuristic listening 🔰

Due to eye issues and damage Alexa reads to me.
A wonderful will written fantasy Sci-Fi adventure thriller novella about baking bread 🍞now floating around in the air. A cute fantasy Sci-Fi adventure novella that I would recommend to readers of fantasy Sci-Fi. Enjoy the adventure of reading 📚2021 😮

[Walter Schutjens · Rating 3 out of 5]

what would you do when bread takes to the sky in flocks of millions, terrorising cities?
Now what if is this was all planned by an evil robot uprising, taking advantage of our consumerist tendencies to destabilize our society?!

that is why i love reading old sci-fi stories

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant satire transitioning from the ridiculous to the sublime

The author provides a brilliant short story which starts as a piece of triviality and moves on to take on corporate corruption and government complicity within the capitalistic system.

[Kurt Grossman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!

[Angie Thompson · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF for profanity about halfway in

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sci-fi short story about a society obsessed with bread. Alright.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story lighter than the fluffy bread it describes. Fun.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hilarious. Bread must be lighter, lighter, lighter! And so flying bread escaping their mechanical creators from their fields and offices.

[Adrian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had promise at the start but kind of just got dumber and lamer as it went on.

[Andrewcharles420 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a silly story about America's never ending quest for whiter, fluffier bread. A company experiments with CO2, helium, and then hydrogen aerated breads to much fanfare. A quick, easy read. I liked that there were robot workers at every level of employment. This must have been published in a 50s or 60s scifi magazine or short story collection, but I found it alone as a free download on Amazon.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite being surprised to find a story I hadn't read by Leiber, I had to read this because of how weird the title was. A story about flying bread - don't mind if I do. Absurd, surreal and still good because of Leiber's great style.

[Chris Aldridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of LibriVox Short Science Fiction Collection 001 and 002. Extremely funny. Noted as 90% in my notes app “SF books Scratch monkey 80%”. About a marketing error in a bread company that leads to unexpectedly hilarious outcomes.

[Jason Markow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to this book here http://librivox.org/short-science-fic... for free! A nice, quick, humorous read.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, well, well, a sci-fi tale about flying bread!

[Liz Brau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute short story with a fun twist at the end!

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very amusing.

[Carl Palmateer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little story, seems to be a short story from one of the early SciFi magazines rather than a true book.

[Dee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really didn't get the point of this story. Really. What the heck...

[Al Lock · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK story, but clearly one written to fill space in a pulp way back when.