Rather than the grand confrontations with the supernatural at the heart of Lovecraft’s stories, Westen has little brushes that are more ontologically rattling than viscerally horrifying. Not only is the first half of the novel dominated by a slow build-up almost devoid of tension or suspense, but at the end it may seem as if a satisfactory “pay-off” to that build-up never really arrived, especially if they keep the comparison with Lovecraft that Westen himself makes inside the novel in mind. However, the book as a whole would seem to them something of a letdown. They may feel a twinge of nostalgia for the 1970s, and appreciate the story’s touches of what has since come to be called steampunk. Readers anticipating a straight piece of urban fantasy such as the blurb on the back of the book promises may enjoy the book’s well-grounded characters, its allusiveness, or its profusion of ideas, in particular an intriguing central concept in “megalopolisomancy,” a “magic” of super-cities in which urban design has “paramental” effects. His fancy tickled, he decides to check out Corona Heights for himself, and what starts as a lark soon enough immerses him in a Lovecraftian mystery amid obscure old books and archives, involving the secret history of San Francisco as influenced by Victorian occultism. Coincidentally, his eye then falls on a pair of old books he bought years ago– Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities by one Thibaut de Castries, and a journal apparently kept by Clark Ashton Smith of Weird Tales fame–and it strikes him that these might have something to do with that mystery. Our Lady centers on Franz Westen, a widowed and formerly alcoholic pulp writer with a lot of time on his hands in ’70s-era San Francisco (in short, a rather obvious stand-in for Leiber himself) who is intrigued by a figure–a “pale brown thing” he spots in Corona Heights Park from his apartment window.
After reading the book itself, some will enthusiastically agree, but others will find themselves completely confused by the accolades.
This year Tor Books reissued the book in its own volume, with endorsements on the cover identifying it as a “Masterpiece,” a “pioneering work of modern urban fantasy,” and the “greatest novel” of the storied career of Fritz Leiber (1910-1992). Romance - Yes Tech.In 1977 The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published Fritz Leiber’s novel “The Pale Brown Thing.” Under its subsequent (and far more evocative) title Our Lady of Darkness the following year, that novel won the World Fantasy Award in its category, and today enjoys the status of a classic. Click on a plot link to find similar books! Plot & Themes Tone of book - very upbeatįANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - fantasy world/fantasy past
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