Our Lady of Darkness
core novel 1977 Our Lady of Darkness
Record
| First published | 1977 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.59 (2,479 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 183 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780860000891 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Our Lady of Darkness follows Franz Westen, a recovering alcoholic and writer living alone in a San Francisco apartment, who comes into possession of an old journal once kept by the real-life horror writer Clark Ashton Smith. The journal describes paramentals, supernatural entities that feed on human emotion and are drawn to dense urban environments, and megapolisomancy, a fictional occult science for tapping into the psychic energies generated by a modern city. As Westen investigates the journal's claims and the strange history of his own neighborhood, he begins to experience unsettling phenomena of his own, including glimpses of shadowy figures on nearby rooftops, suggesting that the forces described in Smith's writings are neither purely historical nor purely imaginary. His inquiry gradually draws him toward a confrontation with a malevolent entity tied to the city itself, the titular Lady of Darkness.
Where it sits
- Universe: Our Lady of Darkness
- Series: Our Lady of Darkness core; position 1 of 1 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Fritz Leiber
Awards (verified)
- World Fantasy Award (Best Novel), 1978: won
Notes
- From the series record (Our Lady of Darkness): Standalone novel; an urban horror-fantasy in which a widowed writer in San Francisco uncovers a occult system of 'megapolisomancy' tied to the city's own geography and history. Fritz Leiber's 2nd, unrelated universe in this canon, alongside Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.
Sources
← Our Lady of Darkness dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.