But for a Fafhrd & Grey Mouser story, this F&SF masterpiece by SFWA's Grand Master of urban horror was his last ; Jack London, Ambrose Bierce and others in San Francisco
Originaly published in 1977, Our Lady of Darkness was SFWA Grand Master Fritz Leiber's last great novel, and went onto win the World Fantasy Award. It's part of a double bill called Dark Ladies, (published by Tor Books, ISBN978-0312869724, 352pp) and is reviewed here.
Fritz Leiber, jnr.
Leiber had already had a long and distinguished career spanning almost forty years when Our Lady of Darkness was published. It went onto win the World Fantasy Award, and was nominated for many other awards, but it's perhaps most notable for being Leiber's last major novel (he did publish one last Fafhrd and Grey Mouser book, but it is generally considered to be a fairly minor piece by his high standards). It's also as witty and as erudite as anything Leiber ever wrote.
Our Lady of Darkness
Franz Weston is a writer of horror comic-books, and like his creator, a recovering alcaholic. He is also a bibliophile, and fascinated by a slim memoir from the turn of the 20th century written by a self-proclaimed necromancer, Thibault de Castries.
Several of Franz's friends, the other residents of 811 Geary, the former hotel where they live --including his girlfriend Cal- are also amateur students of history, and Weston is soon busy researching the outcome of the little group of acolytes that de Castries gathered around him.
The Pale Brown Thing
Our Lady of Darkness was originally serialized in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (F&SF) in January and February 1977 as The Pale Brown Thing. The alternative title comes from the mysterious shape that Weston sees up at a local park. When he visits the park, he idly looks for his own window, and sees the shape waving at him. It soon becomes clear that the shape is in some way connected with the de Castries memoir.
Clark Ashton Smith
For de Castries was obsessed by the epidemic of skyscrapers being flung up in turn-of-the-20th- century San Francisco, and believed that he could use the magical power of those buildings to exact a new world order, including claiming credit for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
One of the most charming aspects of Our Lady of Darkness is how Leiber weaves history in the shape of de Castries acolytes, notably Jack London, Ambrose Bierce and most notably, Clark Ashton Smith, into his fictional story, so that it becomes difficult for any but the most serious student of history to tell where one ends, and the other begins.
