Short Fiction · Chapters

Chapters explained

Chapter companions for Short Fiction by Fritz Leiber.

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Chapter 1
Later Than You Think
An Explorer returns from space and visits an Archeologist who has discovered the remains of an extinct intelligent species on Earth. The Archeologist describes the species' temperamental instability, overgrown possessiveness, and technological advancement that outstripped their psychology, leading to their demise. The Explorer, initially eager, becomes melancholic as he sees parallels to his own species, but the Archeologist argues that what they achieved in their short span is significant.
Chapter 2
Coming Attraction
An Englishman visiting a post-apocalyptic New York rescues a masked woman from a murder attempt by three men in a coupe. She invites him to her apartment, but during a cab ride she evades his questions and slaps his hand when he tries to remove her mask. After bribing the police to avoid being held as a witness, he reflects on the American masking culture and its sexual implications.
Chapter 3
Nice Girl with 5 Husbands
Tom Dorset, a frustrated artist on a Tosker-Brown Vacation Fellowship, wanders into a time wind near a balancing rock in the American Southwest and is transported a hundred years into the future. There he meets Lois Wolver, a woman with five husbands, and her unconventional family. He is welcomed into their advanced, communal lifestyle, but feels inadequate and out of place. Lois invites him to stay, and he considers the offer as the family prepares to show him their world.
Chapter 4
Appointment in Tomorrow
Jorj Helmuth, a leader of the Thinkers, uses a somno-learner and robots to invite rocket physicists to a conference, including Willard Farquar. The Thinkers' supercomputer Maizie is revered by the President and generals, who see it as a godlike authority. Jan Tregarron manipulates Caddy (Kitty Kaddy) into contacting Farquar, revealing tensions between Thinkers and professional scientists. Tregarron dismisses Helmuth's plans for a neutron-drive rocket and cooperation with scientists, instead plotting to send Helmuth to Mars and replace him with Farquar, using bribery and subversion.
Chapter 5
A Pail of Air
The narrator, a boy living with his family in a makeshift insulated 'Nest' after Earth has been torn from the Sun, recounts his terrifying experience seeing a mysterious light and a face in a window while fetching air. He fears the frozen dead are coming to life. His father, Pa, tells a philosophical story about the value of life to calm the family. Suddenly, strangers in suits and helmets enter the Nest, revealing they are survivors from Los Alamos who use atomic energy. They have come searching for other survivors and are amazed at the family's primitive but successful survival methods.

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Later Than You Think

Coming Attraction

Nice Girl with 5 Husbands

Appointment in Tomorrow

A Pail of Air