The Swords of Lankhmar

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser #5

by Fritz Leiber

Fafhrd was a huge, full-bearded barbarian from the Northlands. His weapon—a broadsword. The Gray Mouser was a small, nimble man dressed all in gray. He carried both a rapier and a dirk.

In Lankhmar they were considered brawlers, cutpurses, rogues...and the best fighting-men in all of Nehwon. For which reason Overlord Glipkerio Kristomerces hired them to guard an important shipment to a neighboring monarch.

For once in their lifetimes of adventuring, our heroes looked forward to an easy time—until the Mingols, a two-headed dragon, and an army of miniature warriors appeared to make things interesting.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Sword and Sorcery, Adventure, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Short Stories

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Fritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was one of the more interesting of the young writers who came into HP Lovecraft's orbit, and some of his best early short fiction is horror rather than sf or fantasy. He found his mature voice early in the first of the sword-and-sorcery adventures featuring the large sensitive barbarian Fafhrd and the small street-smart-ish Gray Mouser; he returned to this series at various points in his career, using it sometimes for farce and sometimes for gloomy mood pieces--The Swords of Lankhmar is perhaps the best single volume of their adventures. Leiber's science fiction includes the planet-smashing The Wanderer in which a large cast mostly survive flood, fire, and the sexual attentions of feline aliens, and the satirical A Spectre is Haunting Texas in which a gangling, exo-skeleton-clad actor from the Moon leads a revolution and finds his true love. Leiber's late short fiction, and the fine horror novel Our Lady of Darkness, combine autobiographical issues like his struggle with depression and alcoholism with meditations on the emotional content of the fantastic genres. Leiber's capacity for endless self-reinvention and productive self-examination kept him, until his death, one of the most modern of his sf generation.

Used These Alternate Names: Maurice Breçon, Fric Lajber, Fritz Leiber, Jr., Fritz R. Leiber, Fritz Leiber Jun., Фриц Лейбер, F. Lieber, フリッツ・ライバー

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a superb fantasy novel, featuring sword fights, magic potions, ancient gods awake and wrathful, super-intelligent rats, a time-traveler riding a sea serpent, a whistle for summoning mystic war cats, transparent but still attractive lady ghouls whose bones gleam provocatively in the moonlight, lovely femme fatales and (of course) deluded males, nudity, copious drinking, overt sadism involving whips and chains, and just a hint of masochism for good measure.

In other words: a thoroughly enjoyable journey to the land of Lankhmar.

[Werner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note, Sept. 3, 2013: I corrected a minor typo here just now.

In creating the barbarian soldier of fortune Fafhrd and his partner, the short-statured swordsman known only by his nickname the Gray Mouser, and the fantasy world of Nehwon that they inhabit, Leiber was influenced by his sword-and-sorcery sub-genre predecessors, notably Robert E. Howard and E. R. Eddison. But he also wanted (according to his preface for this novel) to create "fantasy heroes closer to true human stature" than the likes of Conan. He also approached their stories with a sense of humor that's usually lacking in the work of the first generation of writers in this tradition --this isn't "humorous fantasy" as such, and people and animals can die violent and sometimes very unpleasant deaths in it, but it does have a comic leavening at times that ably relieves the tension.

Concerning his pairs' moral qualities, Leiber also wrote that they "are rogues through and through, though each has in him a lot of humanity and at least a diamond chip of the spirit of true adventure. They drink, they feast, they wench, they brawl, they steal, they gamble, and surely they hire out their swords to powers that are only a shade better, if that, than the villains.... yet I don't think they're touched with evil as [two Eddison antiheroes:], rather they're rouges in a decadent world where you have to be a rogue to survive...." They're also brave, loyal to each other, and honorable in their own way; they don't rob the poor or bully the weak, and at various times Leiber shows one or the other of them rescuing an innocent at risk to himself, showing kindness and consideration, or being willing to forgive a wrong suffered. The author depicts (and implicitly condemns) genuine evil very clearly in his sadistic, power-mad, treacherous villains; and when the chips are down, this is the sort of evil that Fafhrd and the Mouser instinctively line up against.

As a prose stylist, Leiber is the equal of any writer that I've read; his descriptions and narration are full of sensory appeal and telling details that ably limn a scene or a character, create a mood, or evoke the reader's emotions. In this novel, he created what has to be one of the most original premises the fantasy genre has ever known; and he develops it, and the other details of his fantasy world, with a richly exuberant imagination. IMO, on the strength of this work alone, he shows himself worthy to stand in the very first rank of sword-and- sorcery authors.

[Charles van Buren · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILERS INCLUDED

Fritz Leiber may not have invented the sword and sorcery genre but he did name it. He also created two of the most iconic characters in the genre, Fafhred and the Gray Mouser, and put them into a well received series of dangerous and sometimes outrageous adventures. The Swords of Lankhmar is one of those which is both dangerous and outrageous. If you are squeamish about disease carrying vermin, namely rats, this may be too much for you. SPOILERS: Giant rats, regular size rats, intelligent language and weapon using rats, rat-human hybrids, bizarre romantic and implied sexual situations, regular size and tiny humans, transparent ghouls, idiot rulers (of course that isn't really bizarre), magic, lower case gods who protect a city and people they don't like, rats attacking ships, rats attempting to conquer Lankhmar and enslave humans and I'm sure I left something out about this smorgasbord of an adventure. Just noticed that I left out the time/dimensional traveler and the dragons/sea serpents.

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!* · Rating 2 out of 5]

This took an abverbially long time to read. Part of that was my tired eyes straining at the font on the yellowed pages of my cracking old paperback, complete with surprise bookmark in the form of someone's bank deposit slip from 1977, but most of it was the extremely verbose style. In smaller amounts I could call it delightful purple prose. In this, the only novel-length adventure of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouse, it was an impediment to greater enjoyment.

Seriously, the adverbs. I don't have the book in front of me, but here are a couple paraphrased lines that burn in my memory (the specific adverbs and the context are true to the book):
"Members of the crowd shoulderingly impeded his passage."
"The Mingols did what they were doing as fast as Mingolly possible."

Some full direct quotes that I captured on camera for posterity:
"Shiversomely, the rats showed a human sagacity in many of their actions."
"'None of those,' Sheelba grated contemptuously." And one paragraph later, "'Something like all those,' Sheelba retorted carelessly."
"'Ah, surely I may hope you love me as dearly, since you trouble to know me so well,' the Mouser warbled infatuatedly."

There's a lot like this, with nary a noun devoid of accompanying adjective as well. The writing is playful, it's creative, it's arguably poetic at times. It's also just too much. In dialogue it plays best, showcasing every character's ability to converse fancifully and at length.

Perhaps there's a mismatch of expectations. I read this as a known classic. Every fantasy person above a certain age espouses love for Fritz Leiber and for Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. I'm reading their stories to broaden my appreciation for fantasy roots and influences. In that light, this book comes across as a joke, like it was written as a lark, which is okay but I don't see why it should be thought of as such an important contribution to the genre.

Humour and/or whimsy was certainly the intent, and for all that I struggled with the book, I have to praise its originality and skillful integration of goofy ideas to produce a cohesive plot. But many components are merely groan-worthy. There's the other-world tourist who speaks German and communicates only with the help of his German-Lankhmarese dictionary, who rides a two-headed (with great size disparity between the heads) dragon who honks like a goose, and who disappears into a flying saucer when his role is complete. There's the tired comedy pairing of the skinny ruler of Lankhmar, often referred to as the "beanpole governor" with "long flappy fingers", and the fat matron head-of-household, the two uniting over their shared whipping fetish. When I get the book in hand again, I'll add the unending depiction of just how grotesque and pudgy she's constantly described as. Their servant slaves are shaved of all body hair and completely naked at all times.

*** Okay I have the book before me now. Here is said matron's introduction:

Behind her, a monstrously fat woman in a dress of thick black wool that went to her redoubled chins and plump knuckles and hid her surely monstrous feet and ankles. Her black hair was dressed in a great round beehive stuck through and through with long black-headed pins, so that it was as if she bore a prickly planet on her head. This appeared to be the case, for her puffed face was weighted with a world of sullenness and hate. Her black eyes peered stern and all-distrustful from between folds of fat, while a spare black moustache, like the ghost of a black centipede, crossed her upper lip. Around her vast belly she wore a broad leather belt from which hung at intervals keys, thongs, chains, and whips. The kitchen boys believed she had deliberately grown mountain-fat to keep them from clinking together to warn them when she came a-spying.

Not the fat kitchen-queen and palace mistress starred shrewdly around the antechamber, then spread her lumpy palms, glaring at the maid.

"Ham-like arms" appears three paragraphs later also, in case you forgot by then how fat she was. ***

And then there's Fafhrd's horniness. Not that Mouser isn't equally amorous at all turns, but in short order Fafhrd displays lust towards a 12-year old girl he just saved from being raped and then he takes umbrage that she's not all sweet and kind to him; then in the midst of battle against a group of ghouls who look like skeletons because their skin is transparent except for rosiness about the genitals, he of course falls for a female such because, you know, her lips and boobs and junk is pinkish. This is another instance where I'll add the actual text from the book when I can.

*** I'm back from the future again with the promised passages:

Approaching Klelg Nar along the forest road, he had spied three spider-thin Moingols preparing to rape slender twin sisters. He had managed to thwart this cruel and unaesthetic enterprise because he had given the Mingols no time to use their bows, [...]. When the last of the three had gone down, sputtering curses and blood, Fafhrd had turned to the identically-clad girls, only to discover that he had rescued but one—a Mingol had mean-heartedly cut the other's throat before turning his scimitar on Fafhrd. [...] The surviving girl had revealed among her other shriekings that her family might still be alive among the defenders of Klelg Nar, so Fafhrd had swung her up on his saddlebow despite her frantic struggles and efforts to bite. When she quieted somewhat, he had been stirred by her slim sprawly limbs so close and her lemur-large eyes and her repeated assertion, reinforced by horrendous maidenly curses and quaint childhood slang, that all men without exception were hairy beasts, this with a sneer at Fafhrd's luxuriously furred chest. But although tempted to amorousness he had restrained himself out of consideration for her coltish youth—she seemed scarce twelve, though tall for age—and recent bereavement. Yet when he had returned her to her not very grateful and strangely suspicious family, she had replied to his courteous promise to return in a year or two with a wrinkling of her snub nose and a sardonic flirt of her blue eyes and slim shoulders, leaving Fafhrd somewhat doubtful of his wisdom in sparing her his wooing and also saving her in the first place.

What the fuck, Fafhrd.

As for the ghoul:

After an instant's shock, Fafhrd realized these must be Ghouls, whose flesh and inner organs, he had heard—with much skepticism, but now no longer—were transparent except where the skin became sallowly or rosily transplarent on the genitals and on the lips and small breasts of their women.

It was said also that they ate only flesh, human by preference, and that it was strange indeed to watch the raw gobbets they gulped course down and churn within the bars of their ribs, gradually turning to mush and fading from sight as their sightless blood assimilated and transformed the food—granting that a mere normal man might ever have opportunity to watch Ghouls feast without becoming a supply of gobbets himself.

[...]

These grisly events gave the third Ghoul time to run around his stricken comrades and get in on Fafhrd a thrust which, fortunately coming from above, glanced off his left ribs without wounding him deeply.

The long-smarting sword-slice, however, turned Fafhrd's indignation wholly to fury and he smote that Ghoul so deeply in the skull that the short-ax stuck and was jerked from Fafhrd's hand. His fury became an almost blinding red rage, not lacking sexual undertones, so that when he noted that the fourth and last Ghoul carried pale breasts on her white ribs like two roses pinned there, he knocked the weapons from her hands with short disarming sword-swipes as she came darting toward him.

Yes, that is the perfect time to become horny. ***

I'll continue reading the remaining two books collecting these stories, but my experience with the "legendary" Fafhrd and Gray Mouser has been extremely mixed. Thinking about their reported appeal, it seems to me like Saturday Night Live skits from long ago that are often hailed in greatness, re-quoted ad nauseum between friends at one time ("Well isn't that special. Could it be.... SATAN??" or, "Making copies..."), but for the uninitiated to sit down and watch now to see what the big deal was, the most likely response is, "Well, huh. It's okay, I guess."

[J.G. Keely · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first started reading Leiber, my expectations were pretty low. He is often praised along with the other 'giants', but the fantasy genre is awash with unwarranted praise: the barely-differentiated is lauded as revolutionary, and many of its 'giants' are giant only in disappointment. But Leiber surprised me. Throughout the Lankhmar series, he has shown a lively, stylized voice, an eye for character and suspense, and an evocative sense of wonder.

Unfortunately, he begins to fall off his pace in this volume. He is fearless in his approach, which is great when he's on top of his game, but when he errs, causes him to stumble incautiously. Likewise, his light, laughing tone can be asset or flaw, dependent on how solid the pacing is beneath it.

Early on, we get an uncharacteristically wild choice, almost a non sequitur, which never ties back into the plot. The entire structure is unusual for the series, eschewing loosely-connected episodes for a more linear novel. The length and focus on one single story doesn't mesh well with Leiber's lilting style, and his imaginative, sometimes lovely asides are sadly absent.

I've seen the same thing happen before, from Mignola to Poe: the change from short and vibrant stories to long, sustained plot arcs is not easy to manage. Leiber doesn't really update his style to match the new length, which leaves us with a long, overly-involved short story.

The reason for greater length in writing is to add more depth, allowing the story to unfold gradually. Previously, these Lankhmar collections have achieved depth by the wild variance of the stories. Though all are loosely connected in an overarching plot, each one presents an opportunity for Leiber to play with tone, setting, character, and purpose in a different way. This makes sense, because they were written at different times--sometimes decades apart--at different points in Leiber's career.

This untethered, multihued style of world-building is very Howardian, and Howard used it deliberately to let his world unfold naturally, through many tales, only vaguely connected, filling some areas in with great detail, and leaving others as half-heard mysteries. Unlike the straightforward, encyclopedic style of most doorstop fantasies (appendices included, thank you J.R.R.), we learn about the worlds of Howard and Leiber like students of history, which makes sense, because it was a voracious study of detached pieces of history lent whimsy to both authors' creations.

It's a pity that he abandons this organic system for something so linear, especially as his struggles with pacing undermine his wit. With a less varied tale, he has less to play with, and starts to resemble his later imitators, like Pratchett, writing a fairly simple, amusing story with a few high points, but numerous low points where humor is not adequately supported by insight.

There are also some problems with sexual politics here, which is all the more disappointing because of Leiber's previously good track record with women who were both independent and unique. It's not a complete reversal, but Leiber's focus grows considerably more one-sided, and consequently, his women lose dimension.

This is amplified by the rather silly fetishism which continually crops up throughout the book, yet the sexuality is rarely either humorous, realistic, or enticing enough to overcome its superfluity. I'd heard that a previous Leiber fantasy story had been censored for overt sexuality, and I was disappointed to hear it, but reading this book, perhaps it was for the best. Sexuality shouldn't be edited out, but awkward writing should.

Overall, it's not a bad book. even though it isn't Leiber's best, it's still solid, with good high points, and fun to read. Unfortunately, his later works grow even more stilted, sexually awkward, and drawn out. This one, at least, has a rising plot and some amusing twists, which cannot be said of the books that close out the series.

My List of Suggested Fantasy Books

[Theo Logos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although fifth in the chronological sequence of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser books, The Swords of Lankhmar was one of the earliest Leiber wrote. It shows. Neither his prose nor his heroes are as clever as in his later work. While Fafhrd and Gray Mouser have often had a weak spot for women, this story takes it to a ridiculous and annoying extreme. Not only are they completely controlled by their glands, but it overwhelms all of their acquired street smarts and survival instincts in a way I didn’t find at all believable.

Swords of Lankhmar is the only novel length book in the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser series. It’s full of fun set pieces, wizardry, and a surprising amount of mildly kinky sex, so it’s not a total bust. But I was more annoyed than amused by this one. Two and a half stars rounded up.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Swords of Lankhmar, which falls fifth in the series chronologically, was one of the first published and is the only novel-length Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser story. Leiber began writing it in 1936 or '37, and when he returned to it many years later the first section, titled Scylla's Daughter, was published in Fantastic Stories magazine's May 1961 issue, which was edited by the great but sadly overlooked Cele Goldsmith. It was a finalist on the Hugo ballot for best short fiction that year, one of the first true fantasy tales nominated for what had started as a science fiction only award. He expanded the story to its current length and Ace released in 1968. Among the interesting plot points, the Grey Mouser is magically shrunken to true mouse size and runs around Lankhmar during a rat plague. Leiber spiced up the story with some unusual (for the mid-1960s) sexual content which was found uncomfortable by many. The two rogues are a charming and realistic pair of friends, which Leiber describes in his introduction as owing more to Eddison and Cabell than to Burroughs and Howard. His writing is very polished and engaging, and the series is an important part of the foundation that modern high fantasy is built upon.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of waffled on whether this one was actually a 3 or a 4; ultimately, Leiber's prose pushed it to the higher mark.

This is, I believe, the only actually full-length Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser novel -- all of the other volumes are collections of short stories. And even this one includes a section that was originally published as a standalone novella.

It was written relatively late in Leiber's career (1968) and takes place relatively late in F&GM's careers. As events begin, Our Heroes are given a commission by Glipkerio Kistomerces, the unnaturally tall, thin and twitchy Overlord of Lankhmar, to accompany a fleet of grain ships to the Eight Cities, together with the delightful Hisvet, her equally delightful maid Frix, and her rather less delightful father Hisvin. And their troupe of highly-trained white rats. Adventures naturally ensue on the high seas and on land, and our heroes go their separate ways for a time, Mouser returning more directly to the City of the Black Togas, which finds itself under siege by increasingly obstreperous rats, and Fafhrd taking the long way round, including a stop through Ghoul country. (Ghouls, on Newhon, being a race of humans whose flesh is more or less entirely transparent, but whose beautiful, white, shining bones are visible. Which, although it's not dwelt upon, must make Fafhrd's amatory encounters with the ghoul woman Kreeshkra, rather remarkable and/or unsettling.)

And, naturally enough, our heroes rejoin forces at the end, just when things appear at their worst, and more-or-less appropriate desserts are meted out to those who deserve them.

And this book was ... not altogether satisfying, primarily because for so much of it Fafhrd & Gray Mouser were off separately doing their own things. (And Mouser, it must be said, gets the lion's share of attention.) And the book is also weirdly horny, not always in a good way. (Particularly in the relationship between Mouser, Hisvet and Frix; and also in some random, throwaway asides.)

Still, it has Leiber's ever-elegant, ever-witty prose, and that in and of itself is no bad thing.

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of these tales to drop the short story format altogether and spend the entire book telling a single long tale - much like a cartoon series being expanded into a movie. But where such movies (at least all the good ones) would take all the advantage out of the vastly expanded length to tell stories of higher scope, more complex and epic struggles, genuine drama and character growth, all the things that a single half-hour episode could never accomplish... The Swords of Lankhmar, regrettably, does not accomplish this. It's more like just a single regular episode, inexplicably stretched into five times the length that was requited. It plods along and takes a long time to pick up, and even once it does, it's not that much more special or impressive or interesting as the shorts were. The main characters, too, remain fairly static, when by now you'd have expected - hoped - to see them come into some realization that would have changed them a little. Quite the missed opportunity if anything.

Still, though, the prose remains compelling, the setting fantastic and interesting, and once the story finally does pick up - sometime after the midway point - it picks up well. Ultimately I did not regret reading it.

If you've liked to follow Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's adventures up until this point, you'll come to like this episode as well... so long as you make it through the boring bits.

[Jean-marcel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh man, I can't stress enough that I had more fun reading this than I have with anything in a long time, except maybe for some of the other Lankhmar stuff, like the classic "Lean Times in Lankhmar", which everyone with a taste for satire and mockery of religion should definitely read. This is the one and only Lankhmar novel (the rest are of course all short stories) and starts with the two rogues already in some serious trouble as they return to the grimy and beloved city of Lankhmar to find all their creditors and many enemies amassed to put an end to them at last. The feebly sadistic duke of the city rescues them, though, to send them on a mission with a ship carrying some precious cargo to a foreign land .. cargo which includes an alluring seductress and twelve incredibly clever rats. What he doesn't tell them of course is that all other ships sent on this mission have been lost! The fun starts right at the outset with the Mouser deflecting magic bolts with a metal rod and the two of them sparring about women and bar tabs as they try to figure out how the hell they'll get out of this one. Then it's a crazy sea voyage, our heroes get separated in the most hilarious circumstance and there's trekking, ghouls, swordfights, and the coolest wizards ever, Sheelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven eyes, who don't really like each other but seem to be temporarily in truce to help out their two prodigies and to save Lankhmar from a danger that slowly makes its presence known. In the end it's a pitch battle between intelligent rats with swords, some riding on unwilling humans, thirteen fearsome war cats, dire skeleton gods, and ghouls, with the Mouser mouse-sized (he still thinks he's the cleverest thing in the universe) and Fafhrd breathlessly chopping off heads everywhere. There are also quite a number of naked wenches in this one! Crazy, in the best possible way. Of course, those wishing to journey to Nehwon should start with the beginning and make their way chronologically with these characters....trust me, this is the way to have the most fun with them as they grow up and gain adventuresome experience.

having just re-read this, I thought I'd update the old review somewhat. By this point logic and order have basically gone out the window and Leiber is just bouncing along happily throwing everything at us. I'll admit that not everything here makes a lot of esensewithout some pretty wild coincidences. I think though that this shouldn't bother you too much. I don't know why the hell a German guy shows up during the first quarter, saves the day and banters with our heroes for a while before disappearing, never to return to the narrative. But it's kind of cool and shows how another story could have developed from the crazy guy and his "Monster Museum". It was never written, but one can still imagine it, perhaps as an untold consequence of the events herein. I don't know how to explain Fafhrd just happening to win the tin whistle that'd summon the War Cats except to say it was divine, or wizardly, providnece. It really doesn't matter though. Yeah, despite great writing, you do have to turn your brain off a bit for this stuff, but it's so sweet that on this re-read, I found myself growing sad as I got to the end. I wanted it to continue. I just had a wail of a time reading aloud the antics of the horrendously decadent Duke Glipkerio, his filthy palace mistress and the duplicitous Hisvin and his dangerously seductive daughter.

And of course, the Mouser's just fabulous in this one. Fafhrd seems to get the short end by comparison, I'm afraid; if any part of this book could have been expanded, it was Fafhrd's gaming and carousing and journeying. Maybe it wouldn't have tied in all that tightly to the main plot, which rrevolves around Lankhmar and it's Rat Problem, but Leiber is just so casual about it all by this point anyway, I'd still have welcomed the extra material.

Oh, and that duke really is such a loathsome character with all his love of female torture and complete impotence in the face of his peoples' plight, but I gotta admit I did kind of almost feel sorry for him by the end there. And I just loved the way Hisvin tried to present the rat takeover as something good and desirable. What a politician!

And the book has a sea voyage. I think I have a weakness for sea voyages. So yes, good, bombastic fun, once again.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reaching the fifth installment of the ongoing saga of Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, I thought for a while that I'm approaching saturation point, or that the author is better suited to the short form rather than this attempt at a full blown novel featuring his pair of lovable scoundrels. It took a German speaking traveller between parallel universes, riding a double headed sea serpent and searching for his misplaced spaceship to get me in the right mood for tackling Swords of Lankhmar . I believe this is the least serious in the series so far, the most campy, wildly subversive of the sword and sorcery rules, and I hope it was as fun for the author to write as it was for me to read it.

The first part of the novel, dealing with a sea voyage where Fafhrd and Grey Mouser sell their swords as protection to a transport of grain, feels like it was written initially as a stand-alone novella, and the author decided to later expand it with a full blown rat invasion of the city of Lankhmar. Another episode, featuring only Fafhrd waking up after a night of debauchery with an unexpected bed partner, also reads like a bridge piece that was cut and pasted from somewhere else. I didn't mind, as it parodies a passage from a noir novel in which a detective tries to make sense of the room around him without using his eyes. (can't remember title or author)

After the less impressive debut, the action really picks up in the second half, in one outrageously wicked episode after another. Jacqueline Carey could probably take notes from Glipkerio Kistomerces - Overlord of Lankhmar - and his kitchen staff dominatrix Samanda. Leather manacles, silvered chains, fully shaved bodies and exotic whips feature quite prominently in the scenes involving this duo. Even here, Leiber manages to insert the humorous note, like a wink! wink! nudge! nudge! to the reader about the folly of taking these things too seriously.

The amoral Fafhrd and Mouser are as usual chasing the female population of Nehwon rather indiscriminately, and single handedly pushing feminism back a decade or two. However, this time they may have bitten more than they can safely chew: the Grey Mouser is played like a fiddle by a coy Demoiselle (Leiber choice of title, not mine) while Fafhrd discovers the irresistible appeal of - wait for it!!! - bones :

Fafhrd, stretched out in a grassy hilltop hollow lit by moonlight and campfire, was conversing with a long-limbed recumbent skeleton named Kreeshkra, but whom he now mostly addressed by the pet name Bonny Bones. It was a moderately strange sight, yet one to touch the hearts of imaginative lovers and enemies of racial discrimination in all the many universes.

Adding to the general air of horror carnival, the obscure wizards, Seelba of the Eyeless Face and Ningauble of the Seven Eyes, are more aggravating than helping their nominal champions. Still, their intervention will give Leiber the opportunity to write my favorite passage from the book, when the Grey Mouser is resized in order to infiltrate the nest of this novel adversaries

I'm not going to talk about the final confrontations, other than to mention two things I've learned from Swords of Lankhmar :

- Never blow a strange whistle. It might summon things far worse even than savage mastiffs or the police.

- When you want to get rid of rats from your house, recite this phrase backwards three times rapidly Rats live on no evil star

Until my next Leiber lecture, I bid you good journey with the words of Glipkerio Kistomerces :

World, adieu! Nehwon farewell! I go to seek a happier universe!

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently re-read for the Pulp Fiction group. Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser are certainly 2 of the most entertaining of all sword & sorcery heroes. Their faults are legion, but their hearts are usually in the right place, unless of course there's money or sex to be had. Then they make horrendous mistakes, scramble frantically to extricate themselves from their current mess & swagger off, chalking it all up to experience. Of course, they promptly get into another mess shortly after that, but they're skillful, lucky & obviously watched over closely by the gods of chance & luck.

Leiber's writing is wonderful. He turns a phrase & description in a wonderfully entertaining manner. He's built a fun, odd world full of magic & barbaric deception. He has wonderfully decadent cities & rulers, too. His magic users are unfathomable & horrors abound through out. That many of his situations & creatures are exaggerated, sometimes to the point of comedy, is all to the good. His stories are not the grim, blood soaked sagas of Howard or Wagner, but lighter & a lot more fun.

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A plague of rats overrun Lankhmar, the capitol city and glittering gem of the land of Nehwon. Commissioned to guard a ship of grain from the cursed rodents, brother-in-arms Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover the plague has progressed to a fatal point. Mustering the strength of sorcery, they descend into the depths of Lankhmar and rise to battle in order to save the soul of the ill-fated city."


This is certainly not the strongest of Fritz Lieber’s series about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, but not a complete stinker. It would seem in this book that he took the Pied Piper of Hamelin story and reworked it for his two familiar rogues.

Fafhrd and the Mouser get themselves into trouble, as they often do, by returning to Lankhmar broke and attempting to regroup. They are hired to accompany a marine shipment of grain and are lead astray when they think with their little heads, not with their big heads! Women have always been a weak spot for these two, but they seem particularly blind in this pursuit in Swords of Lankhmar. I was actually a bit offended on their behalf—neither Fafhrd nor the Mouser is a great intellect, but they are usually street-smart and highly concerned with their own welfare. Lieber makes them irresponsibly distracted in this adventure, not really a fair treatment.

Often Lieber’s use of language redeems these novels for me, but I found this version almost devoid of the wonderful vocabulary that I love and instead it is very focused on the tricks of magic spells. For instance, there is an Alice in Wonderland sequence, complete with potions that increase or decrease size, where the Mouser is plunged into the Rat World. There is also a strange fixation on hair—a ruler who abhors it and orders all his servants completely shaved, the fur of the rats, and an unusual number of comments on the hairiness of Fafhrd’s chest. A man/beast distinction, perhaps, with Fafhrd on the edge between the two?

Not as enjoyable as the previous books, but I’m still glad that I read it.

[Fantasy boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Swords of Lankhmar is a completed story not like other six books in the series which are short stories collections, It's a standalone story about the duo who were facing the crisis of the Incursion of the mutant rats, that forced both heroes seeking for saving city Lankhmar from the mutant rats. I think this is why this book's tile is The Swords of Lankhmar, the duo are the swords of Lankhmar who have saved Lankhmar from Rats.

Fafhrd was looking for the help from cats, and his story is sequences of finding cats to eliminate the rats in Lankhmar. He had encountered Ghouls in the city of Ghouls and met one of his beloved girls, who is a ghouls. I must say that Fafhrd has an extraordinary taste on his ideal girl. But for the sake of this story line, we know more mysterious of the world Nehwon, Ghouls's cultures and appearances; their skin are semi-transparent, If I recall correctly; and Ghouls eat corpses to maintain their bodies's function, they seems to be like zombies which nowadays readers are familiar with.

On the other hand, mouser was on his quest of subterranean infiltration, which is to deceit those intelligent-outsider rats as being one of their members to obtain their military maneuvers. It's a very humorous story line, Fritz Leiber already has considered what would happen if Mouser is shrunk! I love this kind of spy-like story, after Mouser Infiltrated the rats's underground headquarter in Lankhnar, he has discovered a tremendously terrifying secret that which is those intruded rats are half-human! Moreover, the story implies something unpleasant for some specific readers, so that if you do not like animal-breedings you may skip this book.

In summary, this is a fast-pace, Adrenalin adventure, both heroes are shinning in this book and have more fun with them when you are reading it. Fritz Leiber Is a ailurophile that he loves cats; I can see the point at it, when reading The Swords of Lankhmar.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume where the reader gets to truly savor the outré, decadent delights of Lankhmar, a city that is wealthy and metropolitan more or less in spite of itself, and this alone is worth the price of admission for the novel.

This type of setting has been done more extensively elsewhere (see New Crobuzon), but I'm curious: was this the first? What came before Lankhmar?

[Ignacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡Cómo he disfrutado con la relectura de esta novela, el súmmum de la espada y brujería! Además es una historia ideal para introducirse en Lankhmar: prescinde un poco del bagaje de todos los cuentos anteriores para centrarse en las nuevas peripecias de sus dos protagonistas, gran parte de sus páginas separados y amenazados por todo tipo de peligros. La nueva traducción mejora la anterior de Martínez Roca y le da aire fresco a esta desacomplejada novela de aventuras.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the sole Fafhrd and Gray Mouser novel and I have to be honest, I was really dreading it. This series has been so hit and miss for me, and the one other Fritz Leiber novel I’d read (The Big Time) was such a disappointment that I just didn’t think Fritz had a good Lankhmar novel in him. Very pleased to say that I was wrong. I found this to be really charming and all that charm went a long way towards making up for what problems I had with it otherwise.

Although with that said I will point out that this doesn’t feel like much of a novel at all. There’s a whole Mandalorian/Firefly/X-Files 1 and 2 thing of “this feels less like a movie and more like two episodes of a TV show with a slightly higher budget” thing going on here where this just reads like three short stories glued together. If you told me this was a fix up novel I would believe you.

That glued together feeling does lead to the book feeling a little too long and like large parts of it could have been excised. I certainly felt that way as I was reading it, and I suppose that I still feel that way to an extent after the fact. But once I got to the intentionally overstuffed conclusion, with all its bells and whistles and cats and gods and sorcerers and revolutionaries I felt a lot more forgiving of Leiber’s need to throw so much at the reader and was instead charmed at the way everything just clicked in to place. This is still very much sword and sorcery’s very own This Meeting Could Have Been An Email, but correcting for that isn’t as simple as saying “well you could’ve just chopped out the second act and still had essentially the same book” or whatever. There’s certainly excess to be trimmed here but it’s more of a case of taking a scalpel to the text rather than a meat cleaver.

The other big problem here is that this book is extremely predictable. Absolutely nothing happens in this book that you won’t see approaching from miles and miles away. This isn’t a Chekhov’s gun situation so much as it’s a Chekhov’s series of massive flashing LED signs lining Times Square accompanied by marching bands and air raid sirens. It’s really remarkable how many times Leiber just flat out tells you what he’s going to do a little ways down the line. I don’t think this book would have felt as stretched out as it did if so much of it wasn’t me constantly saying things like “ok well he just went out of his way to introduce a friendly sea monster that only eats rats and there’s all these rats hanging around that are supposed to be friendly but are awfully shady, I wonder how that’s gonna turn out?”

For all that though this is still a very polished book. The writing style that I tend to think of when I think of Leiber (loooooonnnnngggg stretches of boredom followed by fantastic but all too brief moments of fun and excitement) is nowhere to be found here. This book instead has a consistent tone, and is therefore consistently enjoyable throughout. I was never bored with this one.

This is also the funniest entry in the series up to this point by far. I continue to be completely charmed by Leiber’s characterization of Mouser as “he’s an idiot, but I guess he’s our idiot.” Likewise the whole thing with Fafhrd and the ghoul never stopped getting a laugh out of me. So weird, so gross. I loved it. Leiber isn’t what I would consider a humorous writer, he’s not like Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams or whoever. But when he actually is writing in that gear he can be very funny and he’s stretching those exact muscles a lot here.

I’ll also give Leiber points just for the restraint he shows in the scale of the story here. I would imagine the temptation to turn a novel length Lankhmar story in to some gigantic epic whatever was present. Certainly if this was written today and an author was trying to scale up a series of short stories in to a full length tale it would be very easy to imagine it being about some kind of world ending, multiverse destroying threat. Leiber rightly eschews that sort of thing altogether though and instead gives us a story that’s satisfyingly low stakes. It’s literally just “holy shit dude can you imagine if a rat had a little rat sized crossbow?”

I see a few other reviews describing this as a low point in the series and the first big misstep and that’s just bonkers to me given that we live in a world where Adept’s Gambit exists. This isn’t my favorite of the series (vol 4 is still tops for me) but I think it’s way up there. There’s better individual stories for sure, but taking these volumes as complete books this one is tough to beat. The consistency of quality and the humor just goes so far for me. I’d say a lot of what Swords of Lankhmar has working for it is also present in volume 4 as well so perhaps it’s just safe to say that for me a consistently very good level of quality counts for more than the high highs and low lows of the first three volumes. If you’re picking and choosing which Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories to read (and you really should pick and choose, you don’t need to read all of these even though that’s exactly what I’m doing) then I think this is one that should make the list.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember this as being Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser’s greatest tale. It’s a full length novel instead of the typical collection of long short stories and it’s full of action straight through, proving once again that the two heroes are both truly puissant warriors and very very stupid when it comes to women.

The plot is one of the best. The rats are taking over Lankhmar and because the Overlord is truly stupid and gullible, it’s going to be up to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser to save the day. The problem? A partially human rat (it’s not really clear that she’s a wererat or anything) is very beautiful, and the two heroes continually take her side even though they know she’s a bad guy who has actually tried to kill them. Evidently, one smile and they are re-hooked. It got a little annoying, but it didn’t actually surprise me that much. Besides, if they had acted intelligently, the whole story would have been over by the end of chapter three.

That being said, we do have some great scenes in this novel. The opening chapter is the piece of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser bravado that I remember best of all of their books, and Gray Mouser getting himself shrunk down to rat size is really funny. If you’re going to try this series, this is the book I’d most recommend.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3.5 stars. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in their first full-length novel take on a horde of civilized rats bent on taking over Lankhmar. I did enjoy it quite a bit, but the heroes were really missing the obvious in the beginning and the middle had slow parts, and the end with the whistle was just a little bit too lucky. I really liked the juxtopositions of how sometimes being small has its fighting advantages, and sometimes being large does.

[Jorge Fernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como el propio Leiber dice en el prólogo, Fafhrd y el Ratonero son truhanes, aventureros, bebedores, tragaldabas, putañeros, pendencieros, ladrones, jugadores y solo actuan con un ápice más de nobleza que los villanos. Y yo digo, además, que son tremendamente divertidos y adictivos. La incursión del Ratonero en Lankhmar de Abajo es una fantástica maravilla.

Solo quedan dos para terminar el ciclo, en unas semanas volveré a Lankhmar.

[Florin Pitea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent precursor to Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld. (With a few indecent bits thrown in for good measure.)

[Melanti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

The Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser books are a fun way to waste some time if I'm in a particular mood.

They're pretty formulaic. In each one, our two heroes go on an adventure, get into trouble due to lust, greed, or often both, then spend the rest of the story trying to frantically work their way out of trouble again.

But whereas the other books are anthologies of slightly connected but mostly separate short stories, this particular one is a full length novel. And where the short stories are a great length to be able to laugh at them for a bit in between heavier books or even between chapters of a really long and dense book, a full novel just seems way too long for this formula.


Especially since they get into trouble by being overcome by lust for a woman who just tried to kill them a few chapters earlier. Repeatedly. Sigh. At least in the short story format, it's a different woman each time, but in novel form - how many times does a woman have to try to kill them before they finally stop lusting after her? Four, apparently!


I think (I hope) that this is the only novel in this series, which means I should enjoy the last two anthologies more than this one.

[Temucano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paradigma de la fantasía épica, aquella más simple, socarrona, de múltiples aventuras ante enemigos formidables, que sin drama, ni lirismo, mantiene el interés gracias a su acción incansable de heroísmo delincuente, con dosis de humor, sensualidad y sangre. Tuve mis dudas si funcionaría en formato novela, pero por suerte me equivoqué ya que en ningún momento decae el ritmo y Leiber regala varias imágenes fantásticas para el recuerdo.

Sobre todo de ratas.

[Kat Hooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

I never get tired of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser — I adore those two rogues! In The Swords of Lankhmar (a full novel rather than the usual story collection), the boys have been hired as guards for a fleet of grain shipments because several ships have recently disappeared. Aboard the ship they meet a couple of enchanting women who are escorting a troupe of performing rats across the sea. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser soon discover that these are not ordinary women, and those are not ordinary rats.

Back in Lankhmar they find that the city is dealing with rats, too. The rodents have become belligerent and troublesome. The Mouser begins to suspect that there might be a connection between those two ladies and Lankhmar’s troubles. With the help of his magical patron, the Mouser goes underground to spy on the rat army.

The Swords of Lankhmar is an expansion of Leiber’s novella Scylla’s Daughter (1961, Fantastic Stories of Imagination) which was nominated for a Hugo Award. The Swords of Lankhmar has everything fans have learned to expect from one of Fritz Leiber’s LANKHMAR series. It’s strange, creative, fast-paced, and fun. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are a couple of the best characters in all of fantasy fiction — if you haven’t read any of their adventures, you’re really missing out.

Let me again recommend the audio version of this series which has been produced by Audible Frontiers — Jonathan Davis’s performance is so entertaining!

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably my favorite work of Leiber's so far. I'm not sure what all is in the compiled Masterwork version, but I opted to collect each book and read them in chronological order (not publishing date). This means I read the pairs origin stories in “Swords Against Death” prior to the first shorts they appeared in 12 years previously. And, probably to be expected, Leiber’s writing had improved quite a bit in those 12 years. This book was also written 2 years prior to “Swords Against Death” as well, but this novel definitely had the more polished writing that experience brought. The point of all of this to say, I really liked “Swords Against Death”, and I think this novel is on par.

Additionally, this is a full novel, not a series of collected shorts. And that makes this one something special.

I really enjoyed the story. Leiber gets much deeper into some of bizarre antics! I saw influences for Brandon Sanderson, Neil Gaiman, and even Micheal Moorcock. The story is funny at times, the fights are well written, and Leiber moves the plot along nicely to keep the reader engaged.

All and all, a good read.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Según indica el prólogo esta es la única novela de la saga (las demás son colecciones de relatos) y la verdad es que se nota una continuidad en la trama que aunque las demás también tienen, aquí, al ser todo el libro una sola historia, se aprecia más.
Esta nueva aventura es bastante original (los enemigos sobre todo) y está bien relacionada con el resto de historias anteriores, presenta algunas situaciones secundarias que quedan un poco sin explicación, pero en general todos los argumentos se cierran satisfactoriamente. Un libro muy entretenido.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leiber is a legend. A very odd tale, heavy on the sexual stuff and weird.

[Francesco Manno · Rating 5 out of 5]

http://panopticonitalia.blogspot.it/2...

Swords of Lankhmar is the fifth book, and the only novel in the saga of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (second in Italy, because the first four are contained in The World Nehwon), written by Fritz Leiber and published in 1976 by the North.
In this adventure the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser are hired by Glipkerio Kistomerces, lord of Lankhmar, to escort a fleet of ships laden with grain that will be offered to Movarl of Eight City, as compensation for hold off Mingol. However, the danger does not come from Lankhmar warriors of the steppes, but from their underground, as a race of giant rats living inside of them and has hatched a plan to seize power over the city of Black Toga.
In this book, Fritz Leiber implement all his skills of great
narrator, providing a history of sword and sorcery unusual and compelling in which there are brute force and duels to the death to lord, but intelligence and a good dose of irony. This does not induce you to think that there are scenes of pure daring and clash with cold: our in this adventure will have the opportunity to show off their skills of skilled swordsmen.
The world building is dotted with care by Leiber: it seems to have really lived these adventures with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Particularly valuable are the reconstructions of the underground city of Lankhmar.
The magic is present but is used sparingly. The author presents a series of fantastic creatures that are different from those typically found in the classic works of fantasy (ogres, fairies, elves, goblins, etc ...), staging ghoul, ratmen warriors, women-air, and sea snakes divinity skeletal two heads.
The psychological profiles of the characters are complex and real dialogues and hilarious. How not to appreciate the difficult and troubled love affair between Fafhrd and his girlfriend ghoul, or that between Mouser and his woman-rat; and the strange relationship between Glipkerio torturer and his court.
Well gentlemen, I tell you that, with Swords of Lankhmar, Fritz Leiber gave us work not only essential but also unsurpassed insight and originality. All who love the sword and sorcery should have read the cycle of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser!

[Luana · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only full-length novel of our boys Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser!

There's not really much of a reason for this to warrant being novel-sized. It's good fun, and certainly among the better F&G stories, but it's not unlike The Simpsons Movie where you're left wondering why this couldn't have been a normal sized episode. Despite that, I'd certainly recommend it as a starter point for someone who wants to get into the characters as it's fairly representative of the Lankhmar vibez and of pretty consistent quality throughout. There's better individual short stories ("Lean Times in Lankhmar" is as yet unsurpassed) but the quality/style of prose can be a bit inconsistent as the short stories are ordered in internal chronology which means that a tale from 1939 can be followed by one from 1964 followed by one from 1952 which can be a bit of tonal whiplash.

This one also has a good bit of bawdiness (and a surprising amount of BDSM shit) without ever fully tipping into unpleasantness like previous collections had. Being skeezy is definitely part of the Lankhmar vibes. Lololol @ Fafhrd deciding he should "come back in two years" after saving a 12 year old girl who afterwards gave him a saucy look. Bruh are you sure "two" is the number you need to add to that? 1968 a different time mang

I think the Caligula-esque whimpering Overlord of Lankhmar and his propensity for seeing serving girls whipped by his tank-like kitchen matron made things click for me in terms of what the F&GM stories really are. I had read someone compare a previous short story with an OG Trek episode, which is close, but they really are garish late 60s/early 70s Technicolor Amicus productions with blaring faux-John Barry scores and heaving bosoms of Page 3 girls splashed with way-too-scarlet fake blood.

Also big lol at the villains' plan being "a society where everyone is Ratatouille" and that is not a metaphor

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never came around to enjoy this one. It started strong with witty banter between Fafhrd and Mouser and there was a tantalizing promise of a gonzo story of a time traveler riding a purple dragon, then the first third of the novel ended and Leiber wrote a nonsense tale of rats that involved Mouser in a Alice in Wonderland kind of tale.

I would only give two stars, but it had its moments of high notes, but only a few and too scarce; for instance, Fafhrd falling for a ghoul was fun.

I see two problems with this novel: one, it is a short story that Leiber stretched to novel length. There just wasn’t story enough there. Maybe he was feeling pressure from his publishers to produce a Newhon novel? Second, Fafhrd and the Mouser are not together for 2/3 of the book. They are always best served as a pair.

I read a digital version and at points the editing was lacking. I believe some line breaks were messed up. There were numerous POV changes that are typically signified by extra spaces between paragraphs. No visual cues were given the reader and I found it jarring to suddenly realize that POV had shifted with no warning.

I have read many warnings that the Fafhrd and Mouser stories fizzle near the end. I was hoping for it to be untrue. I will continue, after all I found volume 1 had moments of brilliance, volume 2 had more, volume 3 was tepid compared to the first two, but volume 4 was my favorite so far.