- Mass Market Paperback: 361 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; New edition edition (10 Feb 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857988507
- ISBN-13: 978-1857988505
- Product Dimensions: 18.6 x 11 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,157,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Fritz Leiber was a pioneer of sword-and-sorcery adventure, the first writer to handle this sub-genre with the spicy wit of James Branch Cabell's high fantasies. His best-loved creations are mighty Fafhrd and the nimble-witted Gray Mouser, whose seven volumes of flamboyant exploits are repackaged as Ill Met in Lankhmar, Lean Times in Lankhmar, Return to Lankhmar and Farewell to Lankhmar. The latter is a retitling of The Knight and Knave of Swords, Leiber's last full-length book before his death in 1992.
The fabulous duo are now in semi-retirement on northerly Rime Isle, settled down with tough but loving lady comrades and looking back on their lurid years as rogues-for-hire. Discarded mistresses, former wizardly mentors and vengeful gods remember them, though, and the past always catches up. One story, "The Curse of the Smalls and Stars", inflicts strange obsessions upon our heroes, distracting them from the sworn assassins on their trail. The Mouser Goes Below is a short novel where the Mouser literally sinks into solid ground and is magically moved about the world while always imprisoned in earth. Fafhrd organises desperate mining operations as his friend undergoes peculiar underworld torments and titillations, some slightly embarrassing--Leiber's witty handling of sexual naughtiness, seen at its finest in Return to Lankhmar, had begun to fail with illness and age. Nevertheless his prose remained elegant, while neat inventions and unexpected twists still abound. No reader hooked on the earlier volumes will want to miss this one. --David Langford
Book Description
The final book in this definitive swords and sorcery series by the acknowledged master and founding father of the genre.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
This was the first Fritz Leiber book that I ever read, and titled as THE KNIGHT AND KNAVE OF SWORDS. C.J. Cherryh points out in an Interzone interview, that F.L. had a wonderful talent for delivering the contents of his stories with such a sophisticated, slickness that you didn't know it was coming till it happened. One of the better examples of this quality is in the story, THE MOUSER GOES BELOW. There is a section where The Mouser is privy to a pain and pleasure scene between the rat-queen, Hisvet, and her two maids, threesie and foursie. At the climax to this, The Mouser, being highly stimulated by the action is accosted by Death's sister, Pain, who relieves him drop, by excruciating drop. It's the way that the Pain character is reintroduced from earlier, and then used within a switch of related contexts. The former being comically erotic, the latter, a piece of pure horror. Sequences such as this, clearly demonstrate why F.L. was such a highly awarded writer, as is detailed in the dust jacket.
My only gripe with this publication is the omission of the last few pages that ended THE CURSE OF THE SMALLS AND THE STARS in THE KNIGHT AND KNAVE OF SWORDS version, which I was familiar with. I think it would have been more complete with that addition, as it completes the story more agreeably, instead of leaving it slightly hanging.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As the stories contained within this last book of the tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser all revolve around Rime Island, they follow a much more linear and chronological order than the earlier three volumes, and are sequentially tied to the last two stories that concluded the previous "Lean Times in Lankhmar." In some ways more tightly written and plotted than some of the earlier tales, I found "Farewell" a satisfying conclusion to the "twain's" adventures, despite having grown somewhat weary of Leiber's over-worked writing style. While I agree with an earlier commentator that the tales here lack some of the roving action and fanciful--some might say farfetched--episodes contained within earlier tales, I was not entirely disappointed by their absence. Nor did I detect the melancholia noted by another; only a recognition of aging on the part of the heroes that added a new and realistic dimension to their characters--afterall, all good things must come to and end.
I did find the sexual episodes in "The Mouser Goes Below" somewhat off-putting and indulgent, with their soft porn appeal to masochism and sadism, and felt they were largely irrelevant and distracting to the plot. But as the "boys" sexual prowess and escapades have always been indulged within the tales, I imagine they will retain continued appeal for fans of the series, regardless of their juvenile and chauvinistic pandering.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
How old age and past misdeeds are creeping up on two friends
21 Aug 1998
Format:Hardcover
Once more our two favourite rogues are at it again. Once again the Gray one and his barbarian northern counterpart have to fight off the machinations of spiteful and petty deities in their usual or should I say unusual manner, this time however assisted by their current stalwarthy paramours of Rime Isle and two surprising others. Their mishap reunites our two heros for a short while with old enemies and old lovers (and some of the most explicit sexual descriptions to date). All this as usual very eloquently told by Fritz Leiber at his best.
However I do not rank this book as highly as the ones which went before. There is a subtle change in mood noticable in this book. Both heroes are preoccupied with their advancing age and do not hesitate to share their misgivings about that with the readers. Futhermore they have taken on responsibilities of family and employees and in doing so have more become like us ordinary mortals with our everyday problems. All this has aided in giving this book a sense of disconcerting melancholy. Although some might say that this is a sign of maturity, it is also putting some distance from the freespiriting and "the devil may care" attitude we have come to know and love in our two knaves...
Still, any new Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser story is a real treat and preferable over most other and newer sword&sorcery outings, and definitly worthwhile enjoying.
A final word on the book itself: Dissapointing was the fact that the publisher has decided not to reprint the map of Nehwon on the interior of the cover. Although one might say that this time none of the adventures took place in any of the places depicted on the map, the inclusion of the map would have given the book the cachet of its predecessors in the series. (Speaking of maps; in the colophone of "Return of Lankhmar" mention is being made of a map of "A portion of Lankhmar". Call me dimwitted, but does anybody know were that map is printed?) However the most serious shortcoming of "Farewell to Lankhmar" is,that it is NOT complete: Between page 110-111 no less than seven chapters are missing dealing with the dispatch of the twains would-be assassins. Hopefully the publisher will rectify this in the future.
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
A Satisfying Conclusion To The Series
9 Dec 1999
Format:Paperback
As the stories contained within this last book of the tales of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser all revolve around Rime Island, they follow a much more linear and chronological order than the earlier three volumes, and are sequentially tied to the last two stories that concluded the previous "Lean Times in Lankhmar." In some ways more tightly written and plotted than some of the earlier tales, I found "Farewell" a satisfying conclusion to the "twain's" adventures, despite having grown somewhat weary of Leiber's over-worked writing style. While I agree with an earlier commentator that the tales here lack some of the roving action and fanciful--some might say farfetched--episodes contained within earlier tales, I was not entirely disappointed by their absence. Nor did I detect the melancholia noted by another; only a recognition of aging on the part of the heroes that added a new and realistic dimension to their characters--afterall, all good things must come to and end.
I did find the sexual episodes in "The Mouser Goes Below" somewhat off-putting and indulgent, with their soft porn appeal to masochism and sadism, and felt they were largely irrelevant and distracting to the plot. But as the "boys" sexual prowess and escapades have always been indulged within the tales, I imagine they will retain continued appeal for fans of the series, regardless of their juvenile and chauvinistic pandering.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
A wonderful end to the series
18 Jun 1999
Format:Hardcover
This was the first Fritz Leiber book that I ever read, and titled as THE KNIGHT AND KNAVE OF SWORDS. C.J. Cherryh points out in an Interzone interview, that F.L. had a wonderful talent for delivering the contents of his stories with such a sophisticated, slickness that you didn't know it was coming till it happened. One of the better examples of this quality is in the story, THE MOUSER GOES BELOW. There is a section where The Mouser is privy to a pain and pleasure scene between the rat-queen, Hisvet, and her two maids, threesie and foursie. At the climax to this, The Mouser, being highly stimulated by the action is accosted by Death's sister, Pain, who relieves him drop, by excruciating drop. It's the way that the Pain character is reintroduced from earlier, and then used within a switch of related contexts. The former being comically erotic, the latter, a piece of pure horror. Sequences such as this, clearly demonstrate why F.L. was such a highly awarded writer, as is detailed in the dust jacket.
My only gripe with this publication is the omission of the last few pages that ended THE CURSE OF THE SMALLS AND THE STARS in THE KNIGHT AND KNAVE OF SWORDS version, which I was familiar with. I think it would have been more complete with that addition, as it completes the story more agreeably, instead of leaving it slightly hanging.
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