Friends and Enemies E-Book

Fritz Leiber

• Herausgeber: Wildside Press
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 33

Beschreibung

In a world blasted by super-bombs and run by super-thugs, Art vs. Science can be a deadly debate!

Das E-Book Friends and Enemies wird angeboten von Wildside Press und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
science fiction;war;cold war;bombs;adventure;classic;short story

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES, by Fritz Leiber

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Originally published in Infinity, April 1957.

Published by Wildside Press LLC.

wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

INTRODUCTION,by John Betancourt

The very first book I published was by Fritz Leiber, back in 1989 when he was the guest of honor at the Philcon science fiction convention. I originally wanted to edit the book for the convention, but the orginizing committee told me there wasn’t enough time to get it published. I argued vociferously that it could easily be done, but they didn’t believe me.

So I did it myself. The book was called Fafhrd and Me, and it appeared in an edition of 100 hardcover and 300 paperback copies. It debuted Philcon that year and sold out in a few months. Thus Wildside Press was born, almost by accident, thanks to Fritz Leiber, a convention committee who didn’t think a book could be published in just three months, and my dedication to proving them wrong.

To be fair, it was a lot harder to publish a book rapidly in the pre-Internet days. “Print on demand” technology didn’t exist yet. But luckily I had worked on books and magazines for seven years at that point, both with George Scithers’s publishing company, Owlswick Press, and Amazing Stories magazine, which George edited. (And he was very helpful with advice.) So I managed to pull it all together, and we had a book with a couple of weeks to spare.

* * * *

I had long been a fan of Fritz Leiber’s work. Fritz was at heart a fan of fantasy and science fiction, as well as a writer. He contributed not only to all the magazines of his day, but many of the fan publications as well. (The essays in Fafhrd and Me all appeared in fan magazines, such as AMRA, which was dedicated to sword & sorcery and Robert E. Howard.) And he maintained a steady output of novels for decades.

“Friends and Enemies” was originally published in Infinity magazine in 1957, at the peak of Leiber’s talent, but for some reason it never appeared in any of his collections. Chances are you’ve never seen it before.

Enjoy!

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES,by Fritz Leiber

The sun hadn’t quite risen, but now that the five men were out from under the trees it already felt hot. Far ahead, off to the left of the road, the spires of New Angeles gleamed dusky blue against the departing night. The two unarmed men gazed back wistfully at the little town, dark and asleep under its moist leafy umbrellas. The one who was thin and had hair flecked with gray looked all intellect; the other, young and with a curly mop, looked all feeling.

The fat man barring their way back to town mopped his head. The two young men flanking him with shotgun and squirtgun hadn’t started to sweat yet.

The fat man stuffed the big handkerchief back in his pocket, wiped his hands on his shirt, rested his wrists lightly on the pistols holstered either side his stomach, looked at the two unarmed men, indicated the hot road with a nod, and said, “There’s your way, professors. Get going.”

The thin man looked at the hand-smears on the fat man’s shirt. “But you haven’t even explained to me,” he protested softly, “why I’m being turned out of Ozona College.”

“Look here, Mr. Ellenby, I’ve tried to make it easy for you,” the fat man said. “I’m doing it before the town wakes up. Would you rather be chased by a mob?”

“But why—?”

“Because we found out you weren’t just a math teacher, Mr. Ellenby.” The fat man’s voice went hard. “You’d been a physicist once. Nuclear physicist.”