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They were two desperate scavengers in a no-man's land of radiation and death.

In a grim post-apocalyptic nightmare following a nuclear war, the narrator and his girlfriend are too lazy to work. Instead, they exist by robbing and killing the productive members of society. But then they meet a man called Pop, who changes their outlook.

This classic science fiction novel by Fritz Leiber first appeared in Amazing Science Fiction Stories in January 1960.

Fritz Leiber, Jr. (1910-1992) was an American writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Leiber was heavily influenced by H. P. Lovecraft and Robert Graves in the first two decades of his career. Beginning in the late 1950s, he was increasingly influenced by the psychobabble of Carl Jung. From the mid-1960s onwards, he began incorporating elements of Joseph Campbell's comparative mythology.

Leiber's most famous creation was the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series which appeared in short story and novel form between 1939 and 1991.