- Paperback: 461 pages
- Publisher: Gollancz; Re-issue edition (11 Mar 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1857988108
- ISBN-13: 978-1857988109
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,436,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Fritz Leiber not only invented the phrase "sword and sorcery", but was one of the earliest and wittiest masters of this vein of heroic fantasy. His famous duo--huge Northern barbarian Fafhrd and his nimble, devious companion the Gray Mouser--first saw print in 1947 and pursued their adventures and swordplay for more than 40 years. This is the first British appearance of Ill Met in Lankhmar, a 1995 omnibus comprising Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death (both 1970), assembled from still earlier shorts. The Hugo-winning title piece relates the heroes' first joint exploit in the inexhaustibly colourful and sleazy city of Lankhmar, moving with breathtaking speed between farce, tragedy, bizarre ruses and desperate swordplay. Also included are tales of both companions' origins and adventures all over their world of Nehwon on dubious commissions or in search of generally booby-trapped treasure. Leiber's own favourite is here: "Bazaar of the Bizarre", his comic-sinister version of the traditional Magic Shop story, where the goods are rubbish disguised by illusion-spells and the haplessly bedazzled Mouser has no idea that the shop's gorgeous caged girls are in reality giant spiders ... This is an excellent introduction to fantasy's best-loved pair of heroic rogues. --David Langford
Product Description
Back to back, eyeing their foes over the gleam of sharpened steel, stand the two greatest heroes ever to walk the world of Newhon: Fafhrd, the giant barbarian warrior from the Cold Waste; and the Gray Mouser, novice wizard, master thief and unparalleled swordsman. This is their story.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Fritz Leiber has a mastery of the language unmatched by any other author of fantasy I've read, and for that reason alone is worthy of recommendation to any fantasy enthusiast. His words sing and the vividness of his descriptions bring his characters and settings alive in a way unparalled by any of our contemporary writers. The only reason this collection of loosely linked tales did not merit a full five stars was the uneveness between the narratives, some stories richly rendered and fully resolved, others, such as "The Unholy Grail," "The Circle Curse," and "The Price of Pain-Ease" only sketchily conceived and less strongly written. Nevertheless, the short story "The Snow Women" alone is worth the price of admission.
Format:Paperback
Fritz Leiber packs more into one paragraph than most others take a chapter to, telling a story with depth, detail, and clarity, which makes the majority of today's fantasy - Sci - Fi offerings seem like overblown puff. The story, Ill met in Lankhmar, takes a mere seventy three pages to do a better job than what seems to require four to five hundred pages to achieve nowadays, and with no benefit to the reader whatsoever. For further demonstration, just read the first two pages of the Bazaar of the Bizarre - a clever swipe at consumerism - for an even better example of F.L's sophisticated, though economical style. There's so much said, so clearly, in so very few pages.
The Bazaar of the Bizarre is said to be F.L's favourite story, and from my perspective, I think it's because it has an elan to the writing that carries through the entire piece, a quality he manages to do for short spells only, in longer tales. The story itself isn't any better than the Snow Women, Ill met..., or the bulk of his others - which in themselves carry a lot of future-use references - but it stays very focused from the start to the finish of its thirty pages, as if it was written in one - long - brain storming session.
From, Induction: 'No one at that moment could have guessed that The Gray Mouser was once named Mouse, or that Fafhrd had recently been a youth whose voice was by training high-pitched, who wore white furs only, and who still slept in his mother's tent although he was eighteen.'
Format:Hardcover
The late Fritz Leiber deserves a major aknowledgement among fans of Fantasy. He was one of the groundbreaking authors who reformed the genre during the fifties and sixties, and created his own, most personal style. Leiber's stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is unique Fantasy litterature in many ways. They don't deal with world-saving heroics and nauseating brave, honorable central characters, but instead tell the tale about two rough, excentric, greedy, selfish, self-asured drunkards of adventurers, in behaviour and manners more resembling the common man than most Fantasy heroes. Although Farfhrd and the Mouser are far from evil, they always have one top priority: themselves. All the adventures and quests they embark on (an uncountable number during the seven books) has the motives of personal winning, excitement, lust or vengeance. Never would they risk their lives to save the world (unless the get paid for it), and the women they devour, love, long for, fight over or rape are more likely to be tavern wenches, slaves, whores, thieves or supernatural beings than fair maidens or princesses. Overall, the stories of the giant northerner and the lean little thief is, with very few exceptions, something completely out of the ordinary, and though most of the stories are kind of old, they all seem surprisingly vivid and fresh compared to the commercial, mainstream Fantasy litterature of today. READ THEM! You won't be dissapointed!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Too many words!!!
Leiber should have read some Hemingway. Why say something with a hundred words when you can say it with ten? Leiber is wordy, his prose is terribly flowery. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2000
Amazing Imagination but stories too short!
Wonderful story-telling, but all too brief. No sooner had a story gripped you and had you gagging for more, then it ended and it was onto the next one! Read more
Published on 24 July 2000
An enthraling journey into a fantasy world
I have been interested in Fritz Leiber for quite some time, but have never been able to find any of his works. Read more
Published on 16 Aug 1997
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