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The Leiber Chronicles by Fritz Leiber
From urban shadows to cosmic wonder, this career-spanning collection showcases a master of mood, imagination, and razor-edged wit. The Leiber Chronicles is an invitation to wander through Fritz Leiber’s many worlds—and discover why his voice still echoes in modern fantasy and horror.
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In The Leiber Chronicles, did you enjoy ...
... the roguish banter and city capers of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in "Ill Met in Lankhmar"?
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
If the wry, knife-edged camaraderie of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in stories like “Ill Met in Lankhmar” made you grin, you’ll love the Gentleman Bastards’ audacious scams and razor-tongued repartee. The Lies of Locke Lamora pairs clever cons with back-alley danger, much like Leiber’s duo weaving through Lankhmar’s guilds and sorcerers—only here it’s Camorr’s canals, masked nobility, and double-crosses stacked three high.
... the city-haunted sword-and-sorcery and mysterious, rule-light magic of the Lankhmar tales?
The Dying Earth: Tales of the Dying Earth by Jack Vance
If you enjoyed the smoky alleys, loose sorcery, and roguish adventuring in Leiber’s Lankhmar pieces—where figures like Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes loom—The Dying Earth serves up decadent cities, dangerous wizards, and spells that feel as fickle and fey as Leiber’s. Vance’s wanderers and tricksters navigate peril and curiosity with the same sardonic spark Fafhrd and the Mouser bring to their escapades.
... the idea-dense, variety-packed short pieces like “A Pail of Air,” “Coming Attraction,” and “Space-Time for Springers”?
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
If the range and punch of Leiber’s shorter works hooked you—from the stark survival of “A Pail of Air” to the sly social unease in “Coming Attraction”—The Illustrated Man offers a carousel of compact, unforgettable tales. Bradbury’s vignettes shift tones as deftly as Leiber’s, delivering emotional cuts and wonder in a few pages, much like that cat’s-eye perspective in “Space-Time for Springers.”
... the off-kilter, dreamlike strangeness and mordant laughs of “Gonna Roll the Bones” and “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”?
Nine Hundred Grandmothers by R. A. Lafferty
If Leiber’s surreal tilt and black-comic bite grabbed you—think the eerie glamour of “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” or the cosmic gambler’s dread in “Gonna Roll the Bones”—Lafferty’s Nine Hundred Grandmothers hits that same nervy register. The stories are gleefully odd, metaphysical, and witty, delivering the kind of sideways revelations Leiber slips in just after a shiver or a chuckle.
... the thoughtful, human-centered speculative questions underlying “A Pail of Air” and “Coming Attraction”?
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
If what lingered for you in Leiber’s tales was the probing, humane curiosity—how people live, love, and choose under strange conditions—Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others will resonate. Like Leiber’s social speculation in “Coming Attraction” or the stark ethics in “A Pail of Air,” Chiang builds precise what-ifs that bloom into big questions, then delivers quiet, resonant payoffs.
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