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Christopher_Heath
Eternal Champion

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1156

Posted 1/25/2006 5:41 PM (GMT -4)

I just finished The Pastel City (recommended) and The Catcher in the Rye (which I don't recommend)and now I'm reading Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's first book of collected works: The Three of Swords. A lot of great tales there, I can't get enough. I've already read two-thirds of it as they were collected in Ill Met in Lankhmar, but the last third I hadn't read because it wasn't in that volume, so I'm reading it all over again. I have the second volume Swords Masters, and I'm looking forward to that. Then it's on to Midnight Suns, a collection of Kane short stories by Karl Edward Wagner. Does anybody know if the Science Fiction Book Club still has Gods in Darkness? I've already read Darkness Weaves and Bloodstone, but there's another novel in that, I believe, that I haven't read. Also, I'd like to get it just to have those novels in my small collection.

Paul
Avid Reviewer

Date Joined Sep 2005
Total Posts : 177

Posted 1/25/2006 7:32 PM (GMT -4)

I never read The Catcher in the Rye for pleasure. It was a high school assignment, but still the book was mediocre. Studying a book and its themes and characters and why people say what they say and such really puts a damper on the read.

Maybe if I read it later in life without all the homework assignments hovering over me I could have enjoyed it more.

The Pastel City sounds interesting though. I'll have to check it out.

Blog - http://wistfulwritings.blogspot.com/

Upcoming stories: "The Dealer's Hands" in Shimmer's Spring 2006 issue

ancient al
Stablehand

Date Joined Jan 2006
Total Posts : 18

Posted 3/8/2006 2:10 AM (GMT -4)

Fritz Leiber was a heck of an author. He wrote everything, Fantasy, Horror, and Crime fiction.
He co-authored one of the best fantasys of all time, "The Incomplete Enchanter". There is a collection of all the Enchanter stories in one volume, you may find it in a used book store.

When in doubt, run away.
Always shoot first.

Swashbuckler
One-man sword-and-sorcery machine

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 1255

Posted 3/8/2006 3:38 AM (GMT -4)

Amen on Leiber. Good, good stuff.

aka Steve Goble, formerly known here as Red Viper

Look for: "The Mask Oath" in Lords of Swords II; "The Grey Mother" and "The Bloated Curse" in Flashing Swords; "Snake Eyes" in Freehold: Southern Storm and "Zeerembuk" in Clash of Steel 3: Demon.

CharlesRR
No Comment

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 28

Posted 3/17/2006 9:15 PM (GMT -4)

"He co-authored one of the best fantasys of all time, "The Incomplete Enchanter".

Al, that was L. Sprague Decamp you're thinking of. he wrote the Harold Shea stuff with Fletcher Pratt. And they are indeed, wonderful books.

And Lieber is probably my favorite fantasy author of all time. Jeez, that guy could write.

Charles

CharlesRR
No Comment

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 28

Posted 3/17/2006 9:19 PM (GMT -4)

Christopher, the other Kane novel in Gods In Darkness is Dark Crusade. I think Gods is out of print, at least in the US. I can only find used copies and people want an arm and a leg for them usually.

TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 513

Posted 3/18/2006 12:24 AM (GMT -4)

Swashbuckler loaned me his extensive Mouser-Fafhrd collection last year, and I loved every minute of it. If you want an example of what story pacing is all about, you can't do much better than Leiber. I've returned the books (didn't I, Steve?), so when I need to re-imprint pacing into my sad, little-creased brain, I pick up LeGuin, which works just as well.
Tom

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

darkbow
Rabbit lord

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1647

Posted 3/18/2006 10:39 PM (GMT -4)

You can't go wrong with Fritz. He's probably my favorite S&S writer, though I've always had a fondness for Andrew Offutt too.

And Tom, sorry to say I feel about LeGuin much the same as I feel about Dickens. Though in her defense, I've only read one novel, "Wizard of Earthsea." Interesting plot, interesting world, even interesting characters. But overall I felt like I was being "told" everything, and not experiencing it for myself. Almost felt like I was reading from an encyclopedia. Maybe it's time to give her another chance.

"dont let them tell you the future’s electric
cause gasolines not measured in metric"
Jack White

Jeff Stehman
Sage

Date Joined Mar 2005
Total Posts : 1224

Posted 3/19/2006 1:37 AM (GMT -4)

TW said...
If you want an example of what story pacing is all about, you can't do much better than Leiber.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are in my permanent collection. I've reread some of the stories many times. Others, however, I found long and drawn out--boring, really.

--Jeff Stehman

TW
Bigger than a Breadbox

Date Joined Nov 2005
Total Posts : 513

Posted 3/19/2006 2:33 AM (GMT -4)

Jeff -- I can understand your perception. Not all Fafhrd and Mouser is created equal ... some works better than other. I guess Leiber has enough cred with me that I will let the second-tier stuff slide through. Not everything can come up to "Ill Met ...," which will always be the defining Leiber story for me, and which has ample coat tails for any and all of the rest to ride upon.

Ty -- I can see your point, too, on LeGuin. Although the Big U is at the top of my charts, no doubt some prefer a bit more grit than she offers. I think the Earthsea triology grows stronger with each book, and her more recent collection of Earthsea short stories is a gem.

(Steve, Gere and I almost split a gut laughing at how bad the SciFi Channel's interpretation of Earthsea was. Awful doesn't begin to describe it, and the four-letter words that do are best not uttered here.) ... so how do you feel about Edgar Rice Burroughs?

"Why just react, when life gives you so many chances to overreact?"

darkbow
Rabbit lord

Date Joined Oct 2005
Total Posts : 1647

Posted 3/19/2006 4:37 AM (GMT -4)

It's been close to thirty years, grade school, since I've read any Burroughs, so it's hard for me to comment on the quality of writing. However, I do remember being thoroughly entertained.

"dont let them tell you the future’s electric
cause gasolines not measured in metric"
Jack White

Jeff Stehman
Sage

Date Joined Mar 2005
Total Posts : 1224

Posted 3/19/2006 11:50 AM (GMT -4)

TW, I agree with you on Ill Met... That's a classic.

I read all twenty-four? Tarzan books when I was in high school, as well as the eleven John Carter books. As indiscriminating as I was back then, even I noticed that after book three or four, all the Tarzan's had the same plot. Same for John Carter, although he didn't have to be captured in every book in order to learn a new language.

--Jeff Stehman

Swashbuckler
One-man sword-and-sorcery machine

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 1255

Posted 3/20/2006 2:31 AM (GMT -4)

I don't read Burroughs for the prose, but the action and the color and the headlong pace of the better Barsoom books always entertains me. Even when the plots turn on big coincidences, even when the characters talk like they are making speeches -- it's all just so daggone fun! Never boring.

As for Leiber, I've read a lot of his non-Fafhrd and Mouser stuff, too. He is one of my favorite writers, period, primarily because he never seemed to get in a rut. There is a huge range of tone in the FandGM stories -- from straight adventure to high drama to horror to black comedy to just plain weird -- and Leiber always adapts his prose to fit the mood of a particular story. He does the same thing in his science fiction. He can be terse when need be, or he can be long-winded and whimsical and still make it work. And he never seemed to worry about whether a particular story was fantasy or science fiction or some weird blend of both -- he just wrote them and had a heck of a good time doing it.

He also brought an unusual range of interests to his fiction. He studied Shakespeare and acted on stage. He edited hard science magazines. He was a theology student. He drank a lot and partied with Barrymores. He studied philosphy, and psychology, and history. He was an expert chess player. Little bits of all those interests show up in his work, sometimes as major themes and sometimes as a way to turn a mundane scene into something special.

Yeah, he wrote some stinkers. I've never been able to get more than six or seven pages into "Ship of Shadows." It's too out there even for me. And some of the FandGM stories aren't really stories at all, just vignettes and thus disappointing to me because I want more. But "The Howling Tower" and "Claws From The Night" are perhaps two of the best sword-and-sorcery stories ever, in my opinion, and there are a lot of other gems in the series, too.

Yep. Gotta love Fritz.

Jay Stevol
Neophyte

Date Joined May 2005
Total Posts : 154

Posted 3/21/2006 10:27 PM (GMT -4)

I've been rereading my Fritz lately, and by and large it's been a blast. One thing I hadn't really noticed before now was how dark many of the F&GM stories were. I'd always had an image in my mind of the Swords series being quite light-hearted reads, but some of the stuff in Swords Against Death have distinctly desolate undertones. I agree with Steve on "The Howling Tower" and "Claws From the Night" -- two gems, and most of the 'Lankhmar' stories (Ill Met, Lean Times etc) are none too shabby. I've never been too keen on the mountain-themed stories like "The Snow Women" and "The Seven Black Priests", though there were some excellent descriptive passages in "Stardock" which lead me to think that Leiber must have mountain climbed at some point along with all the other wacky activities he engaged in (fencing, stage-acting, partying with the Barrymores...). Honestly, it's amazing the range of pastimes Fritz crammed into his eventful life, and it showed in his fiction. He captures the essence of adventure like few other authors I know.

Speaking of adventure... I've also been rereading Harold Lamb's "The Grand Cham" which is unbelievably good fun: a real swashbuckling, mile-a-minute adventure set in and around the Orient of the 1300s. Lamb really knew his stuff but he never lets it get in the way of a rollicking good yarn. Lovers of Leiber and RE Howard would be well advised to seek this one out.

Swashbuckler
One-man sword-and-sorcery machine

Date Joined Mar 2006
Total Posts : 1255

Posted 3/22/2006 12:59 AM (GMT -4)

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for Lamb ever since Howard gave us a taste in Flashing Swords. Good reminder.

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