I knew Ellen Datlow had been working for a while to get permission to reprint a Fritz Leiber story at SciFiction, and that the owners of the rights had been extremely reluctant, but her efforts paid off, and now "Space-Time for Springers" is available for all to read.
It is a delightful and heartwrenching story, and probably the greatest cat story of all time (I say probably because I can't claim to have read every cat story ever published by anyone). Leiber succeeds, I think, in convincing us that this is really how cats think (and yes, for all you evil cat-haters out there, cats certainly do think. What mine was thinking when he scampered 25 feet into a tree the other day, I don't know, however...)
This is a story that deserves great blurbs, so here are a couple:
Neil Gaiman calls "Space-Time for Springers" a "marvellous short story ... a story that everyone who's ever tried to understand kittens should read. Harlan Ellison sent Fritz a copy of my own 'Dream of a Thousand Cats' with a note from me saying it was probably Fritz's fault."
Theodora Goss lists "Space-Time for Springers" as one of her all-time favorite fantasy stories, calling it "one of the saddest stories I know".
Before it becomes one of the saddest stories known to human or animal, it is one of the most delightful. Go forth, my frisky friends, and read!
Comments rescued from a previous commenting system:
ReplyDeleteEllen Datlow @ 6:05PM | 2005-03-24| permalink
It's certainly one of my favorites! :-)
Tim Pratt @ 8:22PM | 2005-03-24| permalink
I love that story. I tried to convince Heather to let us name one of our cats Gummitch, to no avail.
That anyone would be reluctant to allow this to be published is a dark mystery like Sissy, the evil girl-child in the story. It would be a crime if this story was lost.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your efforts. And thank you Fritz.