Swords and Deviltry (The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) (Volume 1)

To those purchasing this on Kindle. I found a bit of a flaw in the coding that only allows you to properly view the text on the 3rd setting of your font size. I usually read on 2 or 1 so when I opened this book I was a bit miffed that the first sentence of every page was sliced horizontally in half. After a few experimental changes in font size I discovered the only one that allowed proper viewing was 3. If you can't see the third font size in comfort and need a higher setting then this may not be for you. There was another flaw as well that I couldn't repair. For every "chapter" number that appeared in the text....the bolded number was superimposed OVER the text. While I could read around this flaw some may find it a bit annoying at the beginning of each new chapter.

Now as for the story itself...great quick read for anyone who enjoys classic magical fantasy with heroic characters and questionable villains.

One other note...seems Mr. Lieber seems to hate all of his females. Ok that may be a bit rough...however thre is not a single noteworthy female in this entire book. Even the dead ones are horrible. The first women you are introduced to are savage jealous spiteful witches, the next character is a promiscuous stripper with a need for using men to take her revenge, then there's the princess who is so meek and spineless without an ounce of redeeming qualities, and her dead mother who was a ruthless brutal masocist. Perhaps his view of women improves later in the series and for the most part I started to find it terribly amusing whenever a new female was introduced into the story as I couldn't wait to see what was wrong with her!
But ya know what...it didn't really bother that much just something I noticed and thought I'd share. I still really liked the story...viscious wenches and all.

Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd, the barbarian from the frozen North, and the Grey Mouser, the former wizard's apprentice with a fascination for black magic, were some of the seminal works in the genre of sword and sorcery. This book consists of three loosely joined stories. The first two tell of our heroes before they met each other, and that meeting is the subject of the Hugo- and Nebula-winning story "Ill Met in Lankhmar." Leiber's style is light, humorous, and fast-paced, although I'm surprised that the above-mentioned novella was such an award winner. While entertaining, the narrative lacks sufficient complications. Perhaps my more jaded response is a result of the seventy-plus years of fantasy tales that have followed. No doubt many aspects of the stories that seem clichéd now were fresh at that time. However, even if you're familiar with the genre, these classic tales are very enjoyable.

Leiber is a true master of sword and sorcery, and is probably the third most important author, just behind Tolkien and Howard, in creating the genre of fantasy as we know it today. Leiber penned this novel before fantasy became a regurgitory practice producing an infinite number of Tolkien and Howard clones. Though he may not have shaped the genre as much as the other mentioned artists, he has probably contributed more to the building of it than any other author besides those two. Sure there were authors before these three, but they mostly influenced Tolkien and Lewis and little else in the genre. It was Tolkien, Howard, and Leiber who spawned Dungeons and Dragons, the surge of fantasy trilogies, and the emergence of abundant fantasy art. Though it's evident Leiber was heavily influenced by Howard, his own light shines through with an unbridled energy.
The story is written artistically, with excellent description and style, and his main characters are thoroughly realized. Unlike Tolkien and Howard, Leiber seems to change his writing style for every Fafhrd and Grey Mouser story. The early, passionate, raw style in this offering might just be my favorite.
It's important to remember that at the time of this writing, Leiber had little to base his muse of fantasy on except Tolkien and Howard. Fantasy authors of today have alot more material from which to draw inspiration, and yet most aren't able to pen a work as fascinating, original, and as fully realized as Leiber's Lankhmar series.
Here you will find the history of Fafhrd and the grey Mouser, their fortuitous meeting, the embarkment on adventures across the face of Nehwon. This is electric writing that flies from the page into your dreaming mind.

J. Lyon Layden
The Other Side of Yore

I've heard about Fritz Leiber for years, but having grown disillusioned with the fantasy and swords and sworcery genres a long time ago, I only now got around to trying out this first volume in the "Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser" series.

It is surprisingly subtle, with as much humanity and as vivid characterizations as any fantasy book I've read. At the same time, it is told from a very male perspective. The women are not cardboard cutouts, and Leiber (for someone born in 1910) has a surprisingly modern perspective on gender relations, but it must be admitted that the men dominate the action, with the women forced to wait at home. Of course it could be argued that this male dominance is not unrealistic, but it may well be unsatisfying for those hoping for brawny, sword-swinging women.

The book gets stronger as it progresses. I would have given five stars, but the first story, "The Snow Women", begins at a glacial pace. However, the hard slog pays off. By the the time you reach the climax of "Ill Met in Lankhmar", you can't put it down.

Fritz Leiber is the grand master of sword & sorcery (although he also mastered science fiction and did some fine contemporary fantasy as well). Other writers got in a little earlier in the pioneering phase of the genre (Robert Howard with his Kull, Conan, and Solomon Kane series, all fine books) but no one ever mastered the sheer inventiveness of dark fantasy, the wit and humanity of two lovable characters, the deliciously strange-yet-familiar aura of his imaginary world, and the deceptively literate writing style (deceptive because his beautiful writing forms no barrier to whatever pace of reading you set for yourself) as has Leiber.

His heroes, unlike others, such as Conan, do not whore themselves out as paid murderers, and they do not steal anything from anybody who really needs what they are stealing -- they exist in an acceptible moral gray-area, if you care about such things. You surely do care about Fafhred and The Gray Mouser, though, because they utterly human while being utterly heroic.

If there is any flaw in these tales, it is that the role (or "agency/personhood" if you want the anthropological term) for the females is not strong until the middle and end of this saga (which spans 53 years of off-and-on writing), although even some of the early female characters are powerful in their own way. Leiber wrote these tale across his whole career, spanning ~1939 to 1992 at his death, and this saga series in a sense reflects the changing ideologies of American culture during this time.

Leiber did remain a liberal humanist, though, and the artistic core of all his writing reflects a a way of thinking that still seems fresh today (and for me, after several readings). He was my writing mentor though he did not know it, as he must have been for three generations of fantasy writers. If you have not read Leiber, I envy you! Because I can only re-read him, now.

He is in and out of print,lately. I am glad to see some publishers trying to keep him alive, though the quality of the actual books is sometimes disappointing. I do miss the old Jeff Jones covers! -- wt

Swords & Deviltry is the first of a series books chronicling the adventures of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. It is not a novel, but rather three connected stories. The first 'The Snow Women' tells of what prompts Fafhrd to leave the cold northern wastes and seek a different life in civilization. 'The Unholy Grail' tells of the first adventures of the Grey Mouser and the origins of his name. A Nebula was awarded to the third story 'Ill met in Lankhmar' and recounts the first meeting between the two heroes. While the first two stories are good, it is only when our heroes meet that the magic really begins. Leiber is an excellent writer and the Swords series is amongst the best of the genre.

Poor Fritz Leiber. He has never truly received the credit he deserves for fostering the fantasy genre. Along with the old Conan stories and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, this is amongst the most influential works of fantasy fiction.
Fascinating worldbuilding, intrigue and exciting characters abound in these tales, all told with Leiber's exceptional artistic skills. Not only are the plots and personalities compelling, but Leiber has a magical rhythm to his storytelling and descriptions. This is one of the few stories that is on my "reread" list.
Pick this up and you'll love the stories--and when you look at the copyright date of these tales, you'll come to appreciate just how much Leiber has affected the fantasy authors that have come since.

How does one review icons?
These classic works of fantasy fiction are extremely difficult to objectively review. So many of the modern tropes that 'modern' authors seem to take joy in blowing up where soooo well done in these stories.
Lieber's style is very modern and fafhrd and the grey mouser need no defense.

THREE-AND-A-HALF STARS

Fantasy usually concerns itself with sweeping subjects. The rise and decline of ancient empires. Fell magics as old as the cosmos. The terrible tolls mighty armies extract on the field of battle. You get the idea: It's a Texas-sized genre. Small doings and personal struggles generally need not apply unless they somehow factor into the grander picture. That's why Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (which have largely fallen out of the popular consciousness) read so differently than contemporary fantasy. Though they contain all the tropes, such as swords and spells and spectacularly strange beasties, their protagonists are petty criminals preoccupied with petty deeds. In fact, Leiber's first installment in the series, Swords and Deviltry, feels more like crime fiction than anything else.

Grown to near manhood in the Cold Waste north of the Trollstep Mountains, barbarian Fafhrd once stood to inherit a chieftain's life and the hand of a beautiful maiden. But an insatiable longing to see the civilized south bore him away from the land of his birth. In another corner of the land of Nehwon, Mouse had planned to spend his days studying gentle conjurations with a humble hedge wizard. Yet when a local lord's prejudice lead to his mentor's death, he took up the sword and a new name -- the Grey Mouser. When the two meet by chance in smoggy Lankhmar (called City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes), a meeting conducted over the unconscious bodies of professional thieves (their loot hastily divvied up by share), an impromptu agreement is sealed between the northman and the former magician's apprentice. Come peril or danger, fire or blood, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser will face it together.

Time magazine's Lev Grossman named the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in a list of his favorite fantasy novels, calling their protangists "pure hard-boiled noir." This may be a bit of an overstatement, particularly in Swords and Deviltry's opening novella, "The Snow Women." Intended to explain Fafhrd's origins, it's a slow slog through cold wastes, one alternately serious and silly. Jealous womenfolk weave deadly ice magic and pelt interlopers with frozen snowballs. A village leader plummets to his death attempting to leap a gorge on skis. Flush with jealousy over a comely southern dancer, Fafhrd knocks over the tent of one of her admirers with a sleigh. Only during a climactic battle near the story's end do the kid gloves come off and the hardboiled tone asserts itself with a vengeance. ("His sword came away almost before the gushing blood, black in the moonlight, had wet it, and certainly before Hrey had lifted his great hands in a futile effort to stop the great choking flow. It all happened very easily.")

The other two tales fare better. "The Unholy Grail," which details the Gray Mouser's background, is a classic revenge story, showing how the unjust killing of mild-mannered Mouse's mentor turned him into a remorseless rogue trapped between light and darkness. A subtle, slightly ambiguous ending only adds to the intrigue. But "Ill Met In Lankhmar" is the best out of all of them, a slow-burning noir that gradually grows more and more dire, culminating in the kind of all-out martial rush that high fantasy does so well. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's robbing from the Thieves' Guild teaches them that there are higher prices to pay than one's own life. Deviltry provides an intriguing twist on a oft-stale genre.

The Fafrhd and Grey Mouser novels and short stories are very influential on all modern fantasy and contempory fiction and should be bought and studied by any reader who considers himself a fantasy buff.

The idea of two companions adventuring across a fictional world, both opposites in terms of physical and mental attributes is a common genre, appearing in Lord of the Rings, Batman and Robin and almost all super hero stories.

Leiber creates real characters, they whore, drink, steal and murder out of a whim unlike Tolkiens unrealistic ideal characters such as Legolas and Aragorn.

Leiber was also the first writer to introduce the 'Swords and Sorcery Genre' which has given birth to literally thousands of novels and short stories.

In this first novel we are told how the barbarian and thief meet and are told of their two wizardly mentors, Sheelba and Niguable, which provides context for the rest of the novels and short stories.

Leiber explores the ideas of morality and civilization with Fafrhds contrasting experiences of the Cold Waste and Lankhmar, while the Grey Mouser, considered one of the finest characters ever to be created in the history of modern literature, explores sexual humour and farce which can be compared to Chaucer's 'A Millers Tale'.

In short, any and all readers who consider themselves members of the contempory fiction community MUST read this book.

I guess some people just don't recognize quality. To see that someone has actually compared the award winning Ill Met in Lankhmar with a thieves world series book ... well, there you go.

Great, collossal, archetypal, characters. Dense writing that conveys more in 200 pages than an Eddings or Jordan could do in 1000. A supreme mind (Leiber) writing at the peak of his talents.

I first read of the companions / champions Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser as an early teenager. Some of the writing was simple and some a slow slog ( as has been said before) in the introduction of the main characters. The magic begins as they first meet and from that point on there is no power on earth and possibly more importantly neither in Nehwon and Lankhmar that can ever seperate the bond they have. From one great fantasy story to another they forge an unlikely duo against death, they roam far and wide for love, honor or just escape. Every story reveals the undividable nature of their relationship, one that stands for all time in this world and many many others. I found this first book and the ones to follow as I have reread them through the years, to be unique in the fantasy realm and a treasure that laughs at any god that would attempt to rout this twains ability to stand the test of time.

THREE-AND-A-HALF STARS

Fantasy usually concerns itself with sweeping subjects. The rise and decline of ancient empires. Fell magics as old as the cosmos. The terrible tolls mighty armies extract on the field of battle. You get the idea: It's a Texas-sized genre. Small doings and personal struggles generally need not apply unless they somehow factor into the grander picture. That's why Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories (which have largely fallen out of the popular consciousness) read so differently than contemporary fantasy. Though they contain all the tropes, such as swords and spells and spectacularly strange beasties, their protagonists are petty criminals preoccupied with petty deeds. In fact, Leiber's first installment in the series, Swords and Deviltry, feels more like crime fiction than anything else.

Grown to near manhood in the Cold Waste north of the Trollstep Mountains, barbarian Fafhrd once stood to inherit a chieftain's life and the hand of a beautiful maiden. But an insatiable longing to see the civilized south bore him away from the land of his birth. In another corner of the land of Nehwon, Mouse had planned to spend his days studying gentle conjurations with a humble hedge wizard. Yet when a local lord's prejudice lead to his mentor's death, he took up the sword and a new name -- the Grey Mouser. When the two meet by chance in smoggy Lankhmar (called City of Sevenscore Thousand Smokes), a meeting conducted over the unconscious bodies of professional thieves (their loot hastily divvied up by share), an impromptu agreement is sealed between the northman and the former magician's apprentice. Come peril or danger, fire or blood, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser will face it together.

Time magazine's Lev Grossman named the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in a list of his favorite fantasy novels, calling their protangists "pure hard-boiled noir." This may be a bit of an overstatement, particularly in Swords and Deviltry's opening novella, "The Snow Women." Intended to explain Fafhrd's origins, it's a slow slog through cold wastes, one alternately serious and silly. Jealous womenfolk weave deadly ice magic and pelt interlopers with frozen snowballs. A village leader plummets to his death attempting to leap a gorge on skis. Flush with jealousy over a comely southern dancer, Fafhrd knocks over the tent of one of her admirers with a sleigh. Only during a climactic battle near the story's end do the kid gloves come off and the hardboiled tone asserts itself with a vengeance. ("His sword came away almost before the gushing blood, black in the moonlight, had wet it, and certainly before Hrey had lifted his great hands in a futile effort to stop the great choking flow. It all happened very easily.")

The other two tales fare better. "The Unholy Grail," which details the Gray Mouser's background, is a classic revenge story, showing how the unjust killing of mild-mannered Mouse's mentor turned him into a remorseless rogue trapped between light and darkness. A subtle, slightly ambiguous ending only adds to the intrigue. But "Ill Met In Lankhmar" is the best out of all of them, a slow-burning noir that gradually grows more and more dire, culminating in the kind of all-out martial rush that high fantasy does so well. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's robbing from the Thieves' Guild teaches them that there are higher prices to pay than one's own life. Deviltry provides an intriguing twist on a oft-stale genre.

The Fafrhd and Grey Mouser novels and short stories are very influential on all modern fantasy and contempory fiction and should be bought and studied by any reader who considers himself a fantasy buff.

The idea of two companions adventuring across a fictional world, both opposites in terms of physical and mental attributes is a common genre, appearing in Lord of the Rings, Batman and Robin and almost all super hero stories.

Leiber creates real characters, they whore, drink, steal and murder out of a whim unlike Tolkiens unrealistic ideal characters such as Legolas and Aragorn.

Leiber was also the first writer to introduce the 'Swords and Sorcery Genre' which has given birth to literally thousands of novels and short stories.

In this first novel we are told how the barbarian and thief meet and are told of their two wizardly mentors, Sheelba and Niguable, which provides context for the rest of the novels and short stories.

Leiber explores the ideas of morality and civilization with Fafrhds contrasting experiences of the Cold Waste and Lankhmar, while the Grey Mouser, considered one of the finest characters ever to be created in the history of modern literature, explores sexual humour and farce which can be compared to Chaucer's 'A Millers Tale'.

In short, any and all readers who consider themselves members of the contempory fiction community MUST read this book.

I guess some people just don't recognize quality. To see that someone has actually compared the award winning Ill Met in Lankhmar with a thieves world series book ... well, there you go.

Great, collossal, archetypal, characters. Dense writing that conveys more in 200 pages than an Eddings or Jordan could do in 1000. A supreme mind (Leiber) writing at the peak of his talents.

... Fafhrd and the Gray Mauser just seem right together. I love everything about Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar stories. The stories just crawl with imagination and adventure. Forget Paris, I've been chasing the wonders of Lankhmar for years.

Some people might enjoy this fantasy adventure, but I found it boring and predictable, Mr. Leiber's foreshadowing is like a bat to the face. The direction of the plot is even more obvious once you recognize that he uses women in this story as weak-willed, manipulative, and disposable plot luggage. I happen to love many sci-fi and fantasy books that are male-centric, but this story is anti-woman, a completely different mentality; alternately vilifying, victimizing, and vamping them, but ultimately getting them out of the way for the men to have adventures. Additionally, Swords and Deviltry exhibits an ungainly way with words that I find unpleasant. This book is only from the 70's but he uses obscure, archaic words in a clumsy way, as if he spastically browsed an obscure-synonym thesaurus. There are great authors who use a wide vocabulary quite fluidly which can enhance the readers' enjoyment, but this book is not an example of such writing (C.S. Lewis being one I fondly think of). If books were food, this would be a blandly seasoned stroganoff with undercooked, nasty chunks of onions at unexpected intervals. Maybe his other books are better.

Couldn't read the kindle edition. It was there and in proper order, just not readable. Very bloated, transitioning from scene to scene with very little actual transitioning. Raining 'Chekhov's gun' all over the place. I would have to be Norwegian to understand half of what's going on, as the character actions are meaningless to me. The names of the characters themselves are painful to read, as I am incapable of actually saying many of them.