Ill Met in Lankhmar [collection]

This was my first story by one of the most respected early fantasists. It was an easy and fun little read and I would really be interested to continue reading about the pursuits of the Gray Mouser and Fafhrd. I guess it makes sense to start with this story since it tells of the companions meeting for the first time. There's some clever writing in this short story but otherwise it was just a fun sword-and-sorcery tale.

(Review of the novella "Ill Met in Lankhmar" only)

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3071533.html

This won the Hugo and Nebula awards for Best Novella presented in 1971 for work of 1970 (so the 1971 Hugo but the 1970 Nebula). Leiber had been writing both prose and poetry about the heroes Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser since 1939. In 1970 he published two stories set very early in internal chronology: an origin story for Fafhrd, “The Snow Women” (the origin story for the Gray Mouser had appeared in 1962), and this tale of how the two first became a partnership in the city of Lankhmar. In these post-Pratchett days, we can forget that Ankh-Morpork is very firmly built on Lankhmar’s foundations, but it’s pretty easy to see the elements that show more Discworld drew from Leiber.

Lankhmar is more sexy than Ankh-Morpork, and the story revolves around Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser attempting to impress their girlfriends by taking on the Thieves’ Guild. The Guild, however, has sorcerous support, and in a horrific passage the two women are killed by magic (or “fridged”, as we would say now) and the two heroes destroy the Guild in revenge. In an attempt to move with the times (and against his own past record) Leiber does give the two women a bit of intelligence and character, but it does not do them much good.

However, it’s well-written and entertaining, and fans who had been following the Lankhmar stories will have lapped this up just as Doctor Who fans enjoy Missing Adventures.

The title of course refers both to Oberon’s grumpy greeting to Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2 scene 1, and to Patrick Leigh Fermor’s wartime exploits in Crete. Neither has much bearing on Leiber’s story. show less

No one can craft a fun, naughty, and chilling adventure yarn like Leiber. His two characters were unique in their time for being total scoundrels, men who went on great quests so they could wantonly spend their loot on booze and skirt. They usually find the treasure, but they almost always loose most of it by the end. His portrayal of magic is sublime.

Collecting two of the earlier (in Lankhmar time) pieces of the history of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Read these books ages ago in an older Ace series. Fans of the earlier Discworld books will find the atmosphere and tone familiar--Pratchett was obviously a reader of this series, and he more or less amps up the ironic and anti-heroic tone a few notches. These books have their oldest roots in the 1930s, though much material was written c. 1970. Leiber is good at creating atmosphere, and he uses it to create some serious adventure writing, but the intelligence behind it all is surprisingly similar to that which brought us, say, some of the more sophisticated Loony Tunes satires.

I must confess that I had some preconceived notions about Fritz Leiber’s work. Because he’s credited with coining the phrase “Sword & Sorcery,” and because I never hear women talking about his stories, I imagined that they appealed mainly to men who like to read stuff that has covers like these:


But, four factors made me decide to give Fritz Leiber a try:

I feel the need to be “educated” in the field of fantasy, which means that I should read novels that are out of my normal repertoire.
Rob and Greg are fans (see their reviews) and I tend to enjoy what they enjoy (even though they have Y chromosomes and probably like those covers).
The fantasy shelves are glutted with urban and teen fantasy and I’m feeling a bit nostalgic.
And show more (this one’s the clincher)
Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/swords-and-deviltry-2/ show less

Wonderful book. If you are a sword & sorcery/fantasy fan and have not read these stories, you are missing out on some of the most important works of the genre.

where did this kind of playfulness evaporate to? Is there no more? Thank goodness for fabulous reads like "Azaroth & Sefalin".