Coming Attraction

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.2

Word count: 28K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Coming Attraction by Fritz LeiberAuthor: Leiber, Fritz, 1910-1992,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 30, 2016

Editor's review

Fritz Leiber was a major figure in American science fiction and fantasy. As a public-domain ebook, this book offers Chinese readers a low-barrier entry point to his original English work. The material shows the work falls under American literature, is short, and serves as a good sample of mid-twentieth-century science fiction short-story style. Leiber excelled at embedding surreal or technologically alienating elements into everyday settings; reading him, you sense a cold imagination and an eye for human relationships. Published by Project Gutenberg, the text has been proofread and is freely available, easy to dip into on an e-reader. For science fiction fans who want to practice English reading, the language is not too difficult and the plot moves briskly, so it can be finished during a commute or in spare moments. Note that public-domain books have no Chinese annotations, so readers need basic English reading ability; the work also bears the marks of its era, and some premises may feel distant from contemporary science fiction taste. Treat it as a window rather than expecting Leiber's most famous novel.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want to understand Leiber's science fiction style through a short original English text
Science fiction fans who need free public-domain English texts to practice reading
Researchers interested in mid-twentieth-century American science fiction short stories
Readers who want a complete short story for a commute or spare moments

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a Chinese translation and do not want to look up words
Fans expecting an epic world or hard science fiction premises
Literary researchers who need a deep introduction to the author's life and work

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot, then read again to look up new words and note Leiber's use of imagery.
Read it alongside other Project Gutenberg science fiction short stories to observe stylistic differences among authors of the same period.
After finishing, write three to five sentences on your understanding of the ending to check whether you caught the twist or metaphor.
If English is difficult, use an electronic dictionary and annotate as you read; there is no need to finish it in one sitting.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

This is an English public-domain ebook released by Project Gutenberg. The text is in English with no Chinese translation. It suits readers with some English foundation who are willing to engage with the original work directly.

Can I read it without any background in science fiction?

You can try. The short-story length keeps the plot relatively focused, but there will be period technical terms and colloquial expressions. Keep a dictionary handy and read for plot first before examining the language closely.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts, usually proofread by volunteers, convenient for use on phones, computers, or e-readers. This book is in the public domain, so no purchase is involved, but it has no translator's notes or introduction.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. Author · American · 1910–1992

Fritz Leiber (1910–1992) was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, born in Chicago to parents who were both Shakespearean actors. His work spans several genres, with representative titles including The Big Time, Yesterday House, A Bad Day for Sales, The Moon Is Green, and A Pail of Air, as well as the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser sword-and-sorcery series created with Harry Fischer. He excelled at injecting the grotesque and the fearful into everyday settings, combining cool social satire with sharp imagination and a witty, dramatic prose style. Leiber won the Hugo Award six times and the Nebula Award three times, and in 1981 was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, leaving a lasting influence on later genre literature.