The 1973 second edition, the version I've had for some decades:
Swords and Deviltry collects, in terms of narrative or internal chronology, the first three fantasy stories of the swordsmen, thieves and mercenaries Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the former a tall hulking figure from the barbarian North of the planet Nehwon (which is a reversal of "No when", a bit of tribute to Samuel Butler's Erewhon), the latter a short, slight man of great agility and speed, from points southerly; they eventually meet in their world's largest city, Lankhmar. The first novella, "The Snow Women" (1970), gives Fafhrd's origin story, as the magical-apron-string-bound prince of the Snow Clan finds love with visiting young actress, touring up north with the annual visitation of outlander traders and show people; Fafhrd being a sort of analog of Leiber himself, who was raised largely by aunts while his parents were touring the country with their Shakespearean troupe. "The Unholy Grail", a novelet written a decade earlier, gives the early years of Mouse, who would become the Mouser, their innings; Harry Fischer, a great friend of Leiber, and direct collaborator on several of the earliest-written stories in the F&GM series, was the model for Mouse/the Gray Mouser. And "Ill Met in Lankhmar", a 1970 novella which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for Leiber (in those years where there was, for a while, no regular award for fantasy fiction), brings the two men and their womenfriends together for the first time...and binds them with even greater tragedy than they faced earlier. The first and third stories had been written in the wake of the rather early death of Leiber's wife, Jonquil, which had sent him into probably his most profound alcoholic tailspin, a recurring problem for Leiber; he would often use the writing of Fafhrd and Mouser stories to help overcome the worst bouts of his addiction to some degree. Of all the Ace paperback volumes which initially gathered the sword and sorcery fiction of Leiber, this one has always been the dearest to me, even given the relative lack of heft of "The Unholy Grail"--more than made up for by both the novellas...which notably appeared in the same cover-dated issues for the two most notable English-language fantasy-fiction magazines in 1970, Fantastic and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Most of the other Ace volumes would mix stories of varying quality, from readable at worst to utterly brilliant, but "Ill Met" is one of the best, if not the best, of the stories in the series, and "The Snow Women" is funny and sharply observed, almost as deft in its satire of sexual politics (from an essentially pro-feminist, but not at all obsequiously so, point of view, not unlike his brilliant first novel, Conjure Wife...and incorporating some of the resentment Leiber would express for the restrictiveness of his upbringing, and its consequences, in other stories, such as "Gonna Roll the Bones").  |
| First edition, art by Jeff Jones. |
- Author’s Introduction · in
- Induction · vi Two Sought Adventure Gnome Press 1957
- The Snow Women · na Fantastic Apr 1970
- The Unholy Grail · nv Fantastic Oct 1962
- Ill Met in Lankhmar · na F&SF Apr 1970
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Ill Met in Lankhmar Fritz Leiber (White Wolf/Borealis 1-56504-926-8, Oct ’95 [Sep ’95], $19.99, 337pp, hc, cover by Mike Mignola & Sherilyn Van Valkenburgh) [Fafhrd & Gray Mouser] Omnibus of the first two Ace Books collections featuring Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Swords and Deviltry (Ace 1970) and Swords Against Death (Ace 1970). There is a new introduction by Michael Moorcock. The introductory material by Leiber himself is taken from the 1977 Gregg Press editions, and includes pieces dated 1962, 1973, 1974, and 1977.
- vii · Introduction · Michael Moorcock · in
- 1 · Original Author’s Introduction · in
- 21 · The Gray Mouser: 1 · pm
- 22 · The Gray Mouser: 2 · pm
- 23 · Induction · vi
- 25 · The Snow Women · na Fantastic Apr ’70
- 85 · The Unholy Grail · nv Fantastic Oct ’62
- 107 · Ill Met in Lankhmar · na F&SF Apr ’70
- 160 · Author’s Foreword · fw
- 161 · The Circle Curse · ss Swords Against Death, Ace, 1970
- 171 · The Jewels in the Forest [“Two Sought Adventure”] · nv Unknown Aug ’39
- 199 · Thieves’ House · nv Unknown Feb ’43
- 225 · The Bleak Shore · ss Unknown Nov ’40
- 235 · The Howling Tower · ss Unknown Jun ’41
- 249 · The Sunken Land · ss Unknown Feb ’42
- 263 · The Seven Black Priests · nv Other Worlds Science Stories May ’53
- 285 · Claws from the Night [“Dark Vengeance”] · nv Suspense Magazine Fall ’51
- 307 · The Price of Pain-Ease · ss Swords Against Death, Ace, 1970; F&SF Oct '71
- 317 · Bazaar of the Bizarre · nv Fantastic Aug ’63
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The First Book of Lankhmar Fritz Leiber (Orion/Gollancz 1-85798-327-0, Jun 2001, £6.99, 762pp, tp, cover by Chris Moore) [Fafhrd & Gray Mouser] Fantasy omnibus of the first four “Swords” books: Swords and Deviltry (Ace, 1970); Swords against Death (Ace, 1970); Swords in the Mist (Ace, 1968) and Swords Against Wizardry (Ace, 1968). Volume 18 in the “Fantasy Masterworks” series. - 1 · Swords and Deviltry · co New York: Ace, 1970
- 5 · Induction · vi
- 7 · The Snow Women · na Fantastic Apr ’70
- 81 · The Unholy Grail · nv Fantastic Oct ’62
- 108 · Ill Met in Lankhmar · na F&SF Apr ’70
- 171 · Swords Against Death · co New York: Ace, 1970
- 177 · The Circle Curse · ss Swords Against Death, Ace, 1970
- 188 · The Jewels in the Forest [“Two Sought Adventure”] · nv Unknown Aug ’39
- 225 · Thieves’ House · nv Unknown Feb ’43
- 258 · The Bleak Shore · ss Unknown Nov ’40
- 269 · The Howling Tower · ss Unknown Jun ’41
- 284 · The Sunken Land · ss Unknown Feb ’42
- 302 · The Seven Black Priests · nv Other Worlds Science Stories May ’53
- 328 · Claws from the Night [“Dark Vengeance”] · nv Suspense Magazine Fall ’51; Also published as ‘Claws in the Night’.
- 354 · The Price of Pain-Ease · ss Swords Against Death, Ace, 1970
- 367 · Bazaar of the Bizarre · nv Fantastic Aug ’63
- 393 · Swords in the Mist · co New York: Ace, 1968
- 399 · The Cloud of Hate · ss Fantastic May ’63
- 413 · Lean Times in Lankhmar · nv Fantastic Nov ’59
- 454 · Their Mistress, the Sea · ss Swords in the Mist, Ace, 1968
- 458 · When the Sea-King’s Away · nv Fantastic May ’60
- 484 · The Wrong Branch · ss Swords in the Mist, Ace, 1968
- 491 · Adept’s Gambit · na Night’s Black Agents, Arkham, 1947
- 577 · Swords Against Wizardry · co New York: Ace, 1968
- 581 · In the Witch’s Tent · ss Swords Against Wizardry, Ace, 1968
- 587 · Stardock · nv Fantastic Sep ’65
- 652 · The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar · ss Fantastic Aug ’68
- 669 · The Lords of Quarmall · Fritz Leiber & Harry Fischer · na Fantastic in two parts: Jan and Feb ’64
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| The Centipede Press trade edition, 2017
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2 comments:
Glad that you decided to participate, Todd. A well-researched and detailed post as usual. New heroes and books for me. If the friendship is nicely done, I would like to read the trilogy. Incidentally, I found two books of speculative/sci-fi nature on my kindle and read them for the club: Spock Must Die (boring) and The Dead Mountaineer's Inn (enthralling).
Thanks, Neeru! And those three stories (and the opening vignette) are just a small fraction of all the F&GM stories Leiber wrote, though the two 1970-published novellas are among the best.
James Blish did much better work than his STAR TREK fiction/novelizations, but it was some of his most popular, as the first professional ST prose to be published. I'll have to check your review for the other, in part because it's a title I'm not familiar with--glad you found something excellent.
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