![]() ![]() Coincidentally, his eye then falls on a pair of old books he bought years ago– Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities by one Thibaut de Castries, and a journal apparently kept by Clark Ashton Smith of Weird Tales fame–and it strikes him that these might have something to do with that mystery. ![]() Our Lady centers on Franz Westen, a widowed and formerly alcoholic pulp writer with a lot of time on his hands in ’70s-era San Francisco (in short, a rather obvious stand-in for Leiber himself) who is intrigued by a figure–a “pale brown thing” he spots in Corona Heights Park from his apartment window. ![]() After reading the book itself, some will enthusiastically agree, but others will find themselves completely confused by the accolades. This year Tor Books reissued the book in its own volume, with endorsements on the cover identifying it as a “Masterpiece,” a “pioneering work of modern urban fantasy,” and the “greatest novel” of the storied career of Fritz Leiber (1910-1992). In 1977 The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published Fritz Leiber’s novel “The Pale Brown Thing.” Under its subsequent (and far more evocative) title Our Lady of Darkness the following year, that novel won the World Fantasy Award in its category, and today enjoys the status of a classic. ![]()
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