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This swift-moving novel (Gather, Darkness!) is a compound of science-fiction and the orthodox weird, with emphasis on the former; it moves so rapidly that, once begun, the book will be difficult to put aside until the last page has been read. The three-way conflict among the priests, the followers of Asmodeus, and Brother Jarles makes for a rapid shifting in point-of-view, so that the reader is led to follow three separate chains of action all leading to the climax of the destruction of the hierarchy's power. |
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The growing following which science-fiction has developed will particularly enjoy this adventurous novel, which, despite its rapid action, is not without humor and satire. Gather, Darkness! tho primarily an entertainment, nevertheless focuses sharp attention on a present contemporary problemshall the world of the future be guided by the scientists or by the people. Mr. Leiber's answer, like yours or mine would be likely to be, is ambiguous. But there is nothing ambiguous about his novel and its excellent readability. |
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August Derleth, "Here We Go, Into Second Atomic Age," Chicago Sunday Tribune Magazine of Books, 9 April 1950, p. 7 |
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In a story called "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes," by Fritz Leiber, an ad photographer gives a job to a not too promising model. Soon, however, she is "plastered all over the country" because she has the hungriest eyes in the world. ''Nothing vulgar, but just the same they're looking at you with a hunger that's all sex and something more than sex." Something similar may be said of the legs on a pedestal. Abstracted from the body that gives them their ordinary meaning, they become "something more than sex," a metaphysical enticement, a cerebral itch, an abstract torment. Mr. Leiber's girl hypnotizes the country with her hungry eyes and finally accepts the attentions of the photographer who barely escapes with his life. In this vampire, not of blood but of spirit, he finds "the horror behind the bright billboard . . . She's the eyes that lead you on and on and then show you death." She says to him: "I want you. I want your high spots. I want everything that's made you happy and everything that's hurt you bad. I want your first girl . . . I want that licking |
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