The Snow Women: A Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Adventure

by Fritz Leiber

A classic tale featuring two of the most-memorable characters in sword and sorcery, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Over a span of 50 years, the late Fritz Leiber wrote dozens of adventures, set in the fictional city of Lankhmar, featuring the seven-foot-tall barbarian and the diminuitive thief. The stories were recognized with both the Hugo and Nebula Awards.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction

Audible Audio

First published April 1, 1970

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

[Lyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The origins of Fafhrd.

Even 7 foot tall barbarians with an oddly high pitched voice and who still lives with his mother began somewhere and somewhen.

This is of course the Nehwon ("no when" spelled backwards) universe imagined and crafted by SF Grandmaster Fritz Leiber, and Fafhrd being the taller half of the pair of sword and sorcery hero duo of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Leiber constructed (after some thirty years of Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories) an origin for the big guy.

First published in 1970 in Fantasy magazine, The Snow Women was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula novella awards. (Leiber would win anyway for his duo origin story Ill Met in Lankhmar).

Yes, there are tall, fair haired and fierce women scantily clad and wielding swords - and one of them gave birth to Fafhrd.

Good fun.

[Per · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://archive.org/details/Fantastic...

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am continuing to read the stories in the order they were first published. The Snow Women was published in 1970. Here we meet Fafhrd's mother in a Fafhrd back story (this is before Fafhrd meets the Gray Mouser). As the story ends we learn the names of many great cities within the world of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Also there seems to be a few hooks in the story for the future. I Highly recommend this story and the series.

[R J Royer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Old school cool right here. The stuff dragons are made from.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book, excellently read, and quite a different Fafhrd than we have seen previously. The story gives us interesting bits about where he comes from, his family, and if course his love.

If you've ever wondered how Fafhrd became how he was last in the books, you probably should pick this up.