REHupa

John Miller has posted a fine little tribute to Fritz Leiber over at the Wall Street Journal.

Leiber has long been one of my favorite writers, and for some time his stories of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser were my favorite sword-and-sorcery tales. REHupa’s 58th mailing (if I’m remembering correctly) was dedicated to Leiber, and in my contribution to that mailing I confessed that I liked F&GM better than Conan. Time, and in-depth study, has greatly increased my appreciation of REH’s most famous character, but I’ll still rank Leiber’s duo as his equals. I think my favorite account of the Twain is “Lean Times in Lankhmar,” in which Fafhrd finds religion, with hilarious results; I’m glad to note that it was one of Fritz’s favorites, too, along with “Bazaar of the Bizarre” and “The Cloud of Hate.”  I can’t imagine that there’s anyone with a taste for sword-and-sorcery who hasn’t tried Fafhrd & the Mouser yet, but if you fit that description, time’s a-wastin’! Get yourself a copy of one of the collections.  And if you’re a person who, for some reason, does not particularly care for sword-and-sorcery, you might be surprised by F&GM: try one of the stories I’ve mentioned and see what you’re missing.  The derring-do is leavened by humor, there are some intriguing, even profound, observations of human behavior, and a minimum of blood spattering and brains and entrails spilling.

As John says, Leiber “ranged from genre to genre,” winning awards in fantasy, horror and science fiction. His Wikipedia page has a decent overview, with links to discussion of some of the works. The one book of his that I always recommend is not a Fafhrd/Mouser, but Our Lady of Darkness, one of his forays into “urban horror” and absolutely the most chilling thing I’ve ever read. I also heartily recommend The Big Time, his Hugo-winning novel from 1958. And you owe it to yourself to try at least one collection of his short stories, if you haven’t already: Fritz was a real master of the form. So many great tales: “Smoke Ghost,” “Four Ghosts in Hamlet,” “Gonna Roll the Bones,” “Midnight by the Morphy Watch,” “Belsen Express,” “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes,” “Space-Time for Springers,” “Try and Change the Past,” “A Deskful of Girls,” “Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee”… well, egad, looking over lists on the ‘net, one could just go on and on trying to list those that remain green in memory.

I can see I’m going to have to have myself a little Fritz Leiber weekend. Oh, and John also notes that this is Fritz’s centenary year, so we’ll have a birthday party for him in December!

And by the way, John Miller’s Hey Miller blog is worth checking out, as is his Between the Covers podcast at National Review Online. John’s a fan of genre literature, so you’ll occasionally find it discussed (along with the political stuff — well, it is National Review…): scroll down through the archives for Otto Penzler on The Vampire Archives, Gene Wolfe on The Best of Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card on Ender in Exile, and others. Many REHupans are fans of Bernard Cornwell: he’s there discussing Agincourt. John’s also a history buff: plenty of books on the Revolutionary Generation and the Civil War.  There’s more in the archives, like his November 2007 talk with Paul Sammon about Conan the Phenomenon.  You won’t find my dulcet tones though: John’s interview with me was pre-podcast.