SWORDS AGAINST DEATH by Fritz Leiber

I’ve been trying to read more classic science fiction and fantasy over the last year.  This was hard in the previous decade because so much of it was out of print, but thanks to the rise of ebooks, much more of it is available, including the tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser by Fritz Leiber. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were apparently classic characters, but I never got around to reading them because they were out of print. But, thanks to Open Road Media, they’re available as ebooks.

I read SWORDS & DEVILTRY, the origin stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and thought it only indifferent. However, the sequel SWORDS AGAINST DEATH when Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser met in ill-omened Lankhmar, was much better.

It’s a frame story, consisting of a string of interconnected short stories as the exuberant barbarian Fafhrd and the sardonic Gray Mouser contest against various foes both wizardly and mundane. The short stories are only loosely interconnected, but the overarching theme concerns Fafhrd and the Gray Mouse attempting to come to terms with the deaths of their love interests, leading up to their quest to steal the mask of Death himself (hence, Swords Against Death).

I think my favorite stories were the ones with the Howling Tower, Fafhrd and the Mouser’s duel with the Thieves’ Guild, and the mysterious store where the incredible bargains are a bit…sharper…than they appear. Recommended.

-JM