The Sinful Ones

by Fritz Leiber

Book Overview

Carl Mackay had an okay job, a beautiful woman, and a lot of big plains. But one day he met a beautiful, frightened girl who didn't quite belong in this world . . . This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671835750
• ISBN13: 9780671835750
• Release Date: September 1980
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.22 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great idea. Well-executed story.

I didn't know quite what to expect from this one. Should have known that Frtiz Leiber would not disappoint. It's the story of a man who "wakes up" to find that the world around him is not the one he has known and lived in all his life. Shades of "The Matrix", "Dark City" and a lot of older stories. The main character is a 39 year-old interviewer for some sort of employment service. A girl he meets is his guide to the strange and frightening world. A world of automatons and sinful ones. The wall-eyed blond, the young man without a hand, the affable seeming older man. And the beast. The setting is Chicago in the 50's and, while I'm not familiar with the city, it seems a good evocation of the era. Interesting to note that Leiber rewrote the sex scenes, t least in the version I read. Apparently the original publishers did the same thing to him in the 50's! So they are fairly modern. But what is the Triangle of Venus?

Excellent story by a Master

Carr McKay is a clerk at General Employment. One day, a frightened young woman comes in, asking if he's one of "them," and if he's been "awakened." Carr has no idea what she is talking about. A few minutes later, a man sits at Carr's desk, pretending to smoke a cigarette, and answering employment-type questions like he's talking to an invisible person. One of Carr's colleagues suddenly starts ignoring him. His original thought is that this is some kind of strange joke, He soon learns differently.The woman, Jane, tries to keep him out of it, but Carr eventually learns that everyone has a "pattern" that they're expected to follow throughout life. As long as a person stays in their pattern, everything is fine. When a person does omething unexpected, or otherwise goes out of their pattern, it's like they aren't just invisible, they suddenly don't exist, until they return to their pattern. In other words, the universe is a giant machine.I really enjoyed this book. It's very thought provoking, and Leiber is a great author, so this is also very well done. For something short, and very different, this is the book.