Customer Reviews

A Specter is Haunting Texas (UJ1359)

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If you've read any work by this author you already know and probably love his wit. This one's another of the forgotten treasures of the past. For many years you'd have been unable to find it at all. Now, thanks to the amazing pool of Amazon readers these old tomes are trickling out to hungry readers again.

I'd suggest you try other Leiber's first. If you find him compelling, as I always have, pick this one up and give it a read. I think you'll value it a lot higher than many of the more contemporary books now in the marketplace.

Fritz Leiber is one of the very best of our forgotten writers. Not only did he excel in works of sword and sorcery fantasy, he wrote some of the most prescient and thoughtful science fiction of the 20th century.

He also wrote some of the best horror tales ever written such as "Conjure Wife" (the best film version of which is "Burn Witch, Burn.") and "Our Lady of Darkness," as well as many brilliant short stories.

A Specter is Haunting Texas is what one could call a science fiction satire. Leiber would often use the science fiction genre to make strong and pointed comments about the future and the human condition and "Specter" is one of the best. Written in 1968, it's the futuristic tale of the world after atomic war has ravaged the planet. America no longer exists, but Texas sure does ... and it stretches from Canada to the tip of South America. The Texans have been hopped up on growth hormones so they are all nearly 8 feet tall. They smoke lots of weed and keep Mexican servants, most of whom are controlled by implants to keep them docile. Into this nightmare comes an eight-foot tall actor from an orbiting satellite where all the "Longhairs" (the intellectuals etc.) escaped to before the war. He is on a mission to find funds for his acting troupe and his adventures include bedding two gorgeous women, helping a new Mexican Revolution succeed and fighting off the Governor of Texas (to name just a few). The fact that he has been living in an antigravity environment all his life until he reaches Earth doesn't help.

It's an amazing novel really; prescient, sexy and funny as hell.