Fritz Leiber
2 books
- Leiber wrote for the pulps, so expect some clunky mid-century trappings, but then you hit something like A Pail of Air, a kid scooping frozen atmosphere off a dead Earth, and it's tender and eerie at once. Good in small doses, oddly humane throughout.
- A whole war across time, and Leiber locks you in one room for it, a rest stop outside the universe where wounded soldiers come to recover, narrated by Greta, a party hostess with a sharp tongue. Talky, theatrical, strange, and short enough that its weirdness never wears out.