Short Story Sunday 26: Fritz Leiber and Tanith Lee

I’ve spent more time reading and writing about short stories this month than I had reading novel-length prose. That’s a little unusual for me as I tend to read comic and novels much more frequently than I read short stories. Upon further reflection, that surprises me as I tend to be like a variety in my fiction. More so variety of authors and moods than in variety of genres, but there is some variety there as well.
 
This week’s selection of stories offers some nice variety. The first author, Fritz Leiber, I’m already familiar with form his work in fantasy. I’ve read a couple of collections of his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. I enjoy them, but I’m not quite swept away like some of his fans or, in general, fans of sword of sorcery. His “A Pail of Air” is a science fiction story and it was fun following him over into another mode of writing. The second author, Tanith Lee, is new to me. I first heard of her upon her passing in 2015. Reading appreciations of her body of work and her contributions to literature in the wake of her death made an impression on me and I’ve been keeping my eye out for her work ever since. I remember searching for her work at my local bookstore, but I couldn’t find any volumes that started a series or any short story collection that wasn’t part of a larger series. I didn’t buy anything. Finally, I got my chance this week and I was not disappointed.
 
“A Pail of Air” by Fritz Leiber
Read in A Pile of Air (March 15, 2016), ebook published by Project Gutenberg
Originally published in Galaxy Magazine (December 1951), edited by H. L. Gold
 
A boy and his family live on a destroyed planet. It’s Earth, years after having been ripped out of the sun’s orbit and now following a dark star. So far away from the sun heat is a rarity on the planet. The boy’s family survives by keeping a constant fire burning and boiling off pails of frozen oxygen which they simply scoop up outside their habitat. One fateful day, while the boy is out scooping another pail of air, he spots a face. It’s impossible, they’re the lone survivors. Or are they?
 
Rating: 2 stars
I read this story because someone had told me it’s no longer under copyright and freely available at Project Gutenberg. I mostly know Fritz Leiber from his sword and sorcery stories. The readily available opportunity to read some of his science fiction work couldn’t be ignored.
 
While I’m not a huge Leiber fan, I’ve enjoyed some of his stories before. This one gets worse the more I think about. The characters are thinly drawn. The story sets up and interesting world, but quickly ends as soon as something interesting starts to take place. It’s a small story and seems to exist primarily for Leiber to showcase a couple of neat ideas. It’s similar to "Penumbra" by Gregory Benford in that way, except that Benford’s idea is neater and he was more efficient in his storytelling.
 
Worst of all, the story is unbelievable. Not in the good way. I cannot believe shaky science on which its neat ideas rest. It doesn’t help matters that Leiber has some characters point it out and dismiss it.

“The Man Who Stole the Moon” by Tanith Lee

Read in Year’s Best Fantasy2 (2002), edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer (uncredited)
Originally published in Realms of Fantasy (February 201), edited by Shawna McCarthy
 
A gentleman thief of extreme success is arrested after rudely ending an affair with a merchant’s wife. Held in custody by the king’s men he eventually comes face to face with the king and his justice. The king cannot let the thief go unpunished and yet he recognizes that he is not simply a common thief, but a man of great skill, wit, and uniqueness. In order to maintain order and a void letting him go without enacting any kind of justice at all, the king issues the thief a challenge. He has one year to steal the moon. After acknowledge the impossible nature of the task, the thief agrees. If nothing else, it will have afforded him another year alive. He is let go and proceeds with his task.
 
Rating: 4 stars
The story started exceptionally strong. There is a confidence in the ideas and in the execution. The prose is elegant, a little archaic. It’s stylish and gives the reader a sense of mythic importance as well as that of intimate witness into the events that are unfolding. The characters, even minor ones that appear in a scene or two, are memorable and well defined. There are lovely details to the setting and the plot that contribute to making “The Man Who Stole the Moon” quite enjoyable and memorable. It was fun without feeling slight. These pages were not empty calories (something I felt when reading “The Good Hand” by RobertReed).
 
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end quite as successfully as it starts, but it invites you to return in order to enjoy further stories set upon (and beneath) the Flat Earth. With this small sample of her work, it’s clear to me that Lee’s reputation is deserved and I’m further encouraged to acquire more of her books. I can’t think of a better place to start than by picking up the first in her Tales of the Flat Earth series.