Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Publication
New York : Berkley Pub. Corp. : distributed by Putnam, c1977.
Description
A horror author is drawn into a mysterious curse in this World Fantasy Award-winning novel from the author of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Fritz Leiber may be best known as a fantasy writer, but he published widely and successfully in the horror and science fiction fields. His fiction won the Hugo, Nebula, Derleth, Gandalf, Lovecraft, and World Fantasy Awards, and he was honored with the Life Achievement Lovecraft Award and the Grand Master Nebula Award. One of his best novels is the classic dark fantasy Our Lady of Darkness, winner of the 1978 World Fantasy Award. Our Lady of Darkness introduces San Francisco horror writer Franz Westen. While studying his beloved city through binoculars from his apartment window, he is astonished to see a mysterious figure waving at him from a hilltop two miles away. He walks to Corona Heights and looks back at his building to discover the figure waving at him from his apartment window--and to find himself caught in a century‑spanning curse that may have destroyed Clark Ashton Smith and Jack London. … (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
This book is one of those that I first read in adolescence and liked--but coming back to it decades later, I can only wonder at what I thought I understood about it. Our Lady of Darkness teems with explicit allusions to other fiction and to occult history that I could not have possibly appreciated
As a horror novel, it's middling, not especially scary. But the theories of modern occultism initiated by Leiber in this book are important and influential. His notions of megapolisomancy (i.e. thaumaturgical urban psychogeography) and paramentals have persisted beyond this book, and are in fact scarier with each passing decade. Possible effects of the 5G network presently being built out far exceeds the direst anticipations of Leiber's apocalyptic sorcerer de Castries.
I re-read this book on my way to a conference in Barcelona at which one of the presenters was scheduled to speak on megapolisomancy. That whole conference seemed to be absorbed by the events of the book. At the end, I missed a flight connection, and I was re-routed through Oakland (the airport closest to downtown San Francisco and the landmarks given in the story). I joined up with a fellow passenger in London, where we were briefly stranded. He was a Mexican who works on construction in Chicago. His English was almost as bad as my Spanish, and we played chess in lieu of conversation. The synchronicity with events at the climax of the novel was a little disturbing.
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on my initial read of it. The protagonist is fairly autobiographical (a horror writer named Franz) and the San Francisco setting is in every way integral to the plot. As a horror novel, it's middling, not especially scary. But the theories of modern occultism initiated by Leiber in this book are important and influential. His notions of megapolisomancy (i.e. thaumaturgical urban psychogeography) and paramentals have persisted beyond this book, and are in fact scarier with each passing decade. Possible effects of the 5G network presently being built out far exceeds the direst anticipations of Leiber's apocalyptic sorcerer de Castries.
I re-read this book on my way to a conference in Barcelona at which one of the presenters was scheduled to speak on megapolisomancy. That whole conference seemed to be absorbed by the events of the book. At the end, I missed a flight connection, and I was re-routed through Oakland (the airport closest to downtown San Francisco and the landmarks given in the story). I joined up with a fellow passenger in London, where we were briefly stranded. He was a Mexican who works on construction in Chicago. His English was almost as bad as my Spanish, and we played chess in lieu of conversation. The synchronicity with events at the climax of the novel was a little disturbing.
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LibraryThing member Jannes
This is a difficult book to review, because it is so very much idea-centred, and your appreciation, or lack thereof, of it whill very much depend on whether you'll find this idea appealing or not. In short: it's a novel about the possiblity of the geography cities possesing a sort of inherent
As a narrative it might be somewhat lacking, withj characters that, while not exaclt flat or bland, never really get the chance to expand, and events that might seem a bit random and inexplicable, but premise, and the "core" of the idea's presented is thoroughly fascinating, at least to me. Also, it's really creepy at places, which is always a plus.
Objectively this might be a 2- or 3-star book, but to me it's worth more.
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occult power, discussed through the inquries of a '70s horror auuthor into the life and work of a self-styled occultist living in San Francisco at the turn of the century. As a narrative it might be somewhat lacking, withj characters that, while not exaclt flat or bland, never really get the chance to expand, and events that might seem a bit random and inexplicable, but premise, and the "core" of the idea's presented is thoroughly fascinating, at least to me. Also, it's really creepy at places, which is always a plus.
Objectively this might be a 2- or 3-star book, but to me it's worth more.
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LibraryThing member semdetenebre
This novel features the culmination of Lieber's ideas about the supernatural, which he had previously explored in his short fiction since the 1940's. Here we find 1970's San Francisco vividly invoked. Leiber's logical yet absolutely unsettling theories about paramental entities and the strange
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geometries of "megapolisomancy" are a wonder. Especially memorable are the "writer's mistress", which makes for a most unique and scary monster, and the first appearance of thing on Corona Heights, which is simply chilling. One of the all-time great horror novels by a true master of the weird tale. Plausible and terrifying! Show Less
LibraryThing member datrappert
Harlan Ellison named this one of his favorite books in a supplement to "The Week" magazine a few years back, which I recently rediscovered while cleaning up my shelves. So, I decided to read it and picked it up at a used book store. I tried to put myself in the right frame of mind to be absorbed in
At the heart of the story is an evil book - though not quite in the league with the Necronomicon - that the protagonist has picked up along with a hand-written journal, presumably written by Clark Ashton Smith. It deals with the evil influence of massive buildings (to oversimplify it a bit), but Leiber fails to make the horror universal or something that I could feel personally threatened by (unlike, for instance, the Exorcist, with its potential for a devil taking someone over at any minute). The story sort of plods along as the lead character puts together the pieces of the puzzle, aided by his sort-of-girlfriend, who is a harpsichordist, a mysterious occultist whose house he visits, and a few others. Along the way, we do get an evocative picture of San Francisco. I'm sure this book has been pretty good for tourism, but as horror it fails to gel. The conclusion is more ridiculous than horrific, especially the way the lead character is rescued.
The opening quotation from Thomas De Quincy is much better and more frightening than Leiber's 183 pages that follow.
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a supernatural atmosphere, but despite the breathless blurbs on the covers (maybe I need to smoke or drink whatever those reviewers were having), I just couldn't get into the spirit of it. In tone, this is like one of those fun-to-read Jack Finney novels, but it lacks a substantive core. Leiber is having a good time, obviously, as he tries to create something in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft, who is frequently referred to, or Clark Ashton Smith, who is sort of a character in the book, and he even has the protagonist mention one of Leiber's own short stories. This is the sort of intrusion, along with way too many references to other apparent favorite authors or stories of Leiber, that severely detracts from a believable aura of the supernatural.At the heart of the story is an evil book - though not quite in the league with the Necronomicon - that the protagonist has picked up along with a hand-written journal, presumably written by Clark Ashton Smith. It deals with the evil influence of massive buildings (to oversimplify it a bit), but Leiber fails to make the horror universal or something that I could feel personally threatened by (unlike, for instance, the Exorcist, with its potential for a devil taking someone over at any minute). The story sort of plods along as the lead character puts together the pieces of the puzzle, aided by his sort-of-girlfriend, who is a harpsichordist, a mysterious occultist whose house he visits, and a few others. Along the way, we do get an evocative picture of San Francisco. I'm sure this book has been pretty good for tourism, but as horror it fails to gel. The conclusion is more ridiculous than horrific, especially the way the lead character is rescued.
The opening quotation from Thomas De Quincy is much better and more frightening than Leiber's 183 pages that follow.
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LibraryThing member williemeikle
OUR LADY OF DARKNESS isn't an exciting read. It's a slow burner, a mass of details, all seeming inconsequential at first, that build and grow into something that is ultimately rich and strange and terrifying.
There's a lot going on here, in the range and depth of characters that remind me of some of
It's all wrapped up in a mystery being solved by a broken man, trying to put a jigsaw of pieces back into some kind of order that might make sense to him.
It's compelling stuff, and the denouement is the stuff of nightmares for bibliophiles.
One of the great works of modern supernatural literature, it deserves to be much better known than it is.
There's a lot going on here, in the range and depth of characters that remind me of some of
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Raymond Chandler's or Ross MacDonald's lost people in California, in the details of the occult nature of city building, and in the secret pasts of famous genre writers such as Jack London and Clark Ashton Smith among others.It's all wrapped up in a mystery being solved by a broken man, trying to put a jigsaw of pieces back into some kind of order that might make sense to him.
It's compelling stuff, and the denouement is the stuff of nightmares for bibliophiles.
One of the great works of modern supernatural literature, it deserves to be much better known than it is.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
Franz Westen is a horror/fantasy writer who becomes interested in a book written by (and subsequently the life of) Thibaut de Castries. The book deals with Thibaut's theories of the occult and big cities, specifically how paramental entities can thrive in metropolitan settings, and Westen find
Groundbreaking in the genre of urban fantasy, this is a pretty cool little novel. A cool mix of the supernatural in the lovingly-described streets and districts of San Francisco with the (literal) horrors of an academic lifestyle, and with just the right amount of creepy blended in.
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himself in the thick of De Castries' posthumous attempts to prove his own theories. Groundbreaking in the genre of urban fantasy, this is a pretty cool little novel. A cool mix of the supernatural in the lovingly-described streets and districts of San Francisco with the (literal) horrors of an academic lifestyle, and with just the right amount of creepy blended in.
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LibraryThing member texvelis
Wow I really loved this book I think that it will go down as one of my all time horror favorites. It is a fast read and has a Cthulhu mythos feel to it because the man in the book finds a journal that he believes was written by Clark Ashton Smith, which has been cursed. This is the first book by
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Fritz Leiber I have read but it will not be the last. Show Less
Subjects
Awards
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 1978)
British Fantasy Award (Nominee — August Derleth Fantasy Award — 1978)
Ditmar Award (Shortlist — 1978)
Gandalf Award (Nominee — 1978)
Language
Original publication date
1977
Physical description
185 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
0399118721 / 9780399118722