The sword & sorcery genre has an uncommonly tight grip on bad writing. Leiber's prose is a grand exception. His most famous works...Fafherd and the Grey Mouser have an ingrained grace that is lacking in the typing of 99% of any genre you care to mention, fiction or non-fiction.
But here, Leiber cuts loose and gives his gift free reign, not to mention free range. His thespian background sifting and center, his Elizabethan tongue could pass muster in the old Globe Theatre...his parents were both Shakespearean actors and the author seems equally at home in the Bard's poetry as he does in the backstage patois.
The only thing awkward and strained here is the plot. The story is just a serviceable rack on which to hang the words. And I'm fine with that for this one occasion...I'll bet there was fine sport in its making.
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Thomas Murphy
Good Ole' Fritz Leiber
Reviewed in the United States on 9 September 2013Verified Purchase
Kindle Customer
A tale of the Time War
Reviewed in the United States on 16 August 2016Verified Purchase
Sean D. Kelly
More than I expected
Reviewed in the United States on 21 November 2012Verified Purchase
eleanor
Short story
Reviewed in the United States on 14 May 2019Verified Purchase
Joed Jackson
Everyone has praised this work so eloquently I don't believe ...
Reviewed in the United States on 30 November 2015Verified Purchase