secretlyadoombot's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
spinnerroweok's review against another edition
3.0
I really used to like the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books when I was younger. Now, they are just OK. Hmmmmm...
jcovey's review against another edition
4.0
Sags in the middle, but hot damn if the latter half isn't the greatest adventure yet.
johnwillson's review against another edition
4.0
Fans of Sword & Sorcery swear by these tales. I thought I should finally find out what I've been missing.
The prose is charmingly unhurried and ornamental; some would call it "slow", but not me. There's a continual wink implied from the author, who seems to be saying "watch while I deploy my vast erudite lexicon and labyrinthine sentence structures to convey the antics of these foolish ruffians, ha-haa!"
I didn't mind the wordy writing, but some of the actual stories didn't fulfill the promise of their prose, amounting to little more than a practical joke on the main characters.
This volume contains Leiber's early novella "Adept's Gambit", which is well known and quite good.
The prose is charmingly unhurried and ornamental; some would call it "slow", but not me. There's a continual wink implied from the author, who seems to be saying "watch while I deploy my vast erudite lexicon and labyrinthine sentence structures to convey the antics of these foolish ruffians, ha-haa!"
I didn't mind the wordy writing, but some of the actual stories didn't fulfill the promise of their prose, amounting to little more than a practical joke on the main characters.
This volume contains Leiber's early novella "Adept's Gambit", which is well known and quite good.
zeroiv's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
cafedetinta's review against another edition
4.0
Otro buen montón de aventuras de nuestros amigos! En breve reseña en el blog.
archmageofthearchive's review against another edition
2.0
I'd previously heard that Leiber's powers are best suited for the short story and that he's not particularly good at longer narratives. Now I have read with my own eyes and I can bear the witness. But really, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The first story, "The Cloud of Hate," might be the greatest evidence I've yet seen for how Leiber was a crucial innovator of D&D. His stories were cited by Gary Gaigax as a major influence, and later on he wrote up modules and made other contributions to the early game. Every barbarian carries the DNA of Fafhnir, while every rogue shows some kinship to the Gray Mouser. This story reads like a one-shot where the players didn't want anything with significant stakes, instead wanting to just kill something, and it works quite well.
"Lean Times in Lankhmar" is easily the best story in this collection and probably my favorite Leiber story I've read so far. It's tightly plotted, very character-centric, and brings all of Leiber's best skills to the fore--lots of drama, lots of wit and uproarious humor, and narrative stagecraft. The story offers some legitimate insight into how institutional religions relate to each other, while also taking a careful look at how not every friendship can endure every stress. The opening paragraphs read like vintage Terry Pratchett (even though the story was originally published in 1959, nearly thirty years before Pratchett started publishing the Discworld books). The climax is hilarious and exciting. It's a rollicking good time, the epitome of what a pulp story can be.
The next three stories are mediocre. "When the Sea-King's Away" (1960) was a story Leiber had written in which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser trespass the home of a sea god. The stories on either end, "Their Mistress, the Sea" and "The Wrong Branch" were both written in 1968 to explain how the rogues got from Lankhmar out to the sea, and then from the sea-king's domain to a world that is essentially our own ancient history, only there is magic present. I found the flanking stories thin, though harmless; the middle story was totally incomprehensible to me, and I never could tell how one paragraph related to the next in terms of relating events.
The final story, "The Adept's Gambit," is my proof that Leiber should have stuck to short fiction. This story accounts for a full 50% of the book, and it is painfully dull. I read this book on my kindle while walking to/from campus, usually about 3% each way, and it took me weeks to finish because I was never drawn into the story. I would start reading as I left home, and within a block or two I'd be struck by a thought for class and would find that much more interesting than the story itself, so that I would only read a page or two each day.
But what's actually wrong with the story itself? After all, it starts out remarkably strong, with a verve and energy rarely seen--our heroes are out philandering when suddenly the woman they're with transforms into a pig. It's wild and weird, like a scene out of One Hundred Years of Solitude. After that start, however, the story loses all steam. The character go to Place A, where they're told to go to Place B, and they need to complete Task C, etc. And none of it adds up. There's so much hinting rather than actually saying anything, and lots of subterfuge that just doesn't make much sense. Then, after a somewhat interesting battle with a seeming-near-immortal, we get a long, long, long speech in which a character exposits about her past and how her brother became obsessed with power and all that. Now, normally I like a good nested story, but here is lacked style and thrill, and just made me desperate for it to end.
I already have at least one--maybe two?--more collections of these stories on my kindle, and so I'm sure I'll try those eventually. After all, the man who wrote "Lean Times in Lankhmar" deserves another try from me. But man, barring that story and "The Cloud of Hate," this particular collection did not work for me at all, and I'm just glad to be done with it.
The first story, "The Cloud of Hate," might be the greatest evidence I've yet seen for how Leiber was a crucial innovator of D&D. His stories were cited by Gary Gaigax as a major influence, and later on he wrote up modules and made other contributions to the early game. Every barbarian carries the DNA of Fafhnir, while every rogue shows some kinship to the Gray Mouser. This story reads like a one-shot where the players didn't want anything with significant stakes, instead wanting to just kill something, and it works quite well.
"Lean Times in Lankhmar" is easily the best story in this collection and probably my favorite Leiber story I've read so far. It's tightly plotted, very character-centric, and brings all of Leiber's best skills to the fore--lots of drama, lots of wit and uproarious humor, and narrative stagecraft. The story offers some legitimate insight into how institutional religions relate to each other, while also taking a careful look at how not every friendship can endure every stress. The opening paragraphs read like vintage Terry Pratchett (even though the story was originally published in 1959, nearly thirty years before Pratchett started publishing the Discworld books). The climax is hilarious and exciting. It's a rollicking good time, the epitome of what a pulp story can be.
The next three stories are mediocre. "When the Sea-King's Away" (1960) was a story Leiber had written in which Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser trespass the home of a sea god. The stories on either end, "Their Mistress, the Sea" and "The Wrong Branch" were both written in 1968 to explain how the rogues got from Lankhmar out to the sea, and then from the sea-king's domain to a world that is essentially our own ancient history, only there is magic present. I found the flanking stories thin, though harmless; the middle story was totally incomprehensible to me, and I never could tell how one paragraph related to the next in terms of relating events.
The final story, "The Adept's Gambit," is my proof that Leiber should have stuck to short fiction. This story accounts for a full 50% of the book, and it is painfully dull. I read this book on my kindle while walking to/from campus, usually about 3% each way, and it took me weeks to finish because I was never drawn into the story. I would start reading as I left home, and within a block or two I'd be struck by a thought for class and would find that much more interesting than the story itself, so that I would only read a page or two each day.
But what's actually wrong with the story itself? After all, it starts out remarkably strong, with a verve and energy rarely seen--our heroes are out philandering when suddenly the woman they're with transforms into a pig. It's wild and weird, like a scene out of One Hundred Years of Solitude. After that start, however, the story loses all steam. The character go to Place A, where they're told to go to Place B, and they need to complete Task C, etc. And none of it adds up. There's so much hinting rather than actually saying anything, and lots of subterfuge that just doesn't make much sense. Then, after a somewhat interesting battle with a seeming-near-immortal, we get a long, long, long speech in which a character exposits about her past and how her brother became obsessed with power and all that. Now, normally I like a good nested story, but here is lacked style and thrill, and just made me desperate for it to end.
I already have at least one--maybe two?--more collections of these stories on my kindle, and so I'm sure I'll try those eventually. After all, the man who wrote "Lean Times in Lankhmar" deserves another try from me. But man, barring that story and "The Cloud of Hate," this particular collection did not work for me at all, and I'm just glad to be done with it.
daijoboy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0