Swords Against Death

By Fritz Leiber

Book Overview

Join the renowned barbarian and thief in this sword-and-sorcery adventure from a Grand Master of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

While The Lord of the Rings took the world by storm, Fritz Leiber's fantastic but thoroughly flawed antiheroes, Fafhrd and Gray Mouser, adventured and stumbled deep within the caves of Inner Earth as well. They wondered and wandered to the edges of the Outer Sea, across the Land of Nehwon, and throughout every nook and cranny of gothic Lankhmar, Nehwon's grandest and most mystically corrupt city. Lankhmar, is Leiber's fully realized, vivid incarnation of urban decay and civilization's corroding effect on the human psyche. Fafhrd and Mouse are not innocents; their world is no land of honor and righteousness. It is a world of human complexities and violent action, of discovery and mystery, of swords and sorcery.

Swords Against Death, the second volume in the Lankhmar series, finds Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser beginning their real journey. Their hearts altered by the loss of first true love, they embark on a long and winding path of drunken debauchery and womanizing until crossing paths with two cross wizards, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes. A most violent of clashes ensues. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser descend into Thieves House to discover the exacting skill of the united backstabbing Thieves of Lankhmar and their rival guild, the Slayer's Brotherhood, the city's unionized killers. They would wander along the Bleak Shore to a howling tower to show how fear is not the product of murder but the cause. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser must resume their plundering and drunken debauchery until once again darkness had taken the balance for its favor and then a change would come.

These are just a few of the encounters our swindling swordsmen will willingly endure in ridding their hearts of their first true loves. But did they know it would make them indentured swordsman servants to their former foes, the formidable Sheelba and Ningauble?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1497699932
• ISBN13: 9781497699939
• Release Date: October 2014
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Wow....Just, WOW!!

It's a shame that in order to find non-formulaic fantasy, you mostly have to do your searching at the very beginnings of the genre. Fritz Leiber doesn't need a three book deal to tell a great story, and in fact being a master storyteller seems to have been nothing more than a trivial feat to his ever pranking genius. Disguised as pulp fiction, here is an intricately simple Sistine Chapel of fantasy fiction, each chapter an enjoyable stand-alone tale and yet a statement of literary symbolistic skill and an intrinsic part of the larger book and plot as a whole, all at the same time! What's more, you'll see the two reoccuring heroes Fafhrd and/or the Grey Mouser undergo character change and development in every single tale; no matter how he uses them, Leiber never fails at making these two personalities grow and flourish. The authors characterization is more amusing and perhaps even keener than that of the others in the triumvorate of fantasy of which he is a part (Tolkien, Howard, and Leiber), and is even reminescent of Brian Jaques and perhaps even Charles Dickens. Token run-on sentences are an aquired taste, but much appreciated when you get to know them, and Leiber famously switches styles like a mad maniac; the result is a rolicking journey describing its moods and settings with grammatical choices as well as poetic and sleezy descriptions. Here you will find the influence of modernism on fantasy, while finding the source of inspiration for what we have come to know as sword and sorcery. Imagine a young and reckless Conan as a sort of medieval rock star who's hanging out with a sorceror thief played by Johnny Depp in an episode of the Twilight Zone that's set in Tomothy Leary's 1960s Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and you'll be getting a glimpse as to what awaits you in the world of Nehwon.

A superb collection of S & S

This is, in my opinion, the best of Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and by that rationale, some of the finest swords and sorcery around. This particular collection contains several of Leiber's earliest and most vibrant tales, including 'Jewels in the Forest', 'The Bleak Shore', 'The Howling Tower', 'The Sunken Land' and 'Thieves' House' as well as excellent later works such as 'Claws from the Night' and 'Bazaar of the Bizarre'. Unlike some of the other books in the Swords series, there's really not a weak tale here; 'The Circle Curse' and 'The Price of Pain Ease' are probably the weakest in the collection, being somewhat sketchy, but even those don't fall too far off the mark and are naturally written in Leiber's consummately beautiful prose. In addition, the sheer variety of tales here are sure to provide something to suit all tastes.

Most Underappreciated Fantasy Author

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.

These two beat batman n robin

Fritz coined the term "Sword and Sorcery" He is one of the great grand masters of heroic fiction and his stories deliver with brass and style. He has creative genius combined with an appreciation fo pacing and the exotic. If onyl hollwood in 2004 could learn from him..... alas. This author is not a copycat like Terry Brooks, and comes as close as any to Robert E Howard, but tends to throw in a bit more social interaction. The series are gems, get them all today.Fafhrd is a northerner an ice barabrian while the grey mouser is a urban---fast as a cat and a bit or a magic user.They take on animated dungeons and sorcerers galore, find and lose love----and generally take you along for a grand old origional time.No rehashing of tolkien[in a crayy way ] like Terry GoodkindNo barfish unrealisticness like Thieves World were politics can trump bigtime magic users on a given day.Not goofy like MYTH series[although myth series can be entertaining]Just good appealing sword n sorcery adventure.GOOd Show Fritz-----The fact that he does not get more press is a crime-----I don't get it-----he needs to havce far more fan apprecaition sites.Azimov can't hold his jock.