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While THE LORD OF THE RINGS took the world by storm, Fritz Leiber's fantastic but thoroughly flawed anti-heroes, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, adventured and stumbled deep within the caves of Inner Earth as well. They wondered and wandered to the edges of the Outer Sea, across the Land of Nehwon and throughout every nook and cranny of gothic Lankhmar, Nehwon's grandest and most mystically corrupt city. Lankhmar, is Leiber's fully-realized, vivid incarnation of urban decay and civilization's show more corroding effect on the human psyche. Fafhrd and Mouse are not innocents; their world is no land of honor and righteousness. It is a world of human complexities and violent action, of discovery and mystery, of swords and sorcery. SWORDS AGAINST DEATH, the second volume in the Lankhmar series, finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser beginning their real journey. Their hearts altered by the loss of first true love, they embark on a long and winding path of drunken debauchery and womanizing until crossing paths with two cross wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. A most violent of clashes ensues. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser descend into Thieves House to discover the exacting skill of the united backstabbing Thieves of Lankhmar and their rival guild, The Slayer's Brotherhood, the city's unionized killers. They would wander along The Bleak Shore to a howling tower to show how fear isn't the product of murder but the cause. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser must resume their plundering and drunken debauchery until once again darkness had taken the balance for its favor and then a change would come. These are just a few of the encounters our swindling swordsmen will willingly endure in ridding their hearts of their first true loves. But did they know it would make them indentured swordsman servants to their former foes, the formidable Sheelba and Ningauble? show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This collection of ten short stories picks up shortly after the events in Swords and Deviltry. Although written and published over a span of thirty years, the stories are arranged here in chronological order as per the characters' lives.
Yes, death is a common theme running through this collection. Whether it's dealing with the undead in the catacombs of the Thieves' Guild or battling Death himself, there's more than just combat mortality going on. There are beings long thought dead that have come back to life for revenge, and the dead haunting the living such that they'll do anything to be at peace. As great as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are in a sword fight, sometimes it takes wits to survive. Other times, the odds are so overwhelming show more that it's best to just run away.
In the first edition of D&D's Deities and Demigods, there was a section dedicated to the Nehwon Mythos. That was my first introduction to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and the beings that dwell there. The stories were an obvious inspiration to Gygax and company, and reading this collection of stories, one can't help but see it. Notable characters that show up here include the alien wizards Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ninguable of the Seven Eyes. There's an encounter with the goddess Tyaa and her fearsome flock of birds, Devourer, and, of course, Death.
I really enjoyed "Thieves' House", "The Bleak Shore", "The Sunken Land", "Claws from the Night", and "Bazaar of the Bizarre." I feel that these stories really exemplify Leiber at his best. Besides detailing the prowess of his heroes' swordsmanship, Leiber can set a scene, whether it be fantastic...
or forboding...
My one complaint would be that the POV shifts within the stories were often sudden and jarring with no break to indicate the switch was coming. I don't know if that was a product of the times, but I was taught that that was bad form. But it's not like anyone is going to crucify Fritz Leiber for that.
I enjoyed this one more than the first book in the series. Leiber takes his characters—and the reader—on an adventurous ride through Nehwon, encountering strange and deadly beings, forcing them to use their wits when swords aren't enough. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser: It's like a buddy movie for the D&D crowd.
4.25 stars show less
Yes, death is a common theme running through this collection. Whether it's dealing with the undead in the catacombs of the Thieves' Guild or battling Death himself, there's more than just combat mortality going on. There are beings long thought dead that have come back to life for revenge, and the dead haunting the living such that they'll do anything to be at peace. As great as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are in a sword fight, sometimes it takes wits to survive. Other times, the odds are so overwhelming show more that it's best to just run away.
In the first edition of D&D's Deities and Demigods, there was a section dedicated to the Nehwon Mythos. That was my first introduction to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and the beings that dwell there. The stories were an obvious inspiration to Gygax and company, and reading this collection of stories, one can't help but see it. Notable characters that show up here include the alien wizards Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ninguable of the Seven Eyes. There's an encounter with the goddess Tyaa and her fearsome flock of birds, Devourer, and, of course, Death.
I really enjoyed "Thieves' House", "The Bleak Shore", "The Sunken Land", "Claws from the Night", and "Bazaar of the Bizarre." I feel that these stories really exemplify Leiber at his best. Besides detailing the prowess of his heroes' swordsmanship, Leiber can set a scene, whether it be fantastic...
The lenses and brass tubes, some of the latter of which were as fantastically crooked as if they were periscopes for seeing over the walls and through the barred windows of other universes, showed at first only delightful jeweled patterns, but after a bit the Mouser was able to see through into all sorts of interesting places: the treasure rooms of dead kings, the bedchambers of living queens, council crypts of rebel angels, and the closets in which the gods hid plans for worlds too frighteningly fantastic to risk creating.
or forboding...
Only his eyes responded to his will, turning from side to side, drinking in details with fearful curiousity: the endless series of vague carvings, wherein sea monsters and unwholesome manlike figures and vaguely anthropomorphic giant skates or rays seemed to come alive and stir as the phosphorescence fluctuated...
My one complaint would be that the POV shifts within the stories were often sudden and jarring with no break to indicate the switch was coming. I don't know if that was a product of the times, but I was taught that that was bad form. But it's not like anyone is going to crucify Fritz Leiber for that.
I enjoyed this one more than the first book in the series. Leiber takes his characters—and the reader—on an adventurous ride through Nehwon, encountering strange and deadly beings, forcing them to use their wits when swords aren't enough. Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser: It's like a buddy movie for the D&D crowd.
4.25 stars show less
This is the second volume in Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books, and I would say that the series really hits its stride here… except that the stories this volume collects are some of the earliest he ever wrote for this setting (in fact, it contains the very first of them, “The Jewels in the Forest”, first published in 1939) and thus precede everything collected in the first volume.
There is a brief introductory piece Leiber wrote for Swords Against Death that connects this volume to the ending of Swords and Devilitry, describing our heroes’ wanderings around the world of Nehwon after the events related in ”Ill Met in Lankhmar”. In a somewhat odd turn, Leiber lets Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser return to that city for show more one story only to have them again leave it to travel to the ends of the earth in the one immediately after, and then has several stories that tell of incidents during their second trip back. This is all a bit weird, and undoubtedly owing to the authors attempt to impose some kind of internal chronology on stories he had writter over the course of three decades. Such things generally tend not to go very well, and Leiber’s series is no exception (and there will be even more abstruse things to explain away in the next volume), one can still see the glue where he has tried to stick the ill-fitting pieces together, and it is not even necessary to look hard for the cracks.
One really wonders why Leiber even bothered with this – the stories do not need a narrative continuum to exist in, they work just fine as unrelated episodes. In fact, one might even wonder if the decrease in quality noticeable in later stories is not due to precisely the author’s ambition to force his tales of rogues & ribaldry into the tight corset of a timeline, if he did not douse the ebullient spirit of adventure the early stories radiate with his attempt at making everything fit into consisent worldbuilding. In the tales collected in Swords Against Death, however, it is quite obvious that he merrily makes stuff up as he goes along and the stories are not any less fun for it.
Very much in evidence here are both Leiber’s fondness for the bizarre (what his worldbuilding lacks in consistency and plausibility it more than makes up for in invention, imagination and general weirdness) and his sense of humour (I’m convinced that Leiber has been a major influence on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and anyone who loves those books and has not read any Fafhrd and Gray Mouser yet should do so right away). He even gets outright satirical at times, most pronounced in “Bazaar of the Bizarre” where he takes some – not exactly subtle, but quite funny – stabs at consumerism culture. That story is also a great example of how the friendship between the protagonists fuels and kindles those stories – like all close friends they do not always agree with each other, often are even explicitly at cross-purposes, but in the end they always work together in some way, voluntarily or not. The first volume in the series was an enjoyable read, but this here is great stuff, with the fun factor quite often going through the roof. show less
There is a brief introductory piece Leiber wrote for Swords Against Death that connects this volume to the ending of Swords and Devilitry, describing our heroes’ wanderings around the world of Nehwon after the events related in ”Ill Met in Lankhmar”. In a somewhat odd turn, Leiber lets Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser return to that city for show more one story only to have them again leave it to travel to the ends of the earth in the one immediately after, and then has several stories that tell of incidents during their second trip back. This is all a bit weird, and undoubtedly owing to the authors attempt to impose some kind of internal chronology on stories he had writter over the course of three decades. Such things generally tend not to go very well, and Leiber’s series is no exception (and there will be even more abstruse things to explain away in the next volume), one can still see the glue where he has tried to stick the ill-fitting pieces together, and it is not even necessary to look hard for the cracks.
One really wonders why Leiber even bothered with this – the stories do not need a narrative continuum to exist in, they work just fine as unrelated episodes. In fact, one might even wonder if the decrease in quality noticeable in later stories is not due to precisely the author’s ambition to force his tales of rogues & ribaldry into the tight corset of a timeline, if he did not douse the ebullient spirit of adventure the early stories radiate with his attempt at making everything fit into consisent worldbuilding. In the tales collected in Swords Against Death, however, it is quite obvious that he merrily makes stuff up as he goes along and the stories are not any less fun for it.
Very much in evidence here are both Leiber’s fondness for the bizarre (what his worldbuilding lacks in consistency and plausibility it more than makes up for in invention, imagination and general weirdness) and his sense of humour (I’m convinced that Leiber has been a major influence on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and anyone who loves those books and has not read any Fafhrd and Gray Mouser yet should do so right away). He even gets outright satirical at times, most pronounced in “Bazaar of the Bizarre” where he takes some – not exactly subtle, but quite funny – stabs at consumerism culture. That story is also a great example of how the friendship between the protagonists fuels and kindles those stories – like all close friends they do not always agree with each other, often are even explicitly at cross-purposes, but in the end they always work together in some way, voluntarily or not. The first volume in the series was an enjoyable read, but this here is great stuff, with the fun factor quite often going through the roof. show less
I'm just enthralled with these series of stories (and I gather one of the books is an actual novel, not a collection--what riches await!) Considering their age, I find them incredibly modern (or timeless, I suppose, in the same way that I can read Jane Austen perfectly well, but there are books from 50 years ago that seem dated and unreadable).
The plots and circumstances seem fresh and inventive, which is especially remarkable considering other authors have had ample time to steal from them. It seems like some works yield flagrant imitators (e.g. Harry Potter) and others don't so much. It also helps that I'm reading something I don't love nearly so much at the same time (Three Hearts and Three Lions) which has uninteresting characters, show more uninteresting situations, and (worse) is a portal fantasy, which despite my love for Alice, Oz, and Narnia, seems a bit juvenile.
If you haven't tried the Lankhmar books, please, go for it. The first two stories in the first book seem the least likely to draw you in, in my opinion, but almost anything else should give you a sense of the fun to be had, and this volume is especially strong. I'm beating myself up (figuratively, not literally) for having waited so long to read these, when the Internet made it easy enough to acquire the volumes some 20 years ago ... and yet I waited. I'm a fool!
P.S. "Bazaar of the Bizarre" would have been one of my favourite Buffy episodes, had it been a Buffy episode and not a Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser story. If you like the tone of Buffy (humorous, exciting, suspenseful, all at once) you will appreciate these greatly.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve! show less
The plots and circumstances seem fresh and inventive, which is especially remarkable considering other authors have had ample time to steal from them. It seems like some works yield flagrant imitators (e.g. Harry Potter) and others don't so much. It also helps that I'm reading something I don't love nearly so much at the same time (Three Hearts and Three Lions) which has uninteresting characters, show more uninteresting situations, and (worse) is a portal fantasy, which despite my love for Alice, Oz, and Narnia, seems a bit juvenile.
If you haven't tried the Lankhmar books, please, go for it. The first two stories in the first book seem the least likely to draw you in, in my opinion, but almost anything else should give you a sense of the fun to be had, and this volume is especially strong. I'm beating myself up (figuratively, not literally) for having waited so long to read these, when the Internet made it easy enough to acquire the volumes some 20 years ago ... and yet I waited. I'm a fool!
P.S. "Bazaar of the Bizarre" would have been one of my favourite Buffy episodes, had it been a Buffy episode and not a Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser story. If you like the tone of Buffy (humorous, exciting, suspenseful, all at once) you will appreciate these greatly.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve! show less
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
Ho, Fafhrd tall! Hist, Mouser small!
Why leave you the city Of marvelous parts?
It were a great pity To wear out your hearts
And wear out the soles of your feet,
Treading all earth, Foregoing all mirth,
Before you once more Lankhmar greet.
Now return, now return, now!
Swords Against Death is the second collection of stories about Fafhrd, the big northern barbarian, and The Gray Mouser, the small thief from the slums. For the past three years, the two have grown so close that they are now (as Neil Gaiman suggests in his introduction to the audio version) like two halves of the same person. They’ve been traveling the world together in an effort to forget their lost loves.
During their travels “they show more acquired new scars and skills, comprehensions and compassions, cynicisms and secrecies — a laughter that lightly mocked, and a cool poise that tightly crusted all inner miseries,” but they haven’t been able to assuage their guilt or lessen their feelings of loss outside of Lankhmar, the city which they swore never to return to.
But as Sheelba of the Eyeless Face prophesied (“Never and forever are neither for men. You’ll be returning again and again.”), Fafhrd and the Mouser are persuaded to return to Lankhmar where, it turns out, they have not been forgotten, and soon the duo is back to their old tricks and dealing with their former enemies in these stories: “The Circle Curse,” “The Jewels in the Forest,” “Thieves’ House,” “The Bleak Shore,” “The Howling Tower,” “The Sunken Land,” “The Seven Black Priests,” “Claws from the Night,” “The Price of Pain-Ease,” and “Bazaar of the Bizarre.”
Some of the stories are better than others (my favorite was “Bazaar of the Bizarre”) but all are “classical rogue” (Neil Gaiman’s term) and all are worth reading simply because they’re written in Fritz Leiber’s gorgeous prose, which is thick with alliteration, insight, and irony.
I listened to Swords Against Death on audio. It was produced by Audible Frontiers, introduced by Neil Gaiman, and read by Jonathan Davis who does a terrific job with this series. His voices for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are perfect — Fafhrd sounds pensive, intellectual, and introverted while Gray Mouser sounds a bit greasy and common. I highly recommend this format; it adds an extra dimension to these fun stories.
More Leiber reviews at FanLit. show less
Ho, Fafhrd tall! Hist, Mouser small!
Why leave you the city Of marvelous parts?
It were a great pity To wear out your hearts
And wear out the soles of your feet,
Treading all earth, Foregoing all mirth,
Before you once more Lankhmar greet.
Now return, now return, now!
Swords Against Death is the second collection of stories about Fafhrd, the big northern barbarian, and The Gray Mouser, the small thief from the slums. For the past three years, the two have grown so close that they are now (as Neil Gaiman suggests in his introduction to the audio version) like two halves of the same person. They’ve been traveling the world together in an effort to forget their lost loves.
During their travels “they show more acquired new scars and skills, comprehensions and compassions, cynicisms and secrecies — a laughter that lightly mocked, and a cool poise that tightly crusted all inner miseries,” but they haven’t been able to assuage their guilt or lessen their feelings of loss outside of Lankhmar, the city which they swore never to return to.
But as Sheelba of the Eyeless Face prophesied (“Never and forever are neither for men. You’ll be returning again and again.”), Fafhrd and the Mouser are persuaded to return to Lankhmar where, it turns out, they have not been forgotten, and soon the duo is back to their old tricks and dealing with their former enemies in these stories: “The Circle Curse,” “The Jewels in the Forest,” “Thieves’ House,” “The Bleak Shore,” “The Howling Tower,” “The Sunken Land,” “The Seven Black Priests,” “Claws from the Night,” “The Price of Pain-Ease,” and “Bazaar of the Bizarre.”
Some of the stories are better than others (my favorite was “Bazaar of the Bizarre”) but all are “classical rogue” (Neil Gaiman’s term) and all are worth reading simply because they’re written in Fritz Leiber’s gorgeous prose, which is thick with alliteration, insight, and irony.
I listened to Swords Against Death on audio. It was produced by Audible Frontiers, introduced by Neil Gaiman, and read by Jonathan Davis who does a terrific job with this series. His voices for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are perfect — Fafhrd sounds pensive, intellectual, and introverted while Gray Mouser sounds a bit greasy and common. I highly recommend this format; it adds an extra dimension to these fun stories.
More Leiber reviews at FanLit. show less
This was just a blast from beginning to end. Short stories, packed with action as well as character, and each quite different from the last. Fafhrd and Mouser both have solo-ish adventures whilst the other is lost, captured, drunk, or otherwise out of commission, as well as several with both together and all the fantastic banter and humor and horror you want out of a Swords Against (Thingy) book. I read this with the intention of gathering some good (or great!) examples of how to write action and sword fights for my own work, but I'm sure I'm going to collect the 6 volumes I haven't yet read. Awesome!
Leiber, Fritz. Swords Against Death. Fafhrd and Gray Mouser No. 2. 1970. Dark Horse, 2007.
Swords Against Death is a loosely cobbled together collection of short stories written between 1939 and 1970. All feature the iconic warrior-thief buddies, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, who it is said may have inspired the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. Do not expect political correctness from fantasy literature with this long a history. Women, one character tells us, are for dessert. No matter what powerful paranormal evil the pair face, they always get in and get out with the goods. It is not going too far to say they express the aesthetic of cool. Nothing ever phases them.
Swords Against Death is a loosely cobbled together collection of short stories written between 1939 and 1970. All feature the iconic warrior-thief buddies, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, who it is said may have inspired the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. Do not expect political correctness from fantasy literature with this long a history. Women, one character tells us, are for dessert. No matter what powerful paranormal evil the pair face, they always get in and get out with the goods. It is not going too far to say they express the aesthetic of cool. Nothing ever phases them.
Tirelessly entertaining
This is perhaps one of my most favorite books, for several reasons. First, it is well written, without a lot of plot errors like a majority of modern fiction. Second, it is a collection of shorter tales, so you can enjoy one or more tales according to the amount of time you have to read. Third, they are not just entertaining tales of adventure, but contain just the right amount of wry humor, but not silly in plot or execution. Lastly, they're eminently re-readable, a rare thing in my experience
This is perhaps one of my most favorite books, for several reasons. First, it is well written, without a lot of plot errors like a majority of modern fiction. Second, it is a collection of shorter tales, so you can enjoy one or more tales according to the amount of time you have to read. Third, they are not just entertaining tales of adventure, but contain just the right amount of wry humor, but not silly in plot or execution. Lastly, they're eminently re-readable, a rare thing in my experience
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- Canonical title
- Swords Against Death
- Original title
- Swords Against Death
- Original publication date
- 1970; 1970 (The Circle Curse) (The Circle Curse); 1939 (The Jewels in the Forest) (The Jewels in the Forest); 1943 (Thieves' House) (Thieves' House); 1940 (The Bleak Shore) (The Bleak Shore); 1941 (The Howling Tower) (The Howling Tower) (show all 11); 1942 (The Sunken Land) (The Sunken Land); 1953 (The Seven Black Priests) (The Seven Black Priests); 1951 (Claws from the Night) (Claws from the Night); 1970 (The Price of Pain-Ease) (The Price of Pain-Ease); 1963 (Bazaar of the Bizarre) (Bazaar of the Bizarre)
- People/Characters
- Fafhrd; Gray Mouser; Ningauble of the Seven Eyes; Sheelba of the Eyeless Face
- Important places
- Lankhmar, Nehwon; Plaza of Dark Delights, Lankhmar, Nehwon; Nehwon
- Dedication
- "Sept prêtres noirs" et "Le bazar du bizarre" doivent être dédiés à deux merveilleux rédacteurs. ea Mahaffy et Cele Laly qui les ont inspirés. Mais d'autres rédacteurs m'ont également apportés une aide précieuse : ... (show all)feu le grand John W. Campbell Jr., et les très attentionnés Donald A. Wollheim et Edward L. Fermann. Ainsi que quantité d'autres personnes envers qui je me sens redevable.
F.L. - First words
- Un grand guerrier armé d'une épée et un autre, petit, sortaient par la porte du Marais de Lankhmar et suivaient la Chaussée de Pierre en direction de l'est.
A tall swordsman and a small one strode out the Marsh Gate of Lankhmar and east along Causey Road. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Alors, les deux êtres encapuchonnés disparurent et iln'y eut plus que le faîte du toit, le ciel et les étoiles, le mur nu.
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.087662
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- Fantasy, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 813.087662 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English By type Genre fiction Adventure fiction Speculative fiction Fantasy Sword and Sorcery
- LCC
- PS3523 .E46 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
- BISAC
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