THE DEEP ONES: "The Sadness of the Executioner" by Fritz Leiber
DiscussionsThe Weird Tradition
Rejoignez LibraryThing pour poster.
1semdetenebre
"The Sadness of the Executioner" by Fritz Leiber
Discussion begins February 22, 2023.
First published in Flashing Swords! #1 (1973).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?63343
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Swords and Ice Magic
Return to Lankhmar
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/ERBAEN0092/ERBAEN0092___1.htm
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
No authorized online audio versions found to date.
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankhmar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser
https://cthulhuwho1.com/2010/10/07/fritz-leiber-audio-files-part1-being-intervie...
https://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/11/101-weird-writers-31-fritz-leiber/
https://tinyurl.com/2p8wtkfb
Discussion begins February 22, 2023.
First published in Flashing Swords! #1 (1973).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?63343
SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS
Swords and Ice Magic
Return to Lankhmar
ONLINE VERSIONS
https://www.baen.com/Chapters/ERBAEN0092/ERBAEN0092___1.htm
ONLINE AUDIO VERSIONS
No authorized online audio versions found to date.
MISCELLANY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lankhmar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser
https://cthulhuwho1.com/2010/10/07/fritz-leiber-audio-files-part1-being-intervie...
https://weirdfictionreview.com/2013/11/101-weird-writers-31-fritz-leiber/
https://tinyurl.com/2p8wtkfb
2paradoxosalpha
Wow, a real classic sword-and-sorcery run with this one following Elric.
3papijoe
Wow! Due to an unintended serendipity/synchronicity, I need an extra book to avoid shipping charges when I ordered the Moorcock book for the last story and there was a cheap Leiber paperback which just happened to include this weeks story…
5AndreasJ
Just read it from the Baen link. The version there seemed to have a few typographical errors that really should be unnecessary in an online version.
6AndreasJ
Well, Leiber gets no feminist brownie points for the treatment of Eesafem.
It's an amusing little story, though, and I particularly enjoyed Death's twisted sense of fair play.
Having encountered Pratchett at an impressionable age, his tends to be my default take on the Grim Reaper. I did like this less benevolent take, though.
It's an amusing little story, though, and I particularly enjoyed Death's twisted sense of fair play.
Having encountered Pratchett at an impressionable age, his tends to be my default take on the Grim Reaper. I did like this less benevolent take, though.
8paradoxosalpha
No coincidence, I think.
I'm currently in the midst of a re-read of Death's Master, and Lee's Death is a more interesting figure-- of course she's working on the scale of a full novel. Nehwon's Death is peculiar for his notable lack of sovereignty.
I'm currently in the midst of a re-read of Death's Master, and Lee's Death is a more interesting figure-- of course she's working on the scale of a full novel. Nehwon's Death is peculiar for his notable lack of sovereignty.
9papijoe
The description of the mortal accounting and ethic inversion of this lesser Death’s domain was handled skillfully. I liked that Death was neither evil or banal, and had his own upside down integrity.
This didn’t make the rape of Eesafem any more acceptable and changed my perception of Grey Mouser as a sympathetic character for the worse. Ironically, killing Eesafem in self defense would have been more justifiable
The countdown by heartbeats was an effective device to keep the story moving.
This didn’t make the rape of Eesafem any more acceptable and changed my perception of Grey Mouser as a sympathetic character for the worse. Ironically, killing Eesafem in self defense would have been more justifiable
The countdown by heartbeats was an effective device to keep the story moving.
10housefulofpaper
Coming to this late. I finally caught Covid (not seriously, all things considered, but the recovery is slow).
I have read a handful of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, not enough to get a feel for how consistent the stories were in tone over Leiber's career, or whether in fact they were inconssitent: I mean did they reflect the changing times and/or changes in the author's philosophy and temperament (thinking of those late stories featuring a lightly fictionalised Leiber, living in Leiber's San Francisco apartment).
I wondered about this because I wasn't sure if there was an element of parody in this story. It felt just a bit broad in the telling. Or maybe that was Leiber trying not to sound out of date (comparable, perhaps, to those regrettable moments in some late Sherlock Holmes stories where Doyle makes Holmes flippant and a bit racist). The treatment of Easafem, too, is of a piece with the norms of '60s and '70s popular fiction. And Leiber is having fun with the cliches - abducted to a harem but driven mad with sexual frustration (like so much 1970s comedy it doesn't "play well" 50 years later).
I have read a handful of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, not enough to get a feel for how consistent the stories were in tone over Leiber's career, or whether in fact they were inconssitent: I mean did they reflect the changing times and/or changes in the author's philosophy and temperament (thinking of those late stories featuring a lightly fictionalised Leiber, living in Leiber's San Francisco apartment).
I wondered about this because I wasn't sure if there was an element of parody in this story. It felt just a bit broad in the telling. Or maybe that was Leiber trying not to sound out of date (comparable, perhaps, to those regrettable moments in some late Sherlock Holmes stories where Doyle makes Holmes flippant and a bit racist). The treatment of Easafem, too, is of a piece with the norms of '60s and '70s popular fiction. And Leiber is having fun with the cliches - abducted to a harem but driven mad with sexual frustration (like so much 1970s comedy it doesn't "play well" 50 years later).
11housefulofpaper
In the nominations thread, paradoxosalpha noted that this story "has apparently been published standalone as a chapbook". Here are some pictures of it:
12paradoxosalpha
Nice!
13RandyStafford
Death is sort of a metaphor for an author here. He's got a quota. He has his aesthetic principles. But he'll cast them aside to make a deadline. And, perhaps, cheap irony is the result.
This was in my first exposure, many years ago, to sword-and-sorcery when I read Flashing Swords #1. It didn't cause me to become a Fafhrd and Mouser fan though later installments introduced me to Michael Moorcock who I did start to read.
This was in my first exposure, many years ago, to sword-and-sorcery when I read Flashing Swords #1. It didn't cause me to become a Fafhrd and Mouser fan though later installments introduced me to Michael Moorcock who I did start to read.
