A review by mathiasblack
Swords Against Death by Fritz Leiber
4.0
When I first heard about Leiber, and his Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories were described as vintage sword and sorcery, I assumed I would enjoy in a pulpy kind of way. I started with the first book, Swords and Deviltry, and got bogged down in the first story, the Snow Women. Maybe I just didn't get it. Or maybe Leiber's stories had not stood the test of time. So I put Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser aside.
Yet time and again, I would come across recommendations of the duo's escapades. And then I read somewhere that the overarching narrative only really gets going with "Ill Met in Lankhmar," the gloomy last story in the first collection. Gloomy always sounds good to me, so I gave it a try. Hallelujah! This was inventive, fun fiction, with the kind of magic and mystery that got me all riled up as an adolescent playing Dungeons & Dragons but with the narrative chops and prose style to please a veteran reader like myself. It's pulpy, yes, but in the best possible way.
Swords Against Death picks up where "Ill Met in Lankhmar" left off, and my recommendation to Nehwon newbies is to start with the latter story and go on to this collection. I'll be circling back to the earlier stories at some point, but right now I'm happy to plow on and count on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser continuing their daring--and often frankly harebrained--adventures. Bravo!
Yet time and again, I would come across recommendations of the duo's escapades. And then I read somewhere that the overarching narrative only really gets going with "Ill Met in Lankhmar," the gloomy last story in the first collection. Gloomy always sounds good to me, so I gave it a try. Hallelujah! This was inventive, fun fiction, with the kind of magic and mystery that got me all riled up as an adolescent playing Dungeons & Dragons but with the narrative chops and prose style to please a veteran reader like myself. It's pulpy, yes, but in the best possible way.
Swords Against Death picks up where "Ill Met in Lankhmar" left off, and my recommendation to Nehwon newbies is to start with the latter story and go on to this collection. I'll be circling back to the earlier stories at some point, but right now I'm happy to plow on and count on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser continuing their daring--and often frankly harebrained--adventures. Bravo!