A Specter Is Haunting Texas
by Fritz Leiber
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The world belonged to Texas. Well, about half of it did. Crockett "Scully" La Cruz found out all about Greater Texas when he dropped in from his home that circled the moon. He'd come to claim his family's mine in Yellowknife, Northwest Territory, Canada-but the spaceship Tsialkovsky left him in Dallas instead of Yellowknife.Tags
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It’s been a long, long time since I’ve read anything by Fritz Leiber – and I had forgotten just how much fun reading his work can be. An actor who lives in the satellites that circle the moon comes down to earth to recover an old mining claim. Living in zero gravity for his entire life, he would be crushed by gravity if not for the exo-skeleton he wears – an apparatus that makes him eight feet tall, on a par with the hormonally enhanced Texans. Yes, Texas now runs all of North America, and the actor finds himself playing the role of a lifetime – Death, come to free the downtrodden Mexicans. And it even gets weirder.
Leiber is an expert story-teller (few Grand Masters are not) and uses his skills well in this story. Seeing all show more experiences through the actors eyes, we feel his confusion; a confusion that is magnified as we try to come to grips with the changes that have occurred from the world we know. Parts of the story don’t always flow perfectly, and there is just a hint of the sixties in some of the writing (to the point where in one scene I felt the description contained just a hint of acid trip.) However, the levels of this story (downtrodden Mexicans, mega-powers struggling to take it all, raping the land for the glory of country) take on a whole ‘nother interpretation in the 21st century. The things Leiber is writing about were concerns in the sixties. They are just as big a concern now; we have just put a new spin on them. Accordingly, this fascinating book, by looking at those issues from a number of years ago, forces us to take a different look at it also.
(Now, what else of Leiber’s can I get my hands on right away?) show less
Leiber is an expert story-teller (few Grand Masters are not) and uses his skills well in this story. Seeing all show more experiences through the actors eyes, we feel his confusion; a confusion that is magnified as we try to come to grips with the changes that have occurred from the world we know. Parts of the story don’t always flow perfectly, and there is just a hint of the sixties in some of the writing (to the point where in one scene I felt the description contained just a hint of acid trip.) However, the levels of this story (downtrodden Mexicans, mega-powers struggling to take it all, raping the land for the glory of country) take on a whole ‘nother interpretation in the 21st century. The things Leiber is writing about were concerns in the sixties. They are just as big a concern now; we have just put a new spin on them. Accordingly, this fascinating book, by looking at those issues from a number of years ago, forces us to take a different look at it also.
(Now, what else of Leiber’s can I get my hands on right away?) show less
L'ultimo romanzo del grande Fritz che ancora mancava in rete. Cristoforo Crockett La Cruz detto "Tesk". Viene da Circumluna. È sorretto nella gravità terrestre da un esoscheletro che lo fa sembrare uno spettro. I Mex ( messicani) lo chiamano Infatti, "El Esqueleto" , schiavizzati dai Tex, che sono i texani, megalomani e ipersviluppati con trattamenti ormonici.
Per i Mex oppressi, Tesk è un portento, una insegna, un capo. Per Tesk, i Mex diventano una causa da difendere. È la scintilla di una rivoluzione... e l'inizio di una galoppata di avventure stravaganti, una satira a ruota libera, che prende in giro una fitta schiera di fobie americane.
Per i Mex oppressi, Tesk è un portento, una insegna, un capo. Per Tesk, i Mex diventano una causa da difendere. È la scintilla di una rivoluzione... e l'inizio di una galoppata di avventure stravaganti, una satira a ruota libera, che prende in giro una fitta schiera di fobie americane.
May 11, 2011Italian
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Specter Is Haunting Texas
- Original title
- A Spectre is Haunting Texas
- Alternate titles
- A Spectre is Haunting Texas
- Original publication date
- 1969
- People/Characters
- Scully Christopher Crockett La Cruz; Rosa Morales (La Cucaracha); Rachel Vachel Lamar; Elmo Oil-field Earp; Father Francisco; Cotton Bowie Lamar (Governor of Texas, Texas) (show all 11); Longhorn Elijah Austin (President of Texas); Cassius Krupp Fanninowicz; Chaparral Houston Hunt; Big Foot Charlie Chase; Atoms Bill Burleson
- Important places
- Texas, Texas; Dallas, Texas, Texas; Circumluna; Northern Texas (Canada); Amarillo Cuchillo, Northern Texas
- Important events
- World War III; Post-apocalypse
- First words
- . . . fruitful plains, waving with amber grain, cattle nurturing thornless cactus, the pseudopods of nutritious amoebas, and Lone Star flags.
Son, you look like a Texan what got the hormone, but been starved since birth. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Recalling how he both sucked me in and took care of me, remembering his tall tales and belly realism, but above all else his irreverent good humor, I like to think of him still going on with his "fixing," somewhere.
- Blurbers
- Hillman, Martin; Cooper, Edmund
- Original language
- English
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- 486
- Popularity
- 62,375
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.39)
- Languages
- 6 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 23
