Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber

[King Bob]

I was reading Neil Gaiman's View from the Cheap Seats, and he was going on about how great Leiber was, so I picked this up.

It was interesting partly because it's set in San Francisco in the 1970s. I think he was trying to write something sort of in the vein of M.R. James, or other Victorian ghost stories; it has that sort of feel to it. It was great at establishing a mood, but it sort of fizzled at the end. It made me think of some songs by The Cure where there is a strong mood but they doesn't really go anywhere. I'm not convinced of his greatness. But then Gaiman was talking about his short stories, so maybe they are better. This was entertaining but not great.

[Drunk Monk]

I read all Leiber's Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser books back in high school.  It was part of my fantasy pulp binge in those embarrassing D&D daze - once I got past LotR and Narnia, I moved to pulp crack like Howard, Moorcock, de Camp, Delany, all that crap.  I don't really remember much of them.  I do remember liking the Grey Mouser character.  I wouldn't recommend them now though.

[cranefly]

At mention of Fritz Leiber, I recall a serialized story in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine that I read long ago, which I think was by him.  What I remember is that this guy lives in a city and he goes for a long walk or drive, and he ends up on a hill looking through binoculars or a telescope at various things.  On a whim, he tries to spot his apartment across town.  Eventually he pins it down.  Lo and behold, there's a strange figure in the window waving wildly at him.  The first part ended at that point, and I waited anxiously for the next issue to see what would happen.

As I recall, I was greatly disappointed in the wrap-up to the story.

So I just researched it, and it was The Pale Brown Thing, indeed by Leiber, appearing in the first two issues of 1977 (I would have been 26).  Surprisingly, it was the initial version of Our Lady of Darkness.  The two versions are said to be notably different.

Anyway, I think I was put off reading more of Leiber by that poor showing -- though there are those who think The Pale Brown Thing is great.  I thought the hook was wonderful, by the way.  It's stuck in my mind all these years.  I just didn't think the story delivered on that set-up.

[King Bob]

I know I read, and probably all of you did too, his "Gonna Roll the Bones" because it was anthologized in Dangerous Visions. Didn't we all get that for joining the Science Fiction Book Club? I remember that it was sort of surreal and made no sense to me.