It's not all fiction, here. It covers a range of years from 1934 through 1974, and (as is pointed out in the introduction) each item has been printed previously no more than once, or not at all. If for no other joy than reading "Cat's Cradle," you should read this. Not everything is his best effort, and it may be that the articles will be more entertaining to a modern world than some of the stories, but even those are still worthy.

Even Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser make an appearance, in one of the stories. Now I'm left wondering why I don't own "The Second Book of Fritz Leiber." ( )

If I had been paying attention. If I had only looked for the signs. If I would have not been so excited about picking up another Fritz Leiber book and used some judgment. Ah, if only….

Here are two danger signals. The first – “previously un-anthologized”. In and of itself, this is not a bad thing. For example, an author’s collection of recent writing. (Although, you would expect that one or two might have been “anthologized” if the collection was any good.) If it is not such a collection, then you should question what was wrong with all these pieces. The second (the most damning) – in the introduction (a listing of each piece and how it fits to the overall theme – which is that there is not a theme, but a blending of all the types of things Leiber writes) the comment “Next, another hard science-fiction space trifle.”

Never pick up a book where the author admits it contains “trifles”.

For, that is what this collection is – a trifle. It is a collection of “things” strung together by author’s conceit and editor’s acceptance that leads to the waste of paper and misuse of reader’s time. There is almost nothing in this collection worth reading. And the one or two that rise above sub-mediocrity are hardly worth mentioning – so I won’t.

In fact, I’ve spent more time on this review than the book deserves. Please avoid. ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?ID=841 ( )