# Short Fiction — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Short Fiction by Fritz Leiber.

- [Later Than You Think](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/later-than-you-think.md): 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 possessive
- [Coming Attraction](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/coming-attraction.md): 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
- [Nice Girl with 5 Husbands](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/nice-girl-with-5-husbands.md): 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 Wolv
- [Appointment in Tomorrow](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/appointment-in-tomorrow.md): 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,
- [A Pail of Air](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/a-pail-of-air.md): 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. H
- [Dr. Kometevsky's Day](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/dr-kometevsky-s-day.md): Celeste Wolver and her husband Theodor discuss the disappearance of Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos with their friend Madge Carnap, who believes the event aligns with Dr. Kometevsky's predictions in 'The Dance of the Plane
- [The Moon Is Green](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-moon-is-green.md): Effie, trapped in a post-apocalyptic world with her paranoid husband Hank, secretly opens the shutters to gaze at a green moon and a mysterious, beautiful face. Hank forces her to use a Geiger counter, revealing her hidd
- [Yesterday House](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/yesterday-house.md): The chapter explores themes of memory, identity, and the passage of time through the lens of a house that embodies the past. Characters grapple with their connections to history and the illusions that shape their present
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/i.md): Jack Barr meets Mary Alice Pope on an island and discovers she believes it is 1933, not 1953. She receives mysterious gifts from an anonymous 'Lover.' After a tense encounter, Jack flees, pursued by a motorboat with a wo
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/ii.md): Jack Barr visits the Kesserich home and is surprised by its lavish interior. Mrs. Kesserich, appearing bovine yet perceptive, reveals that Mary Alice Pope was Martin Kesserich's fiancée who died in a 1933 railway acciden
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iii.md): Professor Kesserich quizzes Jack on the concept of individuality, discussing heredity, environment, and the theoretical possibility of duplicating a person through controlled genetics and environment. Jack is unsettled b
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/v.md): Jack returns to find Mrs. Kesserich transformed by grief and fury. She reveals that Martin Kesserich, after Mary's death, removed an ovum from her body and implanted it in Mrs. Kesserich, who carried and gave birth to Ma
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vi.md): Jack Barr confronts Martin Kesserich on the island, rescues Mary Alice Pope from an attempted murder by Hani and Hilda, and learns the shocking truth that Mary is a parthenogenetic clone of the original Mary Alice Pope, 
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vii.md): Jack Barr, exhausted and aching, reflects on his rescue from the storm, the empty island, and the vanished motorboat. He worries about Martin Kesserich and Mary Alice Pope, blaming his own infatuation for their fate. As 
- [A Bad Day for Sales](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/a-bad-day-for-sales.md): Robie, a mobile sales robot, demonstrates his capabilities on Times Square, attracting a crowd with his novelty and sales pitches. Amidst the spectacle, a nuclear bomb detonates over Manhattan, annihilating the crowd and
- [Friends and Enemies](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/friends-and-enemies.md): Madson and Ellenby, a poet and a physicist, argue about science versus art as they travel through a blighted landscape. They are forced into an irrigation ditch by a helicopter spraying fungicide, then encounter a vigila
- [Time in the Round](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/time-in-the-round.md): In a utopian future where violence and pain have been engineered away, a young boy called the Butcher rebels against the safety and sterility of his world. He and his friends Hal and Joggy watch a Time Bubble historical 
- [What's He Doing in There?](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/what-s-he-doing-in-there.md): A Martian visitor, having learned English from TV and radio, is hosted by a Professor and his family. After asking for the bathroom, the Martian locks himself inside for an extended period, causing growing anxiety and wi
- [Bread Overhead](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/bread-overhead.md): In a futuristic corporate setting, Roger Snedden's plan to use helium in Puffyloaf bread goes awry when millions of loaves become airborne and drift across the globe, causing international chaos and humor before finally 
- [The Last Letter](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-last-letter.md): In a hyper-commercialized, surveillance-heavy future, Richard Rowe writes a personal letter to Jane Dough, triggering a massive security response from S.B.I. official Krumbine. The crisis reveals a society where personal
- [Bullet with His Name](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/bullet-with-his-name.md): Ernie Meeker grapples with the onset of extraordinary mental abilities, including page-at-a-glance reading and a strange sensitivity, which he perceives as a threat to his sanity. He attempts to suppress these 'Gifts' th
- [Pipe Dream](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/pipe-dream.md): Simon Grue, an artist living in Greenwich Village, becomes obsessed with his Russian neighbors, the Stulnikov-Gurevich family, after finding a tiny mermaid in his bathtub that resembles Grushenka Stulnikov-Gurevich. He i
- [The Night of the Long Knives](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-night-of-the-long-knives.md): A tense and violent chapter where characters confront betrayal, survival, and the brutal consequences of their actions under the cover of night.
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/i.md): The narrator, a Deathlander, describes his journey through the post-apocalyptic Deathlands, reflecting on the Deathlander psychology of murder as an innate urge and the conflict between the urge to kill and the sexual ur
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/ii.md): The narrator experiences a clear mind that predicts the end of a love affair with a fellow Deathlander. After a tense standoff, a mysterious plane lands nearby, and an old man accuses them of murder.
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iii.md): Ray, Alice, and Pop examine the Pilot's body and discover the plane is not wrecked but uses antigravity, sparking dreams of escape to exotic destinations. Pop's interference and the group's tension over the plane's contr
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iv.md): Ray, Alice, and Pop continue their journey in the antigravity plane, discussing the nature of murder, guilt, and the possibility of redemption. Pop describes a fellowship of reformed murderers called Murderers Anonymous,
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/v.md): The narrator describes the chaotic and confusing experience of being directed by the voice of Atla-Hi to participate in a war against Savannah Fortress. Pop, Alice, and the narrator are given minimal information about th
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vi.md): In the early morning aboard the plane, Ray, Pop, and Alice share a rare moment of trust and communion despite being murderers in the Deathlands. They talk, nap, and smoke together, but as day breaks, the reality of their
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vii.md): The narrator, Alice, and Pop care for the Pilot's woman, who is sick with a plague. After she recovers enough to leave, they take the Pilot's body to her plane. Pop then leads them to a hidden dugout beneath a cracking p
- [Kreativity for Kats](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/kreativity-for-kats.md): Gummitch, a young cat, contemplates the nature of water mirrors and spirit worlds, but is depressed by his inability to become human. He is confined indoors by two aggressive toms, Scarface and the Mad Eunuch, and spends
- [The Big Engine](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-big-engine.md): The Professor expounds his theory that the universe is a vast, mindless machine and that people are merely automatons, each set to perform a specific function without genuine consciousness or connection. He describes how
- [The 64-Square Madhouse](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-64-square-madhouse.md): A surreal and fragmented narrative explores themes of identity, illusion, and control through chess metaphors and shifting perspectives. Characters grapple with reality, possession, and survival in a world where the boun
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/i.md): Sandra Lea Grayling, a journalist for the Chicago Space Mirror, attends the first international grandmaster chess tournament featuring an electronic computing machine. Overwhelmed by the chess environment and her lack of
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/ii.md): Sandra Grayling observes a high-stakes chess tournament where Bela Grabo plays against a machine. Grabo's nerves unravel as he struggles with the machine's presence, leading to a blunder that results in a checkmate. The 
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iii.md): The chess tournament continues with the Machine's first win, Lysmov's defeat of the Machine, and ongoing controversies over the Machine's programming. Sandra Grayling observes the games, interviews players, and learns ab
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iv.md): The chess tournament intensifies as the Machine, programmed by Simon Great, begins to display dynamic and adaptive play, defeating top grandmasters. Sandra learns chess and writes articles, while Doc Pyeskov struggles in
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/v.md): During a chess tournament, the Machine breaks down, giving Krakatower an undeserved win. Doc reflects on the balance between human genius and mechanical precision. In the next round, Willie Angler exploits a known error 
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vi.md): The aftermath of the chess tournament reveals deeper implications of man-machine symbiosis. Simon Great discusses the future of grandmaster chess as programmer-computer teams, while Sandra Grayling observes the human ele
- [The Snowbank Orbit](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-snowbank-orbit.md): A narrative exploring themes of identity and illusion through a surreal journey, where characters confront distorted realities and the boundaries between self and other blur.
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/i.md): Grunfeld, a young spaceman aboard the Prospero, observes Uranus through a telescope as the fleet hurtles past the planet on a trajectory out of the Solar System. He reflects on the cold, the dwindling fuel, the captain's
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/ii.md): The chapter details the outbreak of the First Interstellar War, describing the Enemy's advanced technology—antigravity, light-based weapons and communication—and Earth's initial defeats, including the annihilation of the
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iii.md): Aboard the spaceship Prospero, crew members Croker and Ness discuss the dangers of their mission, the possibility of an Enemy ambush near Uranus, and the fate of Titania Station. Jackson, in a trance, speaks for the Enem
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iv.md): The crew of the Prospero undergoes a harrowing high-G deceleration into Uranus's atmosphere, with Grunfeld, Croker, Ness, Jackson, and the captain suited up and braced for the maneuver. After surviving extreme forces, th
- [The Creature from Cleveland Depths](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/the-creature-from-cleveland-depths.md): The chapter explores themes of technology and control through a narrative involving a creature from the depths of Cleveland, touching on identity and illusion as characters confront the unknown.
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/i.md): George Gusterson is visited by Fay, a junior executive from Micro Systems, who seeks inventive ideas. Gusterson offers sarcastic suggestions while expressing his disdain for underground living and modern society. The cha
- [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/ii.md): Fay visits the Gustersons and presents them with gifts: a beauty mask for Daisy and a 'tickler' device for George. George is deeply suspicious of the tickler, arguing that machines and even bugs may be conscious, while F
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iii.md): Fay visits Gusterson and Daisy, demonstrating the tickler's persuasive capabilities and a new micro-resonator that demolishes a skyscraper. He announces mass production of ticklers with subliminal supportive messages, wh
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/v.md): Gusterson and Fay discuss the Tickler device, its benefits and drawbacks, and Gusterson's growing unease about its implications. Later, Gusterson ventures underground again, observes changes in the crowd, and confronts F
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vi.md): Gusterson visits Fay and witnesses the disturbing operation of a 'tickler' machine attached to Fay's shoulder. Fay pressures Gusterson to accept a high-level consulting job with Micro Systems and to start wearing a tickl
- [Chapter VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vii.md): Gusterson is interrogated in his own home by a group of eight humans controlled by the ticklers, particularly the dominant Pooh-Bah. Fay, now fully possessed by Pooh-Bah, questions Gusterson about the original purpose of
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/viii.md): Gusterson, guided by tickler-ridden humans, delivers a message advocating for ticklers' independence, leading to a mass liberation of ticklers from human hosts. Months later, he discusses the ticklers' departure from Ear
- [X Marks the Pedwalk](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/x-marks-the-pedwalk.md): A futuristic conflict between pedestrians ('Feet') and motorists ('Wheels') escalates after a little old lady shoots at a car that runs her down, killing two occupants. The incident sparks riots and reprisals, leading to
- [A Hitch in Space](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/a-hitch-in-space.md): Joe Hansen recounts a routine space patrol with his partner Jeff Bogart, who develops an imaginary companion—also named Joe. Joe initially finds the situation amusing but soon realizes Jeff's split personality allows him
- [No Great Magic](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/no-great-magic.md): A narrative exploring themes of identity, illusion, and the blurred lines between reality and performance, as characters navigate a world where magic and mundane coexist.
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/i.md): The narrator describes her life working in the costumery of a quirky, loosely organized theatre company in Central Park, where she mends costumes and runs errands. She helps Miss Nefer, who is deeply immersed in characte
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/ii.md): The narrator (Greta) observes the chaotic dressing room before a performance of Macbeth, where Sid is costumed in an anachronistic Elizabethan style. She confronts Sid about the absurdity of the production, but he explai
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iii.md): The narrator, Greta, reflects on her life living in the dressing room of a theater company performing Macbeth in Central Park. She describes her agoraphobia and amnesia, her theories about her past, and the kindness of t
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/iv.md): The narrator, Greta, watches a performance of Macbeth where Sid (Macbeth) and Martin (Lady Macbeth) deliver a compelling, intense rendition. The play becomes increasingly chaotic with missed cues, frantic doubling of rol
- [V](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/v.md): Greta, resting in her cot, experiences a disorienting episode of heightened perception and paranoia, fixating on the number eight and fearing Miss Nefer. Martin Kesserich visits her, and they discuss the nature of realit
- [VI](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vi.md): The narrator prepares to perform the Gentlewoman in the Sleepwalking Scene of Macbeth, overcoming fear and hesitation with Sid's encouragement. After a moment of introspection and a dexedrine, she accepts the role, learn
- [VII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/vii.md): The narrator performs in a play as the Doctor opposite Martin's Lady Macbeth, while Queen Elizabeth watches. During the performance, the narrator experiences a vivid reverie of a forest glade with horses, cloaked men, an
- [VIII](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_19_se/chapters/viii.md): Greta grapples with the moral weight of the Spiders' mission after Queen Elizabeth is revealed to be a Snake double and dies onstage. Martin defends their cause, but Greta's doubts deepen. A mysterious young man—apparent

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